A Thanksgiving tablescape and centerpiece. (a cheap, easy and beautiful DIY)

Yesterday I did a wrap up of our Thanksgiving dinner and decor, but I wanted to share how I put together the hanging centerpiece before I move on to all things Christmas.

There are no rules here.  I mixed yard clippings with rhinestones and mercury glass with mason jars… it all worked together.

I explained how easy this shelf was to build, but it is even easier to create a beautiful display with items you already have in your house or in your yard.

I started with  several of the real pumpkins left over from Halloween, which I had upcycled and blinged out with Tori Spelling jewelry pieces.   The first step was to get the basic shape you’re going to design around.  I wanted it to be higher in the middle than on the ends, so I used assorted candle holders or glasses to elevate the pumpkins to the height I wanted, creating kind of an arc.

Please forgive my terrible “pen tool” skills on the photo editing program. #lame

Once I had the basic shape that I wanted, I could start filling in the centerpiece.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you that every single bit of greenery used was clipped out of our yard or off of our trees that very morning.

I clipped Dusty Miller (because there’s plenty of it and because it coordinated beautifully with the pumpkins), clipped little branches from trees, a few vines here and there… basically just a nice palette of greens.  I started layering the flat leaves around the glassed and candle holders, covering most of the wood.

The next step was to take little glass votive cups, put a little water in them and create little mini vases full of Dusty Miller…

I ran these, evenly spaced,  all along the edges of the “shelf”.

Once the little votive vases of the Dusty Miller were in place, then I added more greenery to fill in any gaps and topped the whole thing with a few strips of burlap.

For the table itself, I actually took an old drapery panel that was the perfect shade of green, sliced it length-wise to make one long runner, then added more of the pumpkins.  A few more votive candles, and you guessed it: more yard clippings.  (Note: Asparagus Fern is the only kind of asparagus that would EVER be on my table.  Yuck!)

So aside from the pumpkins (which I slowly bought over the months of September and October) I had everything I needed to pull this together.  Think beyond Thanksgiving…  As long as you stick with a simple color palette, you’ll be fine.

What do you have that you could mix and match to create something beautiful?