10+ Modern Fall Tablescape Ideas

Today, I’m sharing a round up of 10+ modern fall tablescape ideas for you to set a beautiful autumn table, thanksgiving table, or anything in between. From pumpkins and fall florals to non-traditional fall color palettes and thanksgiving table runner ideas… Enjoy!

Fall is my favourite time of the year for so many reasons and one of them is that we always take more time to get together with friends and family. I’m a fan of sitting around the table until the candles burn and the wine runs out and leaving dishes until the next morning. And having a pretty table to look at while you sit there? All the better ;) 

You may know from visiting my fall home tours that I don’t really go all out (at all!) with my fall decor. I lean towards non traditional neutrals, fall foliage and of course, some pumpkins. You won’t find vases full of pine cones and bright orange leaves, but even with a more neutral color scheme instead of traditional thanksgiving colors, I love the warmth of decorating for the autumn season! And I especially love a pretty table!

Whether it’s for a special occasion (my birthday’s in the fall and I love an autumn tablescape for a dinner party) or a thanksgiving dinner, today, I am rounding up 10+ Modern Fall Tablescape Ideas for you to try out! I’d love to know which is your favourite for the fall season, feel free to leave me a comment at the bottom of this post :)

Outdoor Moody Fall Tablescape

This outdoor moody fall tablescape features natural elements like fresh blooms with deep red tones paired with golden candlesticks for a dark and unique autumn table setting. The flowers filling the center of the table act as a easy fall table runner, just piling those babies on!

I raided my garden and chopped armfuls of amaranth and dahlias and even some fall grasses. These bloom incredibly right up until frost- if you’re interested in a home cut flower garden, check this out! The deep reds and brownish oranges look so beautiful against the black table and retaining wall cover. It pops and is moody and is the perfect dark fall table setting.

For place cards, we used leaves off the amaranth- they’re beautiful deep shade of red, a modern twist on the typical autumn leaves and the best part is you don’t need to wait for them to turn red in the fall, they’re always that way! Lettering these place cards with gold really pulls the whole table together! 

We stretch our outdoor table season with an outdoor heater which makes dining outdoors right through fall so enjoyable. Check out all the details of this autumn or thanksgiving table runner idea here!

Autumn Greens: Fall Tablescape (Thanksgiving)

While autumn tablescapes are my favourite to decorate, traditional autumn colours aren’t my jam. I challenged myself to use some different colours here. This one is all about autumn greens with little pumpkins and squashes, fall foliage and glowing tealights. It’s the perfect cozy fall tablescape for a fall dinner party (or steal this for creative thanksgiving table decor ideas)!

You can’t see it in this photo, but I’ve used mini white pumpkins on top of casual cloth napkins and each pumpkin is used for name cards with paint pens as a personal touch for each of the dinner guests. I love hand lettering on pumpkins! If you’re finding it difficult to find pumpkins in the colors you’re hoping for, you can paint fake pumpkins like I did here and mix in some seasonal fruits and vegetables like these squashes for a festive touch.

This is another one where you essentially just fill the center of your table with fall branches and pumpkins. Layer in some votive holders and tea lights, leaving room around the edge of the table for a beautiful setting for each guest.

I like these more casual, organic table runners instead of a more formal table and traditional table centerpiece. I use this recipe for almost every holiday table setting I create. Check out the full fall table here.

Organic Modern Thanksgiving Tablescape

I always love trying something new with my tablescapes and this time around that means pink!? I know that’s not usual for my neutral black and white loving self- but I can’t get over how beautifully it works with the dark autumn foliage. It’s such a lovely twist on typical fall colours and pairs so well with those earthy tones in all the fall foods.

This modern fall tablescape idea honestly felt like a celebration, it’s fit for a thanksgiving meal, an autumn girls night or festive fall dinner party! By filling the entire table with food and adding the little bits of decor around, you can get beautiful tablescapes with less decorations while making sure you have plenty of room for all the foods you’d like to serve.

To avoid having food sit out so long, set the table with your serving ware, you ca can add post its for what food will go where and then decorate around those. If you were doing this for a holiday dinner, you could set this up during thanksgiving day and just add your food items when dinner is ready to go. See the entire Autumn Table Here.

Chalkboard Autumn Tablescape (Friendsgiving!)

You might have noticed that all my tablescapes have a few things in common. I don’t ever want to have something I will only use once, and I’m pretty frugal with what I spend. So squash from the local market I’ll for sure be cooking up, mini pumpkins I’ll be decorating for Halloween with and candleholders I already had on hand? Done.

And as for that chalkboard paper… I’m totally in love with it. You can use chalkboard paper (this was from the target dollar spot ages ago) or any black roll of paper and either a chalk marker or white paint pen to doodle some names as easy thanksgiving table decorations.

You could make individual placemats or for ease and to avoid curling paper, you can run table runners across the table instead of down it, making place settings for each guest.

I created this stunning centerpiece again as a table runner before I had a garden full of cut flowers to use. To make it affordable and easy to reuse, I chose some faux dusty miller leaves to tuck in around the squash and mini pumpkins. You don’t need to have incredible florals for a stylish table runner this fall! Check out the full thanksgiving tablescape here!

