So I threw my hat in the ring...

In November, the International Special Events Society sponsored their first Tabletop Design Competition in conjunction with the fabulously huge Cook. Eat. Drink. Live. foodie event held at La Venue in Chelsea. I did not come away a winner, but I loved every minute of designing this graphic, edgy tabletop and was very proud to compete in the company of the other stellar designers. I learned so much about building a design for competition and would relish the opportunity to do it again.

The design was built around my nagging desire to create an acrylic tower which would elevate candles above the tabletop. So, the structure was made of the open-topped acrylic box attached to a mirrored acrylic base with only a very thin acrylic tube which would be the core for the pillar of pave'd white flowers.

When I was wandering around the garment district to find fabric to make this tablecloth and chair caps, I wasn't sure what I wanted, but when I saw this black and white pattern I knew I had to have it. Whenever possible, I love to work with garment fabrics (rather than tabletop or upholstery) because they are so soft and drape so beautifully.

Since aqua was my must-have color for 2009, it was the natural choice for the accent color. I covered a styrofoam box with the fabric to elevate the centerpiece and then made dupioni silk napkins backed in black cotton to continue with the pop of color. We created the menus in-house by layering a black patterned translucent sheet of scrapbooking paper onto aqua card stock and then mounted the printed menu card on top.

Finally, I set the scene with a black fabric back drop and framed the table with mini-vignettes made up of an aqua vase with white dendrobium orchids, black vase with white branches and some of my fave black votives atop a white acrylic column.


Photos by Sharon Schuster