What Would Debbie Do? My mom's house for Thanksgiving

First in an occasional series on how I would redecorate a space

As I touched on in my last post, the Thanksgiving table at my mom's house is a bit random.  A cramped table, too many dishes, a mish-mosh of serving dishes and tablecloth that has been washed one too many times.  Quality linen it is not.

Her china was her mom's, but isn't some special family heirloom.  Nope - it was a giveaway the local bank was doing.  Make a deposit and get a piece of china.  It's not the prettiest stuff in the world, but my grandparents didn't have a lot of money.  And when my mom inherited it, she and my dad didn't have a lot of money.  So even though she's always thought it ugly, it's always been on the table.  Beggars can't be choosers and all, right?

Well, now my mom is in a more comfortable place.  Not enough to go out and buy new china, but you know, she isn't really a china person anyway.  She wants to be, but she's not.  She's stoneware - Fiestaware, to be exact.  She already has a few pieces of it in cobalt and always likes expanding on her collection so I'm going to help her along.

I'll start with a dark purple tablecloth from World Market with matching napkins

The rich colors are still autumnal but will go better with her dishes than the green.  And it's cheap, which is great considering she'll only use it once a year.  Veering a little from tradition which is unsettling for my mom, but I think she'll really like the outcome. 

Then I'll complete her set of cobalt Fiesta dinner plates.  Thanksgiving is a more-the-merrier event so let's give her a total of 16 plates. 

I'm tempted to mix and match a bit, but it's easier to just stick with all cobalt and then she can easily keep expanding after I've finished with this little blog post.

So let's replace some of her tired dishes.  The light turquoise one?  Yeah, it's been passed down, but I don't think it's heirloom quality and is too light for the winter holidays.  Fiesta has a very nice pedestal bowl that would be good in its place. 

Note: the colors in these pictures are all over the place, but they're all the same deep cobalt in real life

So now we have 16 cobalt plates and four cobalt serving dishes (counting the ones she already owns), it's time to shake things up a bit.  But I'm going simple and streamlined so I don't want to inroduce another color.  How about pewter?  My mom loves pewter, it will add some shine to the table and is a bit more rustic than actual silver so will go better with the Fiesta.  How about a couple Revere bowls?  A little expensive at $130 each for the 9" ones (and we might need bigger), but they're gorgeous.

Let's pull out the Jefferson cups she already has and buy some more to make a set and use those for wine.  They're a little more casual, a little more fun and since she already has footed water glasses, a nice contrast.

A pewter gravy boat (with it's own stand since when they're not attached they never end up back together) would round out our glitz requirement for the table.  Two would be necessary, one for either end of the table.

She already has a good selection of small Depression glass dishes that are great for things like cranberry sauce and olives and will add some nice sparkle.  They look fancy, but they originally were as dime store as the Fiestaware.  Love it.  And if we happened to find this one at a yard sale or antique store?  Well, I wouldn't complain.

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I really wanted to find a platter to replace the plain white one but couldn't find one I liked.  Oh well. 

I think these pieces would help my mom's Thanksgiving table better reflect her personality and she would be more likely to use them everyday.  After all, life isn't all about the holidays!