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I can’t believe the day is finally here!!! Our main floor bathroom reveal with all the sources, before and afters and the long story about just why this project took us entirely too long!

We started this project in September. Yes you just read that right. As in September of 2018. We decided to do this project simultaneously with our boys room and the Fall one room challenge. Then we ran into some issues within the walls…as with any renovation project you just don’t know what you’re going to find. We found all kinds of things. Oh and to add one more thing to the chaos, we both went full time on our business. Needless to say clients came before anything we did in our own home. Ones bathroom should never take 6 months to complete…I am serious ya’ll. We went 5 months without a toilet downstairs. So to say I am beyond ecstatic to share with you our finished product would be a complete understatement. If I could do a backflip, handspring roundoff thing I totally would. 

So let’s get into it and all the design choices we made along the way.

My very first design decision was subway tile. I know I’ve heard lots and lots of chatter on the internet about it being over used or out of style and I am here to proudly say subway tile is never going out of style. I believe this is a tile that last the tell fo time. I wanted to not only tile the bath/shower area but carry the tile throughout the entire space. To elevate the subway tile look we went with an elongated beveled tile. I wanted to make sure the tile didn’t feel like it was overpowering the room. To ensure this didn’t happen we paired it with a light warm gray grout. The last step with the tiling was the chair rail. We did this along the top of the tile as well as in our niche, and around the shower. I love how it polished off the space. 

For the floor I wanted to carry the gray from our wood flooring into the bathroom. We fell in love with this tile. I honestly wanted to lay it herringbone style, but with the small space and vibrant rug the beautiful tile work would have been lost. We landed on laying it vertically to help elongate the small space. Michael desperately wanted to do some form of textured ceiling and it took me a while to get on board, but boy am I glad I decided to jump on. We live in a 1950 bungalow with a small first floor bath and every inch counts in here. By creating a dark celling it has made the entire space feel larger. I love how that happens. For our ceiling we burnt cedar prior to installing, of course.  This adds a whole new level of dimension and texture to our space. We also decided to add a thicker 4in trim for our window casing and we painted it Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black for an extra bold statement. We continued the bold trim around the door as well.

We mixed metals all over our bathroom, which I love. You can read more about my tips and tricks for that here. I wanted to add some color into our black, white and gray space and to do that we went with a bold rug. Since we have so much pretty tile in our small space I wanted the shower curtain to blend with our walls. On the walls we used Sherwin-Williams HGTV Origami White. We love how this color pairs with the subway tile so perfectly!

Our vanity was a whole ordeal. I wanted to make the most of the space and to do so Michael custom built our oak vanity. This allowed us to keep things light and airy with an open feeling while providing more sink and counter to the vanity. I paired it with two sconces and this oversized mirror. I love how the mirror hangs over the subway tile pulling everything back together. And as an added bonus, the boys can see themselves in the mirror – well Enzo can, at least – which seems to be a boost in confidence as he grows into a bigger little man. 

We couldn’t be happier with our final product!

Below is a list of all bathroom sources.

Subway Tile

Chair Rail Tile

Wall Grout

Floor Tile

Floor grout 

Wall Paint

Shower Curtain

Curtain Rod

Bath/Shower Trim Kit

Mirror

Lighting

Rug

Soap Dispenser 

Towel Bar

Baskets

Faucet

Toilet

Ceiling 

Why add metals in a bathroom?

I am a true believer that bathrooms can and should mix metals. In fact I think three different metals in a space helps add dimension and character to the space. All too often I  feel we’re stuck because we’ve picked one metal and think that it needs carry through the entire space. That it has to all match. Well, I am here to tell you that simply isn’t the case. At least not with us. 

With that being said I think it is important to have some guidelines to ensure your space feels cohesive.

We’ve partnered with Delta Faucet to give you our breakdown on how to mix their metals together! 

1. Venetain Bronze reads as a neutral. I know that is hard to believe a dark metal is a neutral, but trust me it is. 
2. Champagne Bronze tends to draw attention to a space in a really good way.
3. Chrome, polished nickel and stainless I personally would not pair together. However, they work well with both Champagne Bronze and Venetian Bronze.
4. It’s ok to mix two different metals on a vanity. Your hardware can be a different metal from your faucet.
5. Keep the shower/bath trim kit the same metal. You can change up the metal on the shower door or curtain rod…or even on the tub drain.