Simple Outdoor Easy Thanksgiving Table Setting

This one is the most simple- I wanted to balance the more over-the-top table settings I’m sharing here with one that is pared back, easy to pull together in less time and really, it’s still so beautiful. For this one I used a more classic floral centerpiece in the center of the dining table, using flowers from my fall garden both in that and at each place setting on top of a casual linen napkin. I finished the very simple tablescape off with some taper candles and that’s IT!

One basic fall centerpiece with some candles is probably the easiest way to pull together a quick tablescape for thanksgiving or other fall dinner party. While the color palette on this one isn’t traditional fall shades, the deep reds and purples feel so very fall and modern to me. See all the details here.

Neutral Autumn Tablescape for Friendsgiving

Autumn is my favourite season- the crisp weather… beautiful trees… there’s so much to love, really. Let me show you how to create another modern fall tablescape idea, this time using those beautiful natural colours. Don’t get me wrong, orange is gorgeous… but it ‘aint my style. This one keeps it neutral with a rustic touch, using branches of fall leaves foraged from the yard and grocery store mini pumpkins.

You can get these neutral watercolor place cards I made as a blank printable in this post too! This is maybe the most simply autumn thanksgiving table you could create.

I have a canvas looking table runner (DIY that’s NOT going to add to your pile of sewing projects!) as the base for this simple centerpiece and some every day candle holders. I love that these pieces can be reused throughout other seasons instead of tucked away with other traditional thanksgiving decorations. See the whole design here.

Navy and Neutrals Dinner Party

I think dinner parties are my favourite type of party because of the quality conversation that you get to enjoy around a dinner table.  You can sit and visit while the candle light dies down and pick away at the after dinner treats. While I created this tablescape mostly using things I already owned, I did purchase a table cloth and some grocery store greenery!

I don’t typically use table linens but using a dark navy table cloth here really gives the whole dining room an upscale vibe with a major moody pop of color instead of my basic farmhouse table. If you have a dining table you’re not wild about, a table cloth is a simple way to instantly transform your space!  

This post also includes how an affordably sourced tablecloth can add to your party atmosphere. Breaking grocery store greenery into small arrangements to scatter down the table makes for an easy centerpiece paired with some candles! See the full Navy Autumn Table Here.

Dried Florals Round Thanksgiving Table Decor

I have always owned a long table, so when I had the opportunity to decorate a round table for the season, I jumped at it. It felt like a new challenge and a great way to answer the readers who have asked for ideas for a round table all these years! To take advantage of that round dinner table, I made not one but three autumn tablescapes using similar pieces.

The first is so simple featuring fall bunny tail grasses in thrifted vases and cloth napkins with a dried strawflower tucked in each. Dried flowers are easy to do yourself with the right kinds of blooms and last almost forever letting you use them for events in the future too! See how I dry florals here.

The next was a traditional floral thanksgiving centerpiece in a vase with hand lettered fall leaves for place cards.

Lastly, we have a more organic style tablescape- I wanted to recreate the table runner style florals I always do on my long table but on a round table. It’s definitely more full so might not be the best choice if you want to also have food serving dishes on the table, but oh my is it ever dreamy! Check out all three thanksgiving decorated tables here!

Friendsgiving: Casual and Organic

I love how this simple, casual and organic décor turned out. I think this is the very first time I heaped some decor down the center of the table and it’s become my staple thanksgiving table runners recipe. While we’ve changed things year to year, this easy thanksgiving centerpiece is a sure winner.

This one features kraft mailing paper, heaps of ivory pillar candles that I already had and fresh greenery made for a beautiful tablescape. It is anything but tedious and the cost can’t be beat!  Perfect for any Thanksgiving celebration.

This casual table features a roll of kraft paper and a brush marker and has been such a popular display over the years (from southern living to redbook mag!) it’s now made it’s rounds on the internet but it was really one of my more creative ideas back in the day ;). You just roll out your craft paper the length of your table and get tracing each dinner plate, drawing flatware and adding some beautiful script names.

You can fill the center with fall leaves or pumpkins or candles, or any other thanksgiving ideas you might have! This is really the best thanksgiving tablecloth because you can ball it up with all the gravy spills and toss it in the compost. Check out the whole post here!

Friendsgiving: The start of a tradition (and some DIY)

There’s something so GOOD in the whole concept of ‘Friends-giving’. Celebrating what we are thankful for with friends… who we’re thankful for.

Years ago we started hosting a friends-giving dinner in the weeks around thanksgiving. We had such a good time enjoying each other’s company, catching up, and sharing old jokes- plus, the food was dynamite. We always do a potluck so it’s accessible we provide the meat and bevvies. Our friends bring the sides.

This is the very first friendsgiving we ever hosted so really… this one is SO old but I had to include it! Amazing to see how far we’ve come, right? This one we used that same kraft paper for the signage and some deep burgundy fall hues on the table- I love this combo of colours for a fall event and think I’d love to try recreate this with the style I’ve developed over the years :) See this whole post here!

There you have it! 10+ modern fall tablescape ideas! Are you decorating your table for Thanksgiving this year? I’d love to see it! Tag me on instagram @colleenpastoor!

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