A Sailor-bration Summer Tablescape
I bought this vintage embroidered sailor themed table topper on Ebay many years ago and it has just been sitting in a drawer. Then I found the vintage sailor napkin rings a few years later but it has taken me a long time to pull this tablescape together. I created it in honor of my father-in-law who was in the Navy. The sailors on the table may not all be in U.S. uniforms but I think it all works anyway. When I want to use a small table topper tablecloth I just place it on a larger one, in this case a simple white cotton tablecloth.
These salad plates came in a set of four, with anchor, ship’s wheel, sailboat, and lighthouse designs but I decided to just use the anchor and the ship’s wheel plates on this tablescape. The bottom of the plates says Euro Ceramica and the pattern is called Ahoy. I found them at Home Depot online.
I like simple designs like these plates.
I am using my Fiesta white dinner plates on this tablescape. When I need a simple dinner plate in a basic color I look at my Fiesta plates first because they are a good size for a plate stack and their simple design works well with any salad plate.
This charger was made by Mikasa and the pattern was called Color Spectrum. They came in several different colors and this color was called Royal Blue, I love this shade of blue. I bought them on Ebay several years ago, a few at a time as I saw them until I had the number that I needed. I have this charger in other colors as well.
Because the centerpiece sailors had burgundy accents rather than bright red I decided to use this flatware set. The flatware is made by D & D Inox in Italy and the pattern is called Roma. I bought them at Neiman Marcus or Bloomingdales during a major sale several years ago. There are similar patterns available online now. I really like the marbleized design on the handles. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.
If you read my blog you know that I have a weakness for napkin rings. When I saw these vintage sailor napkin rings on Ebay several years ago I just had to have them. They are so cute! They are porcelain and they were made by Enesco. The red polyester napkins came from Amazon, probably last year.
I love the life preserver on the wave and the S. S. Napkin name! To read about the What, Where and How of napkin rings please click here.
I wanted to use small sailor figures as place card holders on this tablescape and I found a few different small vintage ceramic sailors on Ebay. Some of them are salt and pepper sets. They are mid-century and they were made in Japan. I set them on my clear glass Oleg Cassini place card holders. I bought the place card holders at HomeGoods several years ago when I first started tablescaping. They are heavy and solid and I really like the simple design. I often use them as a stand for place card holder items. If you read my blog you have seen them several times being used as a stand for something that I am using as a place card holder. To read about the what, where and how of place card holders, please click here.
The glass goblet on the left was made by Fostoria and the pattern was called Virginia in dark blue. They were made between 1980 and 1986. I can’t remember where I bought them. I bought the blue goblet on the right on Ebay, you can still find them for sale there sometimes. They were made by Libbey in the 1970’s and the pattern was called Tulip in Dusky Blue. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets (including the colors that I use most often) for your tablescaping collection here.
While looking at local estate sales online earlier this year I saw these two resin sailors and I told Hubby to buy them if they were a good deal. They were much taller than this but I knew Hubby could probably cut them down for me so I could use them as a centerpiece on a tablescape. If you look closely at about knee level you can see where he cut them down and reglued the legs together. He did a great job on them! When he got them home I found old HomeGoods stickers on the bottoms so they originally came from there at some point. I really like the detailed design on the faces.
This tablescape reminds us of our Navy veteran when we look at it and all our military veterans as well.
To see over 270 different tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Table Settings and Tablescape Ideas Facebook group (4,000+ members) for lots of tablescaping inspiration! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Table Settings and Tablescape Ideas or click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2553689988183392
If you live in Southern California join our Facebook tablescaping group Southern California Tablescapers BTS Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/440356398581157 . We had a gathering in January 2025 and we plan to have others as well.
Don’t miss the Tablescape How-To tab at the top of my blog for DIY tips and tricks or click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto
I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!