Past Thanksgivings

As I’m sitting down today to plan this year’s Thanksgiving, I took some time to look through my old pictures to remember the designs from years past. Thanksgiving is the beginning of the holidays for me. As I mentioned yesterday, I use this day to hand out my family’s Christmas presents. I love being the first of the pack to hand out my gifts, and I look at it as a way to kick-off the gift giving season!

When I think about designing my Thanksgiving event, I approach it similarly to how I design for my clients. I enjoy transforming empty raw spaces into something unexpected, so this is where I usually start with my Thanksgiving dinner. My family is so big that the past two years I’ve held the dinner in my studio space.

Below you’ll see a picture of the space as it normally is (click the pictures to make them bigger):

Here’s how we transformed it last year:

I get great pleasure from seeing the looks on my family’s faces when they walk into the room. The element of surprise is signature for me. It’s a labor of love to design this event for them every year, and I make sure to invest the time needed to get everything just right.

I focus on using readily available, recycled, and accessible materials. You can definitely make something glamorous with materials and objects you find all around you. It’s all about how you put the elements together that makes the impact.