When I learned that Grant K. Gibson was going to be in town from San Francisco for the week-end from his friend, local designer extraordinaire Brian Paquette, I said we would host a dinner in his honor. We carry Grant’s ethereal black & white photos at Watson Kennedy. He is also a fab designer as well as a blogger. We love having out of town artists that we show to dinner when they are in town. It is a lovely way to get to know people better–and we love any chance we can to get a fun group together. The 2 of them are also good friends with Cassandra Lavalle of the coco+kelley blog, and she and Brian are customers of Watson Kennedy, so we knew a festive dinner it would be!
The tulips looked so great at the Market, the creaminess of the white setting the tone for the entire table. It is generally 1 thing that gets my mind racing when I put a table together. I also wanted to leave the top of our antique French fruitwood table exposed and not use a tablecloth. The coloring of the table working with all the earthy objects.
In this case it was actually 2 things. Our collection of mini vintage trophies from England were another. From his blog, I know Grant has a love of trophies, so I wanted to inject a bit of what he liked into the table setting. They work perfectly holding clear votive glasses and would add the flicker to the table.
I had found these amazing vintage English brass candlesticks on a New York trip and had yet to use them on the table. This was the dinner for it. They are quite tall and I used really tall beeswax tapers so they added quite a bit of height to the overall look.
From there I just start adding. I like a really full visual table filled with many vintage objects. My favorite white plates, with bone handled silverware. Horn cups, bowls and napkin rings. A Riedel wine glass with a simple dotted glass for sparking water. A creamy French napkin.
Our friend Catherine had given us these vintage marble grapes. I thought the hotel silver bowl needed a little sprucing up.
The Parish-Hadley gold hook a nod to all the design talent at the table. I think Mister Hadley and Sister would have approved.
The shell salt and pepper holders adding a bit of beach to the table.
The table was set. We both worked the shops on Saturday, so I knew everything needed to be done on Friday. When I snapped these photos the sun was out and the light was just dancing about.
It was just such a fun eve with a full table of folks, great conversation, and good food. I know many of you asked about the menus in past posts. I will go over the game plan on food tomorrow. It was just lovely getting to know everyone a bit better. Below are the links to each of their sites. Do check them out for a little start of the week inspiration.
Grant K. Gibson
coco+kelley
Brian Paquette