Both of our bathrooms have mixed metals. For our latest bathroom renovation we integrated Venetian Bronze, Champagne Bronze and Chrome. To create a cohesive look in this small space I went with the same collection throughout. I feel in love with the Cassidy Collection. We changed up the color for our towel bar from Champagne Bronze to Venetian Bronze.  We included chrome in our curtain rod, soap dispenser and door hardware.

I am loving this space and all the beauty the metals help add to it. Below are links to the products (or similar) we featured in our bathroom.

Faucet 

Towel Bar

Toilet Paper Holder 

Shower and Bathtub Trim Kit

Thank you to Delta Faucet for sponsoring this post.

It’s still kind of crazy to me. After 12 years in the advertising/marketing/branding/experience business, I finally quit (or retired as I prefer to refer to it as) in pursuit of something more meaningful. I’ve been extremely fortunate, and have absolutely no regrets. But the path to get here was tough…let me tell you a story.

It was 2pm on a Monday afternoon when I received the call. An alarming and frantic call where Danielle was screaming “come home”. When you hear that, you drop everything you’re doing and you move quick. I alerted my team, ensured all was covered and even sent a quick follow-up email to communicate the situation. Mind you, at this time I had no clue what the emergency was but knew it was bad.

No more than 10 minutes after I was en route home, a notification hit my phone. It was an email from my “boss” (I use quotes because they lacked any form of leadership qualitiy – completely incapable of understanbding or respecting people, period). For those on the current Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes hype…picture that environment and leadership, minus any genius at all whatsoever. 

Her email went something like this:

I understand your family emergency. 

However, I will need real-time updates on the status of projects. So when you get where you need to be, be sure to send updates.

To say I was upset would be an understatement. I was fucking furious. I was hurt. I had given this company my all. And while I already knew my time was limited and I would be resigning, it wasn’t going to happen the way I had planned. 

Danielle and I talked about the situation, and agreed it was time. There was no point in waiting it out…the time had come. I responded to the email and cc’d all leadership and HR, to ensure they saw how business was being handled and the repercussions of doing so in such a way. With a generous 5 weeks notice I had officially quit advertising and was on my way out. But even the transition started off a bit chaotic.

That Monday night, Enzo got the stomach flu. We had one kid in stiches and the other on the toilet. Sweet. No more than 45 minutes of uninterrupted sleep and I was on my way into an office not knowing what my resignation email would result in. Silence…silence was the result. Except from my team who all knew. It was the talk of the office. But “leadership”, pshhhh, in their minds talking about it would be an admission of defeat. The day was eventful to say the least.

But I didn’t feel right.  At the time I thought it was a lack of sleep but would soon realize it was far more. That night I got home as I normally do, did dinner and bedtime with the boys, and took it easy with a glass of bourbon (or 2) eventually making my way to bed. I figured a good nights rest would put my mind and stomach at ease, but 2am rolled around and I was awaken in a deep sweat. Running to the bathroom as quick as possible I knew I was going to be sick. I felt completely drained barely being able to hold my body up. I remember screaming for Danielle and then everything went black. 

I had gone unconscious and fell to the floor. Clearly I do not recall this, but Danielle and the boys were there to see it. I eventually came to, got in the shower to wake my body up and relax and made it back to bed. The next day an appointment with the Dr. was inevitable. They said that this is a case that occurs commonly in men when their mind is awake but blood and oxygen can’t keep up, so the body simply shuts down. The more I thought about it I believe that this occurrence was my body releasing all of the stress, anxiety and anger that had been built up over the past year…a natural cleanse so to speak. 

At Danielle’s recommendation I stayed home for the rest of the week. It was essential looking back at it. We needed the time to process all that had happened so rapidly and unexpectedly. 

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this factual tale of events. Please comment with your thoughts and/or stories of leaving your job. I’d love to hear them! 

Til next time…

-M

If you’re connected with us on Instagram (which we hope you are), you may have seen our project names trickle in our Stories. This topic is one that is near and dear to our hearts, and one that had us thinking and talking a lot! But first, let’s clear something up. If you don’t already know, our names are not Clark + Aldine. These happen to be the two streets we lived on when when we met each other in Chicago. While these two streets don’t technically intersect they happen to be our crossroads, giving real meaning to who we are. 

