The leaves are falling, the air is crisper, and the days are a little shorter. It’s the perfect time to celebrate with family and friends around a harvest holiday meal. Whether you’re hosting a Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or just plain finding an excuse to eat food with your loved ones, you may want a few fall tablescape ideas to help get you in the thankful spirit. Here are some of our favorite tips and current design trends to impress your guests and make the meal a little extra special.

Pleasing Plaid

A classic fall fabric that never fails to please, plaid is a great choice for any harvest table. Use it in your napkins or place settings for a warm personal touch that’s rustic and beautiful, or as an easy to clean and easy on the eyes tablecloth or runner. These touches can be used all fall long, and even into winter!

Pure Patterns

Another pattern that is incredibly popular right now is the use of botanicals and mushrooms. Botanical patterns have always returned to trendiness with their timeless influence, and mushrooms have taken the design world by storm this year! These natural yet classic patterns can display whirling vines and leaves or cheery fungi undergrowth on a multitude of fall items. Like plaid, these patterns can be used all fall long and can add earthy touch to this year’s autumn tablescape.

Blended Family Heirlooms

Many, many current trends involve mixing the old with the new, and tablescapes are no different. Big designers rave about blending their classic china and heirloom pieces with other modern elements like bold linens, fresh candles or strong florals in order to create a table that blends different style aspects and traditions. You don’t buy a new set of flatware every season, but you can integrate new pieces into your timeless classics in order to create a sort of conversation between the Thanksgiving tablescape decor. And depending on the pieces chosen, you could be creating a conversation between you and your guests as well, whether about where to find this cute new tableside trinket or the history of the vintage candlesticks passed down from generations.

Play with Palettes

Along with mixing the old with the new, mix your colors and hues! All white is out; it’s time to enjoy the variation of color that fall brings. Blue and orange are particularly trendy color combinations during this season, as not only are they complementary colors, but because the naturally gorgeous orange shades of seasonal harvests like pumpkin pop beautifully next to rich blue tones. Others bring in the rich raspberries and reds of the season to their Thanksgiving tablescapes, utilizing fresh fruit like pomegranates and apples for that natural pop.

Harvest Your Decor

In fact, many designers recommend exclusively utilizing the fall blooms and produce of the season, or motifs from them, especially since autumn is such a bountiful harvest time. Pull influence from the naturally fresh sunflowers, plump gourds, bright corn, and other produce local to your area.

Get creative with it! There are a multitude of ways to use what surrounds you outside in order to spruce up your indoors. Lightly scatter eco-friendly confetti on your Thanksgiving table by punching out fun shapes in the brightly colored fall leaves! It is a way to bring in the colors of the season that is biodegradable and zero-waste. Other forest finds can make your table fall-ready as well. Add pine cones to the mix for a beautiful fall tablescape texture. These can be kept for the winter season as well!

Another way to use the seasonal produce? Create small rosemary wreaths to use as place cards or within your Thanksgiving tablescape design. Soak sprigs of rosemary about six or more inches long in water, then wrap into a circle and tie. These little wreaths will add both color and a fragrant scent to your table. You can also add a personal touch and a small treat to your place settings this Thanksgiving with a fresh pear as a place card by tying a small tag to the stem.

Centerpieces can follow this trend of utilizing fresh produce in your tablescapes as well! Carve out a few mini pumpkins and place them in a large, shallow bowl filled with water. Then, place tea lights in your floating gourds and watch them gently bob as light fills your space (flameless or LED candles may be a good choice here).

Fake Doesn’t Mean Dead

This doesn’t mean that your entire Thanksgiving tablescape has to be food or fresh! Fake flowers can add a lot of life to a table. Blend a mix of artificial sprigs or blooms next to your fresh harvest finds, your antique doilies and your new pillar candles. It’s all about finding the perfect combination of old and new, of silk, fake and fresh. Add clear and colored bottles to the mix to hold stems, sprigs and other blooms. They make great candleholders as well! Wreaths as centerpieces are an especially good choice to center all of your pieces in one area; that way, you can save a little extra room for another plate of buns!

Branch Out

The kitchen table isn’t the only option for a Thanksgiving tablescape that wows. Seasonal tablescaping on your kitchen island or even on your coffee table can help establish a beautiful decor that sweeps throughout the house. For bigger events, decorate both your indoor and outdoor tables for a fall atmosphere that feels cohesive no matter where guests congregate.

One last tip? Don’t forget to decorate for the kiddos! Cover the kids’ table in brown craft paper so that they can spend their meal playing tic-tac-toe or creating a crayon masterpiece. It’s no mess and all fun.