Late Summer Tablescape

Rustic Blues in the Backyard

At least we’ve got the summer, right? We don’t know about you but in our little corner of the world  summer is getting us through these uncertain times. With every precaution, we go outside and line up for the weekly grocery run, to pick up our favorite pizza or a pint of seasonal ice cream, all while basking in the sun for a few moments. We take our morning cup of coffee on our deck and have our meals in the backyard, whenever possible.  We’ve learned by now that finding joy in the small moments we share with others, even through layered masks, even if only with those we live with, goes a long way in keeping us all sane. It’s almost a survival technique of the time.

With more summer days in mind, we thought we’d share with you a few simple styling tips to have your next meal outdoors and make it special. Hint: It is easier when you go for something seasonal! We’re calling this gathering for two rustic blues and you’ll see why shortly.

Drinks first

If you’re bringing dinner out to your backyard—or even if you’re taking a short workday and allowing yourself a midday drink during lunch—having a small table with a few ingredients to make your favorite cocktail as the first stop in your backyard meal adventure is a nice way to break the predictability of going straight to the dining table.

For our small drink set up we put a few of our favorite bottles on the table, ice, sparkling soda and a few vintage glasses to make it fun and interactive! We added a few blueberry branches for decoration, too.

Flowers

Fresh flowers make everything better. This is why picking a seasonal color to guide you when you’re trying to make a nice table will help you immensely! We chose blue because we had just gone lavender-picking a few days prior, we knew blueberries and blackberries season was in full swing, hydrangeas were blooming everywhere and it seemed like a nice pop of color in the luscious greenery around us.

Lavender: A few weekends ago, we went lavender picking here in Oregon. We gathered a lovely bunch of gray, almost white lavender, it packed all the lovely fragrance we know lavender for but in a much lighter color.

Foraged blueberry branches: We picked a few branches from the backyard, specifically branches with both, ripe and green blueberries. The dusty-looking berries gave more dimension to our bunch of flowers. 

Foraged hydrangea: Come mid-summer, we see a lot of beautiful hydrangea bushes here in Portland so it wasn’t hard to find a few blue blooms to bring to our table. 

Blue scabiosa: To round up our floral choices, we hit a local market in the morning, where we bought a couple of scabiosa stems along with a few food items we needed for this meal. 

Tableware

Once we picked a color palette and our floral elements, curating the rest of the set up was rather simple, especially when sticking to what we had available at home!

We went with our lovely dark grey dinnerware set, purchased from a local ceramicist a few years ago, when we had just started Secret Supper!

Because we were using a vintage table and chairs we hauled from inside the house, we decided to go with our silver vintage set for this tablescape.

For glassware, we went with a more modern and casual design, Ferm Living ripple long drink glasses.

We completed the look with a set of muted blue striped cotton napkins, a limited edition we purchased from West Elm, also a few years back.

The silver lining of setting a table for only a handful of people is that we get to use elements we know and love.

Our small table looked like a dance of blue hues under the green canopy of a giant tree. We enjoyed a summer salad for lunch and indulged in a berry cheesecake for dessert. It was nothing fancy or jaw-dropping but it was certainly a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Amidst the forced routines we’ve fallen into at our homes, without a clue of when we’ll finally see more social days, we’ll take each and every opportunity to enjoy life a little differently.