So, it only seemed right to create project names based off our client’s meaningful crossroads. Not only has this become a fun way to keep track of the projects we are working on, it allows us to connect with our clients on another fun and personal level. We get to learn about their history, where they come from and how those memories reflect in their home and style.

We are excited to share all of our current client projects with you! Stay tuned throughout the year as we promise to blog and source as much of each project as we can!

Auburn + Dayton – Custom Basement renovation with full bathroom addition, mudroom, living space and bar area.

Deer + Shiloh – Master Bedroom Suite

Woodford + Edgewood – Mudroom and Laundry Room

Otter + Howell – Mudroom, Laundry Room, 1/2 Bathroom and Foyer 

Auburn + Tenth – Master Bedroom Suite with full Bathroom addition 

Betty Hill + Anita – Master Bedroom with custom reading nook, and new lighting, doors and paint throughout the home

Crestwood + McKinley – Kitchen and first floor layout including Living Space and Staircase

enjoy

much love –

Danielle and Michael

Our first official client project with Clark + Aldine is 100% complete and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. It’s wild to think in 8 weeks we were able to transform this unfinished basement into a livable, functional and relaxing place to just be! We are going to take you from start to finish on all the things that happened in the space, and as promised we will source as many products as we can at the bottom of this post!

Clients Nick and Kerry recently relocated from Chicago to Michigan. I am sure some of you Chicagoans caught the Chicago cross road in their project name! Nick works in the automotive world while Kerry owns her own small business, Reset Brain + Body. Kerry works with clients through a fresh new approach to mental health. She offers interactive classes, support groups, meditation sessions, yoga, individual therapy and so much more. Check her out even if you’re not in the area she’s got online wellness coaching she offers!

Nick and Kerry have a little dude Cole and their dog Nellie. Together they live in their 1,300 sqft 1941 bungalow. When they came to us with this project their need was simple – more livable space for their growing family. Living in a house with one bathroom becomes challenging very quick! They needed not only livable space but functional space as well. Our goal was to make every inch of their basement work for them and their needs.

As with every project, we started with space planning. We laid out the bathroom, living space, play area, mudroom and dry bar/dog kennel. Painters tape is a great way to map out a space to give you a feel for what it will feel like with walls, and help plan furniture placement. You can then walk through the actual space before you buy anything. It really ensures comfortability with the layout, and allows for some changes before construction kicks off. 

Designing is where we went next, specifically in the bathroom as lead times for finishes such as tile tend to be the longest. We immediately fell in love with green tile and knew it had to be a statement accent wall in the shower. I just love how the horizontal placement created a space that felt much bigger. When you’re dealing with low ceiling heights, you take everything you can get! We tiled the ceiling and used a glass enclose to create the spacious shower, while also serving as a pseudo sauna. 

Choosing a shower fixture was challenging to say the least. With such a low ceiling we had to maximize every free inch, and the available fixtures were limited. But after three options we found the perfect setup. Next up were the floating shelves we created to provide ideal function to a smaller space. Adding these allowed for additional storage and a beautiful design element. Mixing metals is one of my favorite ways to create depth in any space and in this bathroom we have three different metals working together. The gold on the vanity and toilet paper holder deliver some glam to the space, while the black light fixture and towel bar work as a neutral against the chrome shower! The runner and art work help pull the entire space together making this basement bathroom a real show stopper. 

With the bathroom design complete we went into the main space and began with a decision on the ceiling. It was going to be black. What we love about black ceilings is that they create the illusion of a larger space. And in this basement the black helps with the limited height, which essentially disappears now. 

Right outside the custom pocket door of the bathroom is a perfect play space! Here we wanted to create an area to not only store toys but for all creative play to happen! I styled several shelves with baskets for toy storage while leaving others open for books, larger toys or creative play use. The rug helps create a cozy feel to this nook and everyone needs pillows and stuffed animals to keep comfortable while playing on the floor. The featured art work is both custom by our clients little one and a local artist here in Michigan, Kimberly from Small Moments.

When it came to the living space I wanted to deliver a fun play on the boho vibe that our clients Kerry and Nick dig. We were working with two pieces they already had, making accessorizing this space key. Pillows, a new rug, poof and some fun concert posters helped complete this vibe. I also found a functional tray to house their remote, coasters and a favorite design book! 

Behind the living space features a pub table for additional seating, and a custom dry bar with a built-in dog kennel! This just might be my favorite part of the entire project. It’s design with function to the fullest. The bar top is a piece of reclaimed Elm wood from 28 Furniture Co. that Michael fit to spec. He also built the floating shelves and kennel, which features shiplap wall and custom doors with rebar and a solid latch. 

