Design Hints

Table of Plenty

Celebrate the close of summer and prepare to give thanks for nature’s bounty. Intermix French country with timeworn traditional that has a vintage vibe, as Trisha and Aaron Hiatt did in their dining room in Ocala, Florida. Entertain these ideas to help blend furnishings and accessories that encompass different styles.

Design Hints

  • Set the Tone: Skip the tablecloth and opt instead for a runner to keep a trestle table’s eye-catching base and warm wood top on full view. Settle a decorative wire cloche in the middle of the table and arrange brass candlesticks of varying heights around it. Bookend the grouping with vases of flowers.
  • Give It the Slip: Dress up weathered cross-back chairs with ribbons and ruffles. Fashion satin ribbon into a bow around each chair’s top rail, and tie on ruffled fabric to skirt the back of the seat. Trisha notes that most of the chair ruffles seen here were salvaged from the tops of curtains.
  • Soften the Scene: Accent with fall foliage woven into a rustic chandelier overhead, tucked around the candlestick display and gracefully extending from a basket atop a china cabinet.
  • Shine a Light: Capture the season’s golden light by ensuring curtains don’t block the window -- or the view. Trisha installed a short curtain rod on each side of the window, a design choice emphasized by the bird figurines at the rod ends.

Written by Khristi Zimmeth
Photographed by Gridley + Graves