Not one of the 425 guests who gathered around the dining tables at the Country Club of Virginia in late April was there for the food. “There was art on those tables – each one was a masterpiece,” says Taylor Keeney, founder and executive director of Little Hands Virginia. She and her colleagues invited 25 Virginia designers to create their own interpretation of “An Enchanted Spring Garden” using table linens, cutlery, china, collectibles and fresh spring flowers. The tablescapes were the centerpiece of an inaugural fundraiser to benefit Little Hands, the nonprofit Keeney founded in 2019 to distribute essentials to economically disadvantaged children in Central Virginia.
‘Hump Day’
By Robyn Framme and Kate Stikeleather for Janie Molster Designs
Camels and leopards pose on china plates around the table set by Janie Molster Designs. A tailored tablecloth with wide gimp trim offers a neutral background for scalloped linen napkins in alternating shades of green and brown. Antique brass flatware with bamboo-shaped handles flank place settings with matching brass chargers. Overhead, saw palmetto paper fans, live poet’s laurel and plaster foliage by Erin Ellithorpe make a commanding centerpiece. The vintage Indian glassware and goblets with knotted gold stems are from Molster’s personal collection.
‘Afternoon Delight in the Garden of Eden’
By Tracy DeShazo for Tracy DeShazo Interiors
Tracy DeShazo arranged a whimsical mix of found objects on a tablecloth featuring Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “It all happened organically,” she recalls. Local artist Sue Jachimiec decoupaged images from the tablecloth onto ceramic oyster shells, highlighting the rims with decadent gold trim. At each place setting, orchids bloom in antique china cocoa cups. The designer found the vintage cut-glass plates at an estate sale. She repeated the green of the monogrammed napkins in the green ikat chair cushions. And in a playful break with protocol, DeShazo put the bamboo-handled forks on the wrong side of the plates.
‘Lavender Daydream’
KK Harris set a very personal table inspired by her love of lavender. She chose Pompeian Rose fabric from her soon-to-be-released textile collection for the tablecloth. Lavender raffia placemats frame the antique Adderley Chelsey Blue bone china that was used at her wedding reception. The vintage lavender stemware is also part of her own collection. She arranged fresh flowers in a vintage concrete urn from Sheppard Street Antiques. Sun bonnets on each place feature hatbands also made of her Pompeian Rose fabric.
‘Secret Garden’
By Bea Gates and Lindsey Gates for Gates Interiors
Bea Gates harvested an ancient wisteria vine from her family’s vacation cabin and crowned it with a canopy of moss, ferns, white orchids and bright pink amaranth and candlelit glass globes. The centerpiece towers over a table laid in an earthy mix of green stoneware that she discovered on a trip to Thailand, acacia wood chargers and olive green linen napkins, all accented by matte black stainless-steel flatware. Handblown glass tumblers twist like the winding wisteria vine while mushroom-shaped sterling silver salt-and-pepper shakers peek out from behind live ferns.
‘Parrots of Paradise’
By Adrianne Bugg and Brandeis Short for Pillar & Peacock
Pink cherry blossoms spill over a tower of pink roses in the center of the table designed by Pillar & Peacock. “We wanted [the centerpiece] to be tall enough so that you could see across the table to the other guests,” says designer Adrianne Bugg. The tablescape took its name from the Parrots of Paradise china plates, which Bugg layered over natural rattan placemats on a handblocked cotton table cover. A flock of tiny pewter birds holds place cards aloft. Chair cushion fabric coordinates with the geometric menu motif, while the chairs themselves mirror the sterling silver flatware pattern.
