How To Create A Beautiful Coastal Thanksgiving Tablescape

Thanksgiving can take on a different feel depending on where you spend the holiday! We *almost* booked a trip to spend Thanksgiving down in Florida this year, so I started toying with the idea of a beautiful coastal Thanksgiving tablescape.

We’re used to a chilly Chicago fall, so a coastal Thanksgiving table setting would be a fresh and festive way to change things up a bit! Whether on a beach vacation, or even if you just love that coastal touch of blues and woven detail in your holiday decor, consider giving it a try!

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions and recommendations are my own.

What Is A Tablescape?

Simply put, a tablescape is the creative and intentional result of dressing your table- by combining your place settings with your table centerpiece to create a beautiful dining display. Tablescaping is all about being creative and adding a personal or seasonal touch.

It’s also a warm and thoughtful way to let your guests know that you put in some thought and effort into welcoming them into your home! A tablescape elevates the dining experience, but it can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like.

A Thanksgiving tablescape (or simply, a fall tablescape) is the combination of your table centerpiece and place settings, with a seasonal or festive touch!

Typically, you’d think of traditional fall elements for your fall centerpiece like autumn leaves, moodier floral arrangements, pumpkins on the table, etc. But for a coastal Thanksgiving tablescape, colors are lightened up, natural elements are woven in, and things feel a bit more light and airy, all while keeping with fall seasonal touches or Thanksgiving-centered details.

Coastal Thanksgiving Tablescape Ideas

A coastal Thanksgiving tablescape does NOT need to be full-blown seaside with seashells all over the place. (Just try to say “She Sells Seashells By The Sea Shore” 5x fast… it’s just too much!). But incorporating coastal touches can look classy, festive, and beautiful all in one.

Find Your Inspiration

I’m lucky enough to live close to a beautiful Serena and Lily showroom, so when I feel like finding inspiration with a light and airy, or coastal/natural touch, I often stop by the store to get inspired. There’s something about being in that environment that just makes me feel good and gets my creativity going!

And of course, where would anyone be without Pinterest for inspiration??

With that being said, your inspiration can come from where you live, where you’ve traveled, or a color/design that you’d like to incorporate.

Sometimes, your inspiration can start with the centerpiece- for example, let’s say you found a beautiful woven scallop bowl that you’d love to use as Thanksgiving table decor. Then start there! Fill the scallop bowl with white pumpkins, and see where your creativity takes you. Or, you may have a set of dishes you know you’d love to use- those can be a starting point, and add detail around it, such as a seagrass charger under the dishes.

Coastal Colors for fall: A Blue and White Thanksgiving

When thinking of coastal colors, the combination of blue and white is always a classic. However, it almost conflicts with what we would think of as “traditional” fall colors. Traditional fall colors tend to be orange, red, burgundy, yellow, brown, etc. They’re much deeper and moodier colors than what we’re going for here.

But it’s OKAY to switch things up! By simply adding small white pumpkins to your blue and white table setting, it gives enough of a touch of Thanksgiving decor to still keep it feeling festive.

Adding in woven elements like seagrass chargers or woven glassware, gives a coastal and earthy touch that grounds the blue and white.

And in this fall tablescape, there’s a stunning dried magnolia leaf garland (traditional brown fall color) effortlessly placed among the sea of white, blue, and hints of green. A beautiful way to still feel very “fall” while also embracing the coastal holiday look.

coastal Thanksgiving Tablescape ideas

Remember, a tablescape can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish! With 6 young kids, at this stage of life, I’m NOT bringing out our fine china for the holiday. (Ahem… 6 kids in 10 years… haven’t EVER brought out our fine china 😉 )

Do what suits your lifestyle. Whether that be using an heirloom china set, or using simple white dishes and dried leaves from the yard! That can look just as great! A tablescape does NOT need to break the bank to look beautiful.

By combining a few coastal touches, along with some natural seasonal decor, you’ll create a beautiful fall tablescape!

These are some of the items you might choose to use on your coastal Thanksgiving table setting:

Classic white dishes (this Wedgwood set is one of my all-time favorites, we use ours every day- here’s the full set)
Silverware (I love this light blue bistro set or this bamboo set for a more coastal feel)
Glasses (here’s a pretty seagrass woven glass)
Charger Plates (affordable water hyacinth woven chargers, these abaca woven chargers)
Placemats (I love the light blue fringe detail on these, and how cute would a little white pumpkin look on each placemat??)
Table Runner (here’s an affordable, classic stripe table runner, and a coastal blue wave runner)
Table Cloth (matching coastal blue wave table cloth, a simple cotton linen blend table cloth, a beautiful white and light blue linen blend Amazon find, and this classic light blue and white stripe Amazon find!)
Napkins (I’m loving these affordable hemstitch linen napkins in light blue and also in white)
Napkin Rings (nautical knot napkin rin gs, affordable woven napkin rings, gold pineapple pumpkin rings, gold starfish napkin rings, handwoven palm tree napkin rings, gold turtle napkin rings– who ever said turkeys and turtles can’t be friends??)
Magnolia Garland (here’s a less expensive magnolia garland with more green and gold hues)
Blue Tapered Candle ( Here are some less expensive amazon finds: twisted light blue tapered candle, blue tapered candles, ivory tapered candles)
Brass Candle Holder
Faux Fall Stems (like dried Eucalyptus stems or dried Hydrangea stems) (I also love to use real dried hydrangeas from the garden!)
Pinecones
Woven Turkey
Blue Velvet Ribbon (perfect to tie onto napkins as a napkin holder!)
White Pumpkins (I think real white pumpkins look best, but here’s a small faux white velvet pumpkin, and these mini cream velvet pumpkins would look cute as bowl filler!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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How To Create A Beautiful Coastal Thanksgiving Tablescape