Two more pieces to this project to complete it. The custom mudroom space and staircase with railing to fit everyone’s needs. We used the small space at the bottom of the staircase and filled it to the max with both function and purpose. We fell in love with these leather bins and built the space around them. The bins can go both ways inside the cubbies, so there’s no wrong way to put them away. The staircase was rebuilt with oak treads and risers, and was paired with this custom black horizontal railing to tie in with the modern boho vibe we created in the space.

Looking how to create a modern horizontal railing? Here’s our full tutorial.

Clark + Aldine has been a business for a while now, but venturing out 100% on our own is fresh and new. We’d like to thank Nick and Kerry for taking a chance on us, the new kids on the block. We’re so blessed to be able to do this together as a couple and family, but when we can help create great spaces for amazing people it makes everything so much more fulfilling.

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for…the sources! 

PAINT

Ceiling Paint – Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams 
Wall color – Alabaster By Sherwin Williams

BATHROOM

Green Shower Tile – Tile Shop
Carrera Shower Tile – Home Depot
Floor Shower Tile – Home Depot
Carrera Shower Curb – Datile
Shower Enclosure Towels – Dream Line
Shower Slidebar Kit – Kohler
Shower Wall Mount – Kohler
Shower Trim – Kohler
Toilet – Kohler
Bathroom Art – Gary Malin
Toilet Paper Holder – Amazon
Vanity – Tennant Brand
Faucet – Delta
Vanity Hardware – Rejuvenation
Vanity Light – Wayfair
Towel Bar – Rejuvenation
Towels – Quick Dri
Runner – Folktime Nirvana Fringe
Rug Pad – Amazon

KIDS PLAY SPACE

Toy Storage – IKEA
Letter & Number Baskets – Crate Kids
Baskets – IKEA
Rug – Target
Art – Small Moments

LIVING SPACE

TV Wall Mount – Amazon
Rug – nuLOOM
Rug Pad – Amazon

BAR AREA

Pub Table – Wayfair
Backsplash – Quadrostyle

MUDROOM

Storage Bins – Target
Hooks – Target  Similar Here

We feel like it’s been a while since we’ve talked about who we are and how we came to be. Let’s start by sharing an obvious overview – our “About” page.  There you get to learn a bit more about us, how we rebranded to Clark + Aldine and where the name came from. But right now we feel is a good time to talk about what exactly we do and just how we landed on naming each of our projects.

Clark + Aldine is our creative space where we’re fortunate to share with the world all the things we love. Michael and I started as a blog to show our home renovation projects, provide diy tips and tricks and inspire others to make their home feel like home with some fun insight into our everyday life. In November of 2018 we launched our brand into a new space, offering our services to others. What’s exciting is we’ve got quite a bit to offer and want to share them with all of you.

Real Estate

Danielle is a licensed real estate agent here in Michigan! For us that means not only can we help you transform your home, we can also give you educated advice as to what makes a good decision for resale! Plus, we can help you buy or sell your home, and come up with renovation, design and staging plans should you decide to go in that direction.

We love helping others transform their homes to get the best price for the market, or finding a home that they can transform into a dream home. We understand that not everyone can build brand new and that sometimes seeing a house for its full potential is challenging. We’re here to help bring a vision to life. Danielle can take you on house tours to find the home of your dreams, while together we can help you see the full potential and make your dreams a reality.

Home Renovations 

We do it all. Kitchens, bathrooms, living spaces, bedrooms, basements, mudrooms, laundry rooms…all the rooms. We do curb appeals, exteriors, painting, small renovations and big. All of our renovation projects start with an in home consultation, where we come together to hear your needs, wants and desires for your space. From there we put together a quote for your project, all of which include design and styling. We help walk you though the entire renovation process from start to finish.  

Home Design

With all renovations come home design. Making your space feel like you is an important part to the whole process. Our home design process involves mood boards, space planning, layouts and full vision for function in your space. We source everything you need to complete your space from furniture to paint to finishing touches. Our process places an ease on decision making and delivers a space that truly vibes with you!

Styling

Styling is the component that pulls everything together. It is the finishing touch that helps make your home yours. We offer home styling services with every project we do that allow us to come into your home, style, and decorate it to create that perfect look and feel.

