Welcome to August Table, where recipes, beautiful tablescapes, and the art of slowing down come together. Pull up a chair, savor the moment, and find inspiration for your next gathering.
We’re welcoming June with three beautiful new tablecloths—each one designed to make your summer gatherings feel a little more effortless, a little more elegant.
First up: our beloved Garden print is now available in not one but two new colorways, both featuring a soft gray background that grounds the lush floral pattern with just the right amount of sophistication. Whether you’re setting the table for brunch on the porch or dinner in the dining room, these new tablecloths pair perfectly with our Garden napkins for a collected, layered look.
And then, something truly special: for the first time ever, our Seraphim Athena print—long a favorite among our napkin collection—has been reimagined as a tablecloth. Rendered in the most delicate, whisper-soft blue, this design brings an airy calm to any tablescape. It’s a study in grace and quiet beauty.
We can’t wait for you to see these new arrivals. Check them out here and let your table bloom.
Ah, spring—the season of renewal, blooming flowers, and outdoor gatherings. There’s something truly special about embracing the warmth of the sun after a long winter and celebrating the joys of new beginnings with a laid-back yet elegant brunch. If you’re looking to host a memorable springtime gathering for your friends and family, here are some relaxed yet professional tips to ensure your brunch is a hit:
Embrace Nature’s Palette: Let the vibrant colors of spring inspire your decor. Incorporate fresh flowers, such as tulips, daffodils, or cherry blossoms, into your table settings for a pop of seasonal charm. Simple, rustic touches like woven placemats or linen napkins can add a touch of elegance without feeling overly formal.
Keep it Light and Fresh: Spring calls for a menu that’s light, fresh, and full of seasonal flavors. Offer a variety of salads featuring crisp greens, crunchy vegetables, and juicy fruits like strawberries or mangoes. Quiches, frittatas, or a DIY bagel bar with smoked salmon and assorted toppings are perfect for satisfying guests’ appetites while keeping things casual.
Sip on Springtime Sips: Get creative with refreshing beverages that capture the essence of the season. Serve up a pitcher of fruity sangria, a refreshing cucumber mint lemonade, or a DIY mimosa bar with an assortment of juices and sparkling wine. Encourage guests to mix and match ingredients to create their own custom cocktails—it’s a fun and interactive way to add a personal touch to your brunch.
Create a Relaxing Atmosphere: Take advantage of the mild spring weather by hosting your brunch outdoors, if possible. Set up cozy seating areas with blankets and cushions where guests can lounge and enjoy the sunshine. Add some ambient lighting with string lights or lanterns to create a warm and inviting atmosphere as the sun begins to set.
Personalized Details: Show your guests you care by adding thoughtful, personalized touches to your brunch. Handwritten place cards, customized menus, or small party favors like mini succulents or homemade preserves are simple yet meaningful gestures that will make your guests feel appreciated.
Keep it Casual: While elegance is key, don’t forget to keep things relaxed and informal. Encourage guests to help themselves to food and drinks buffet-style, and foster a laid-back atmosphere where conversation flows freely. Remember, the goal is to enjoy each other’s company and celebrate the beauty of the season together.
Music to Set the Mood: Create a playlist of easygoing tunes that set the perfect backdrop for your brunch. Think acoustic folk, indie pop, or soft jazz—anything that adds to the relaxed vibe without overpowering the conversation. Background music should enhance the atmosphere, not distract from it.
By following these tips, you can host a relaxed yet elegant spring brunch that’s sure to leave a lasting impression on your guests. So, dust off your patio furniture, fire up the grill, and raise a glass to the joys of springtime gatherings. Here’s to good food, good company, and new beginnings!
In the words of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Most people have forgotten nowadays what a house can mean, though some of us have come to realize it as never before. It is a kingdom of its own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.”
More than ever, we need our homes to be places of refuge within the disorder of life. How you decorate your space will make a significant difference in your mood and quality of life.
Add Natural Textures
Natural textures add depth and comfort to your home.
For instance, touches of wood connect those inside to the outside world. You can mix wood tones in your design, just keep to either warm or cool undertones, and pick one kind of wood for your dominant feature.
Grasses are also a perfect textural addition, as are organic cotton elements and knitted throws. For your knitted throws and pillows, choose larger weaves that are more visually interesting and are popular right now in interior design.
For a comfortable room, add some pattern to the walls and bring in living plants. You don’t want a jungle, but some living greenery brings an oasis of life (and oxygen) to your home. We now have our designs on Wallpaper as a collaboration with Mitchell Black both in premium matte paper and easy peel & stick so that you can do it yourself.
A buttery, leather armchair is the perfect, cozy add-in texture for a room, especially when there are lots of books nearby. Designers are also making wonderful creations with vegan leather these days.
