A Sealed with a Kiss Valentine Tablescape

This Red Lips Valentine’s Day tablescape idea was supposed to be posted last year but other themes bumped it a year. As it was, I hadn’t found everything that I wanted to use on it until this year anyway. I found the S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss) tablecloth on Spoonflower on sale and I had to have it. There is a personal story about that phrase that I will explain later in this blog post. If you want to see the eleven other different Valentine’s Day tablescapes that I have done and 290+ other tablescapes of mine you can see them all on my blog here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapes .

Last year I bought a salad plate with red lips on it to use on this tablescape but it also had pink stripes and I decided to use it some other time and concentrate on the colors red, black, and white for this tablescape. I couldn’t find a salad plate with red lips that I liked so I found these resin small red lips on Etsy and I set them on a small appetizer size black plate that I had. From time to time I have done this before, adding small items to a salad plate to help carry out the theme of the tablescape when I couldn’t find a plate that I liked that followed the theme. These plates are marked 10 Strawberry Street, Classic Black Porcelain. I probably bought them at HomeGoods.

This is a Fiesta salad plate in the color Scarlet. They are part of our everyday dish set. We bought them when we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago because our kitchen is red and white. It would be a great choice if you need a basic red salad plate for your tablescaping collection. We bought these plates at Macy’s. I added a fourth plate to the plate stack on this tablescape because I wanted a certain color sequence.

These black porcelain dinner plates match the black appetizer plates that are on this tablescape. These plates are also marked 10 Strawberry Street, Classic Black Porcelain. If you plan to start tablescaping, buying a basic black dinner plate is a must, you will use it often. I probably bought these plates at HomeGoods or on Ebay several years ago.

This is a Mikasa Color Spectrum Charger in the color Alpine White. I have this charger in several different colors and I bought them all on Ebay as I saw them over a few years. The Internet says that this pattern was only made between 1992 and 1993. I am not sure that is true but in any case they are no longer being manufactured. I have been trying to get six of this pattern and color for years with no success until a few years ago when I suddenly found six of these chargers at different places online after occasional google searches. You need to have patience when you are looking for things for tablescaping, that’s for sure!

I was planning to use red flatware on this tablecape but when I tried it, it just didn’t look right so I changed to white flatware. I bought this frosted white flatware set on sale online at Wayfair several years ago, it was made by Cambridge. It is 18/0 instead of 18/10 so the fork tines are a bit sharper than I would like but I really liked the frosted color. I use this set often. If you are going to buy colored flatware, white is a good color to start with and then I would buy red, black, and green. Those seem to be the flatware colors that I use the most. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I can’t remember where I bought these white napkins, I have had them for a while. These ZXFINTV metal red lips napkin rings came from Walmart last year. To read about the What, Where, and How of napkin rings please click here.

I found these GlikCeil wood red lips place card holders on Amazon last year. They were gold but Hubby painted them red for me. To read about the what, where, and how of place card holders, please click here.

I think the red glass goblet on the left came from Crate and Barrel a few years ago. I had been looking for some simple red goblets and I grabbed these when I saw them online. I only bought six and I wished I had bought more but Hubby found six other red glass goblets at HomeGoods that are so similar you can’t tell the difference. The goblet with the black bowl and clear stem on the right was made by Classic Touch and it is called V-Shaped Water Glass, Black With Clear Stem. I bought them at Houzz online a few years ago. These goblets are both tall goblets and I like that because my table is large and I think taller goblets look better on it. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here.

I bought the red lips resin bookends that I am using as a centerpiece on this tablescape on Amazon. I set them on a small black cake stand that I had, I think I found it at HomeGoods several years ago. They were made by ZXFINTV. I can’t remember where I bought the smaller red lips planters that I set white candles in but if you google red lips planter something similar might pop up. When I saw the handcrafted cast iron XOXO metal letters on Amazon I decided that I would add them to this tablescape too. They were a black gray color but Hubby painted them white for me.

I met my husband when I was a freshman in high school and he was a sophomore. We grew up in a small town and everyone knew everyone. (We had danced together once in a dance class when I was in 7th grade and he was in 8th grade but that is another story!) We dated for a year starting at the end of my freshman year and then my parents divorced and I moved with my mother and brothers to Southern California after my sophomore year. My husband had another year of high school left. We saw each other from time to time and wrote letters to each other several times a week until he started attending a college in Southern California about an hour away from where I lived. We both saved the letters and cards we sent to each other over the years and there are a few hundred of them. I would write S.W.A.K. on the back of some of the letters that I sent him, I can still remember doing that. We pulled them down from a shelf up in the garage last week and I want to reread them before they go to the recycle bin. Hubby is having fun rereading all the funny cards that we sent each other over the years. When high school sweethearts end up marrying each other there are lots of long time great memories, that’s for sure!

To see over 300+ 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

For lots of other Tablescaping DIY tips and tricks click here: https://www.whispersoftheheart.com/tablescapehowto

If you live in Southern California join our Facebook tablescaping group Southern California Tablescapers BTS Group, (270+ members) and click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/440356398581157 We had a gathering for tablescapers last year in the Los Angeles area and we hope to have others in the future.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week, please check back!

This blog post was featured at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, https://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.com/ Please visit this blog for lots of great recipes!