Learning the art of tablescaping with Ikea

On what felt like the hottest night of the year so far I was given a late pass to head into Soho for a fabulous evening with Ikea. I’ve always loved Ikea and every room in our house has something from there. I love the clean lines, contemporary Swedish design, and of course, excellent value for money.

I joined some other fantastic creative bloggers and were shown to the top floor of a gorgeous old building. It was decorated for Christmas which I admit did feel slightly odd given the warm weather. But soon the Christmassy smells got me in the mood to try my hand at tablescaping.

What is tablescaping, I hear you cry? Basically it is the art of making your dining table look beautiful – think Downton Abbey and every meal as a potential dinner party. I thought I was doing quite well with my tablecloth, table mats and flower arrangement at home, but I clearly need to up my game.

As we arrived we were able to admire the tablescaping by the Ikea experts.

Looks easy, doesn’t it? Everything is co-ordinated and useful but pretty too. Then it was our turn and I must admit to feeling slightly nervous to be in a room with people whose Instagram feeds I swoon over.

We were given free reign over boxes of Ikea kitchen ware and the 2016 range of Christmas decorations and I got to work picking out anything which caught my eye. At home everything is bright and colourful so I had fun opting for a more muted palette. I kept adding as, for once, I found the truism that less is more didn’t work. This is what I ended up with.

I created lots of layers and tried to link through with the pretty polka dot wrapping paper. It was so much fun but also terrifying but thankfully everyone from Ikea were complimentary about my first attempt at tablescaping. I picked up lots of tips so am hoping for the chance to do something special this Christmas at home.

Then we had the chance to see the new Ikea collections and there was some lovely inspiration. There were 4 key trends:

Artisan with a hand made vibe

Maximalist with bold pops of colour

Elemental with lovely natural elements

The final trend was Off Beat with some crazy broccoli inspired fabric

I liked elements of each design so I’m not really sure what that means for my style! I’m swooning over the design of that desk and would love it for my craft space (hint hint hubby!).

I had a fab evening. I love having the chance to try something new and tablescaping looks like it will be big this Christmas. Not only do I have a long shopping list of things to get to update our home. It also looks like I’ll be picking up some new Christmas decorations too. The decorations have a natural feel with geometric paper designs as well as a real natural feel with decorations made with metal, beads, paper and string which really appealed to me. There are old favourites too with dala horses and gingerbread dough in the Autumn/Winter look book which I will be stocking up on. The Christmas range will be in store from October and I will be first in line!

Big thanks to Ikea for the invitation to try my hand at tablescaping and the lovely goody bag.