Add Something Plush
A few luxurious accent pieces will add a plushness to your textures and bring in an element of coziness. A velvet chair or a faux fur throw pillow is all you need.
Lighting
Green visors became popular in the late 1800s. Worn by accountants, editors, and telegraph operators to reduce eye strain from overhead lighting, they’re still sold today. This invention shows us just how hard overhead lighting can be on our eyes, which keeps any room from being a cozy retreat.
In a feature in the Style section of The New York Times, it was reported that “while several studies show that the angle, intensity, color and quality of light can have a profound impact on perception and mood, lighting remains an oft-neglected aspect of interior design. “People just don’t realize how much lighting affects them,” said Robin Muto, an interior designer in Rochester, N.Y. “Even if you’re not in a bathroom looking at yourself in the mirror, if you’re looking at other people in lighting that makes them look dreary, drawn and horrible, you start to feel that way, too.”
To counter this problem, think less overhead glare and more soft, golden glows from table-height lamps. Also, light sources that direct lighting to the ceilings rather than downward softens a room.
Use overhead lighting when you’re looking for your keys or mopping the floor and need to see hidden dirt in the corners. Otherwise, “find fixtures that can be angled so light bounces off the walls and hits people at a side angle. Also effective are so-called wall washers — fixtures designed so light bounces off baffles or reflectors inside the housing, which then directs the light out more horizontally than vertically.”
Art
Art is deeply personal, and we can’t dictate what kind you should collect for your home. However, for areas that you long to make particularly tranquil, consider softer colors and subjects.
Look for something that brings a holiness to quiet places, calms your mind, and comforts your heart. For instance, consider art that focuses on natural themes.
“Human beings are naturally drawn to vastness in scenery,” says renowned artist and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History David Chang. “Landscape throughout history has served the rich and poor, it’s given that quality of nature brought home. The vastness is the ever-infinite sky, it’s the depth of field, it gives human beings this calming quality. Artist or not, rich or poor, we all have that response. I’ve met very few people who would open the window on a beachfront hotel or house without saying, ‘Wow.'”
As always, we wish you the best in creating a sanctuary for you and your family. Thank you for letting us be a part of your journey.
As digital music services such as Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music compete for our attention, as an artist and musician I often lament the slow disappearance of physical media. Sure, I love my Spotify Premium subscription as much as anyone but do you remember what it was like to go into a record store and browse through the racks of LPs, CDs, or cassettes? Over the last few years there have been plenty of reports proclaiming the resurgence of vinyl records (even Whole Foods has begun to sell LPs) but 2016 has in fact been the worst year for overall album sales since 1991 (via Spin.com).
What we gain from the immediate satisfaction of streaming a song, we lose in of the enjoyment of the physical packaging of recorded music. Have you ever taken a chance on an album just because the artwork struck you? I have. While it’s been said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can judge an album by its sleeve. For me, an album cover enhances the listening experience and colors the music. I want to highlight three designers that I feel have elevated the medium of album design not only as a result of their unique visual aesthetics but also the quality of the music with which they were involved.
Peter Saville: As a young art student in Manchester, England in the late ‘70s, Saville would define the look and feel of the lauded record label Factory Records.
Home to groups such as Joy Division, New Order, and A Certain Ratio, Saville broke away from the raw, Xeroxed look of first wave punk albums and began to appropriate highbrow influences such as classical imagery and modern typography into his album designs.
His dedication to his craft has reached mythical proportions, with stories of the artist delivering posters for gigs after they occurred, because he was not yet happy with the finished product, and designing an album cover comprised of sandpaper.
Vaughan Olivier: Like Peter Saville at Factory Records, Vaughan Oliver’s design work would become synonymous with the London record label 4AD.
While Factory incorporated additional designers aside from Saville, Oliver was essentially 4AD’s exclusive designer throughout the entirety of the 1980’s. What this meant was that each record released by the label bore Oliver’s unique, dreamlike aesthetic. A customer could identify an album as being released by 4AD just by looking at the sleeve. For groups such as the Cocteau Twins, Pixies, and Red House Painters, Olivier created a visual world that was almost inseparable from the music.
Mark Robinson: A musician, designer, and founder of Teenbeat Records, Robinson was influenced by both Saville and Olivier but put his own distinctively American spin on his work. From his home in Washington, DC in the mid-‘80s, Robinson’s designs for Teenbeat Records began as Xeroxed tape covers and evolved into magnificently quirky and engaging artwork.
The designs for his own groups Unrest, Air Miami, and Flin Flon are pillars of American indie-rock design. A dedicated archivist, I encourage you to browse the Teenbeat website, a massive design achievement in itself, where Mark has documented an exhaustive amount of label ephemera (including toothbrushes and drink coasters). When not making music or releasing records, Mark can be found designing book covers for Houghton Mifflin.
Andrew Churchman
Andrew Churchman is a musician living in Cambridge, MA.
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