Consultations

Not everyone is able or ready to take on a renovation project. And some are just DIYers that need some help pulling it all together. That is where our in-home (or in-office) consultations come into play. We come into your space and provide you with tips, insight and advice on how to create the space of your dreams on your own. 

We hope this helps give a better understanding of who we are and what we do. And as always, reach out to us to chat! We love hearing from you all! 

enjoy

Much love – 

Danielle and Michael

Here we are a month and a half into 2019 and we’ve yet to do a recap of last year and a look forward to 2019. Until now…it’s better late than never, right?!? So here we go…I’m going to break down all of the projects we did in 2018 with some really good before and afters. And then jump right into what we want to do in our own home for 2019.

Here was my post for 2018 with my hopes and goals for what we wanted to accomplish. First up were both of our bathrooms. We can almost check off both of these bad boys…even though the main floor bathroom project is now lingering for 4 months?. Our master bathroom was our first project we completed last year and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Next on the list was

Our kitchen and this one just didn’t make the cut this year. The main reason is because we just couldn’t land on a design layout that we loved. When tackling a big project like this I want to be 100% sure about the decisions we make. My hope was to do one side of the kitchen at a time and I still have it on the goals list for 2019. So we will see where this goes!

Our living room was also on our project list for 2018. We did make some small changes with adding layered rugs and a new layout, but I do want to give some more life to this space over the next year. I am thinking new paint and maybe opening a wall sounds like a good idea!

Curb appeal and landscaping was a big one on our list and this absolutely happened! We created custom cedar planters, painted our brick white, added outdoor lighting, rebuilt our front porch, got a new garage door, added all kinds of landscaping (thanks, Dad!) and a new driveway! Wow, that’s a whole lot of outdoor goodness. Let me show you some awesome before and afters here.

Our playground was on our 2018 list and while we did do some work on it, we did not complete the entire project. So you guessed it, we’ve added it to our project list for 2019.

One project we did tackle last year that wasn’t part of our goals was our boys bedroom! I am obsessed with how much our kids love this space and how both of their individual personalities are reflected. 

The major life change that happened to us in 2018 was the decision to go completely on our own. Both Michael and I are working for ourselves and this couldn’t feel any better or scarier all at the same time. It was something we had in the works for a very long time, and now that its our new reality its hard to think back at how it was.

So while we didn’t complete all the projects we set out to do I would still give us an A for what we accomplished overall in 2018.  As we look into 2019 we’ve started to set goals for our home and I am excited to share them with all of you!

CLARK + ALDINE HOME RENOVATION PLANS FOR 2019

Bathroom

Yep, the main floor bathroom is making our list yet again. You can check out our plans here and I promise in FEBRUARY, you will get to see the final reveal along with all kinds of posts to help you tackle a bathroom in way less time than 4 months! Because no one else needs to live 4 months without a toilet! Well, we did have a toilet upstairs, but with 4 people that gets a little tough.

Office

Since we are both working full time “from home”, having a functional office space is essential. We are both finding that our current space just isn’t working. Here we plan to add built-ins, create a new floating desk space and a brand new creative space for us to make dreams happen for us and our clients.

Mudroom

While I love our mudroom, it shares a space with our office. Which means everyday I get to look at coats. Not so bad when it’s styled pretty for pictures. But in everyday craziness that isn’t so pretty. We are planning to enclose our mudroom area a bit to help create a cleaner overall look and more functionality for the space. And now that Michael has built others for our clients, it’s time for a full re-design!

Backyard

The outdoor list is LONG. Probably because I just want to create an outdoor oasis for those amazing Michigan summer nights. In our backyard we’d like to make a sleek, functional and safe patio as ours is currently this crazy stone top filled with asphalt…straight awful! I’d love to make an outdoor fireplace, but I’d live with a cool fire pit for making s’mores! We’d like to add cedar flower boxes to our windows, add a window to our garage, finish our front porch, stain our cedar and makeover the boys playground to look similar to our house! 

OH and we have some new exterior doors and hardware coming soon…very exciting for us!

Living Room

COLOR, is what this space is looking for. I’d also love to open our staircase…you know a girl can dream! This is probably a long shot but I really want a fireplace. Hey I figure if I put it out into the universe maybe it’ll happen! And Michael already promised we’d get one so I guess its just a matter of time, right?!? I desperately want to give our tiny entryway some life! I feel like it’s so small right now that it becomes over flowing with things way too quickly. We need to add some real function to this space.

