Do you ever notice that when looking through home decor magazines that even the dining rooms always look amazing? Mine always looks nice and neat, but nothing like the pictures I see in my trusty Pottery Barn catalog.  I just keep telling myself that no one actually EATS in those spaces and that to expect my home to look that good is not a fair fight.  (I say the same thing when I see immaculate homes on my favorite TV shows, too.  No one actually lives there, Carrie!)

But still, I want to sit down at my table and feel like I’m sitting in a perfect spot for entertaining.  I want it to be a space I want to hang out, and not just eat our meal and leave.  So, I started decorating my dining room in a way that reflects my style…and a little bit about my personality, too.  (Yes, I’m aware I have to share this dining room with my family, but unless I want it to be a blinged out space filled with sports paraphernalia, I have to go with what makes me happy!)

So…first of all, I knew I wanted to incorporate books into my decorations.  Because I’m an avid reader, and I want my kids to enjoy reading, I try and surround us with books whenever possible.  So, I decided to make paper flowers out of the pages of a book and use them in my centerpiece.

That was a disaster.

Then I tried crumpling up pages from a book.  Again, another disaster.

Finally, I took book pages and ran them through my husband’s paper shredder.

 

I thought I might actually have something here.  So, I pulled out some pillar candles in varying shades of white/ivory, and stacked them on a glass cake plate.  Add the shredded book pages, and I had an instant centerpiece!

Obviously, if you plan on actually burning the candles, you will want to go the flameless candle route.  They come in many different sizes, colors, and they’re even scented now! I’ll probably replace these at some point, but considering I had them on hand, and I like to use what I have whenever possible, I’ll stick with what I’ve got for now.

I know it’s kind of an odd look, this “nest of book pages”, but I like it…and I play with it all the time while I’m sitting at the dining room table.  I’m constantly curling the pieces while chatting over dinner!

So, since my centerpiece was completed, it was time to move on to the next step.

I found this fabric at Hancock Fabrics and immediately fell in love.  It’s a heavy fabric and filled with french words and places in varying scripts and fonts.  I didn’t even bat an eye before pulling that heavy fabric roll and taking it up to be cut to size for me.

All I had to do to turn this fabric into the perfect table runner was stitch a hem around all four sides of the runner and it was done! The whole thing took me about 5 minutes to make, and I’m absolutely in love with it.

I’ve done a few more things to my table since I took these pictures, so stay tuned…I’ll be sharing them soon.  I’m already brainstorming ways I can incorporate Halloween decorations into this tablescape…I’m so excited to get started!