If you’re like me, you get this feeling every year that Easter is coming at full speed and you don’t have time to enjoy it! Before we know it, we find ourselves on Easter Sunday morning, sitting at the table all together, wondering how time can pass so quickly when the winter months felt endless. The thing is, everything happens at the same time in April: the change of season, work in the garden (not to mention work in general), and the many distractions such as plant and flower shows…
Easter is a more intimate holiday than Christmas, and we celebrate it at home in a pretty small gathering. We have our traditions such as coloring Easter eggs with onion peelings, and we prepare a generous sweet and savory breakfast. This is the most important meal of this day, after all! We make a very gourmet brunch with homemade dishes that accompany croissants, pains au chocolat, cakes, and kouglofs bought from our beloved pâtisseries (yes, pâtisseries in plural). We start the day with the traditional (hard-boiled) egg fight. We use those colored eggs that we smash against each other unceremoniously, and the one whose egg is still intact can be declared the winner! It’s quite serious and everyone competes at the table with their own technique. The prize? None! Only glory and honor. You can imagine it is a very intense and joyful moment!
So how to set a pretty and chic Easter table? For Easter breakfast, we usually set a simple table with a few flower bouquets and pretty dishes, but nothing really special, unlike the table that we set for lunch. Lunch usually takes place around the middle of the afternoon and that’s when we set a fancy table that I’m going to talk to you about today.
As spring begins to set in, I like to choose pastel tones for the table, as well as soft greens that serve as a callback to the nature reawakening in the garden. As I want to make it a country style tablescape, I associate the checkered tablecloth with a neutral linen tablecloth in blue tones as well. I rarely mix checks with stripes, but since I am using complementary tones here, the combination between the tablecloth, the tableware and the towels goes quite well.
For this table, I used vintage English and French tableware with floral patterns to celebrate the onset of this beautiful season.
I’ve always had a little trouble setting up Easter tables because you can quickly fall into very kitsch settings (and why not, after all). But, a few years ago, I was in Germany where I found these adorable little Easter bunnies that reminded me of the universe of Beatrix Potter. Since then, they have had their place on the Easter table every year. A few painted eggs from Poland have been put here and there, and they add a bit of a folk touch that I really enjoy and that gives character to this set up.
For these bouquets, I went to the florist to complete what was missing from the garden. I was especially interested in buying buttercups and small heather-type branches. They can also be replaced by Rococo tulips for a beautiful and more dramatic effect. Last fall, we planted a lot of narcissus, and in particular a magnificent variety called « Cheerfulness », which has the advantage of being quite tall and to hold itself beautifully in a floral arrangement. If you want to create this type of small floral arrangement at home, I will give you the details of the flowers used in this tutorial.
I’ve also had fun placing Alberto Castillo ipheions in pretty mugs. You just need to add a little bit of moss at the base, but be careful as they are lovely to use as a temporary decor (no more than two hours) but it is imperative to take them out of the mugs to let them breathe afterwards. They bring a certain candor among the other bucolic bouquets, and the effect is so charming – a small arrangement that will undoubtedly make your guests smile!
This year again, Easter will fly by, but we will be lucky to be all together, to entertain our loved ones and to take advantage of this long weekend ahead of us to rest and savor this beautiful time of year…