I have a long list of Dream Projects here too.  Just a big list to showcase that the renovations never stop with us.

Master Bedroom

Built-ins and add wood beams

Master Bathroom – heated floors (yeah, we have an issue electrically so we gotta fix it!)

Kitchen – either open it up or add more counter tops!

Basement – all of it

Laundry Room – actually make one

Garage – create a workshop (this one probably will happen out of necessity for our sanity)

So there you have it. Our long list for 2019. I know it seems like we’ve done everything to our house but I can promise you there are still so many things that just didn’t make the list this year…2020 for sure!

enjoy

much love –

Danielle + Michael

This year I really wanted to create a tree that felt natural. One that had our boys extra touch to it. Enzo is really loving everything about the season and I felt like this was the perfect time to embrace the season even more. So we kicked it up a notch and made our own homemade ornaments. I’m not trying to go crazy over here, so I went with what I currently had at home to make them. Below is the recipe and all the steps we took to get there, just in case you’re looking for something to do for the holiday season in your home.

SALT DOUGH ORNAMENTS RECIPE

THINGS YOU NEED TO MAKE HOMEMADE ORNAMENTS

• 4 cups flour 
• 1 cup table salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• Mixing bowl and spoon
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper
• Cookie cutters
• Forks and straws 
• White spray paint
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brushes
• Glitter 
• Clear spray paint
• Ribbon 

*When making with little ones I honestly like to prep as much as possible before they are around. This makes life easier for everyone involved and it also helps keep them engaged longer in the process.

INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE ORNAMENTS 

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
2. Mix together the 4 cups of flour and 1 cup of table salt. Slowly add in warm water till all ingredients become too difficult to stir. At this point you will need to kneed the dough with your hands, just like you’re making a pizza. You should get a pizza like dough texture.
3. Get two pieces of parchment paper. Lay down one piece of parchment paper on the table and pull a small hand size amount of dough on paper. Lay second sheet of parchment paper on top of dough. Roll out dough till its about 1/8 inch thick. This is important because if you make the dough too thick it will crack and not create rad looking ornaments! You can thank me later for that tip.
4. With any cooking cutters you love, begin to cut out ornaments. 
5. Add texture to the ornaments with the straws and forks. 
6. Make a hole with the straw to string the ornaments to hand, it is important you don’t make the hole too close to the end to ensure it doesn’t rip!
7. Repeat steps 2-5 until all dough is used up.
8. Bake ornaments for about an hour. I like to check on them around 45 minutes to make sure they aren’t getting too brown. You know the ornaments are done once they feel hard. No need to worry if they do start to brown, I’ve got you covered.
9. Once the ornaments are cool I like to spray paint them white. This not only covers up any imperfections, but it also makes your ornaments look less like stale bread on your tree and more like a clay ornament. Two coats does the job. If you can have them dry in a warm space it speeds up the process.
10. Time to decorate. Bring out the acrylic paint and glitter! 
11. Once ornaments are dry you get to seal them with a clear coat of spray paint and add the ribbon!

Happy tree decorating and gift giving. These are perfect for both.

1. Layers – In my life layers are everything. And when it comes to creating the perfect tablescape layers are key especially when creating that over the top look for the center piece. Layering also allows for dimension in any table.

Creating the perfect holiday table setting can be daunting and overwhelming.

2. Height – Every time you create a centerpiece height has to play an important role. Too much height creates a table setting where no one can see each other! Too little height can at times create a flat looking table. So let’s chat about simple ways to add height to any table. When it comes to adding height I really like to think of this in sets of three. Odd numbers just make my design heart happy and helps to create less of a matching look. Here are some perfect ways to add height: candles, candle holders, cake stands, or even greens, leaves or twigs! The set of three does not need to be three of the same thing. You can do two of one on each end and have the middle be something different.

3. Practical – When it comes to practical table settings I am for that. Who wants to have a beautiful tablescape that you can’t actually use when it comes time to eating. Not this girl. I think it is essential to consider what kind of dinner you will be having. Is the meal going to be plated and you don’t need to use the table for food? Or are you having food on the table? Important things you need to think about ahead of time. Making sure you have room for food is something you have to plan for. I love using cake stands to add in food. Or pull off height and replace that space with food once people sit down.