Floral and Ticking Summer Tablescape

My favorite print for all things summer is indigo ticking. I've said it before, dark blue ticking is like a "neutral", because it pairs with almost everything. 

You love florals? ...ticking pairs up. 

Paisley? ... ticking pairs up.

Plaids are your thing? ... ticking pairs up.

After all the red/white/blue of the patriotic season, it was time to change things up a bit. I love red in summer, but I wanted a new vibe here. I have this large red floral fabric piece ( I think it's Waverly) that I've used for summer tablerunners since our last home. It's not patriotic, but more French Country with a lovely rose-y pattern with reds, creams, and green. 

I briefly thought about pairing the red floral with grain sacks, but then I remembered my indigo ticking, and it works perfectly on the farmtable as a casual farmhouse look. Even though the floral doesn't contain any blue, it still works together. At a distance the very dark blue reads "black".

Joining the summertime ticking and floral, I put together my large ice cream bucket with sunflowers, hydrangeas, and geraniums. (above). A red/orange flat wired vintage tray, which was probably used in bread deliveries, works as a base. My two faithful vintage chalk mom and baby chickens join the farmtable vignette. Summer is a Chicken kind of thing, when they all come out. I'll be sharing the Holiday Cupboard next week where a few chickens are scratching around.

After a few days of enjoying the change-up, I wanted to put together a mid-summer tablescape, that wasn't patriotic, just good ol' French Country Farmhouse. Instead of the large white wooden bucket, I paired down a bit with the flowers and opted for my wonderful brown transferware ironstone pitcher. It still gives the same visual as the larger bucket, but works better with a tablescape. Here's where I faced a bit of a dilemma. I wanted to play up the dark blue/almost black stripe and play with some reds and greens. It got confusing fast.

I wanted to try a brown transferware as the bottom dinner plate, but it needed a white background as not to make it too visually heavy and "fallish". I chose my Myotts, Staffordshire Bouquet hoping I could build a stack with more brown transferware. I love this pattern, but I don't have a complete set of any of my transferware; it's all bit's and pieces.

Next came the salad plate with Old British Castles for the red connection. Here's where I ran into a problem. I couldn't locate any brown transferware bread and butter plates that weren't heavy and darker. I also needed a hint of green, to coordinate with the glassware. I tried my French Faience in place of the transferware with a vintage red transferware cup. Then it started to look too busy, especially with the floral napkin alongside.

Time to rethink this plate stack so it would still say "summer", but not loose track that it was Mid-Summer and I was using a vibrant red floral. I wanted to save the brown transferware patterns for a fall look later on. So here's my Nemours faience as the base, instead. 

Red, yellow, blue, green with a light background. Okay, this works better.

The weather had been rainy and overcast for this last week, so I had to work hard to get enough light for the complete table photos. Because of that, some of these pics have the first attempt at the plate stack. 

Here are a few pieces of Cottage Ware from Otagiri to compliment the French Country vibe. Here's the salt and pepper... so cute.

My husband found this wonderful transferware chicken themed platter a few years ago. It's perfect for Sunday dinner!

Below is one of my favorite posts for summer...

Summer Favorites: Ticking Stripes and Sunflowers

Ticking Stripes

Here's a look from the previous house with the red floral runner 

and my huge window box centerpiece filled with faux white geraniums.

Dining Room Buffet and a New Summer Tablerunner

Thanks for coming by friends, hope you're having a wonderful July.