Pull out the Thanksgiving box and it is the same three colors every year: burnt orange, mustard, and a brown that photographs like cardboard. The problem is not the colors. It is that most printed harvest tableware uses all of them at once, plus a red and a gold, and five colors on a plate leaves the rest of the table nothing to coordinate with.
Autumn is a much wider range than that. Here are five palettes that read as November without the turkey print, all of them buildable from one range in matching case quantities.
Navy and ivory with gold
The strongest of the lot, and the least expected. Navy is a cold color that somehow reads warm against candlelight, and it makes food look better than orange does, which is the whole argument for a dark plate.
Navy Sturdy Style 8.75 inch paper dinner plates come 240 to a case, ivory beverage napkins in 3 ply come 500 to a case, and glittering gold assorted plastic cutlery comes 12 packages to a case. Put the ivory on the napkin rather than the plate; a light napkin against a dark plate is what makes the setting look deliberate in photographs. The store's own Fall Thanksgiving dinner plates are printed in blue and white rather than orange, which drops into this palette as the one themed piece without breaking it.
Burgundy and cream
This is the palette for a formal seated dinner. Burgundy is the color of the season that nobody files under autumn decorating, and it sits beside cranberry sauce and red wine without competing.
Burgundy Sturdy Style dinner plates at 240 per case, burgundy banquet plates in 10.25 inch for anyone who wants a bigger plate, and burgundy beverage napkins in 3 ply at 500 per case. Pair with ivory dinner napkins, 250 to a case, and white 20 ounce paper bowls at 200 per case for the sides. Keep the tablecover cream or ivory, not burgundy; a full table of deep red is heavy.
Hunter green and white
Green is the obvious autumn color that gets ignored because it is filed under Christmas and St. Patrick's Day. Hunter green is a different animal from either: deep, a little gray, and it works with actual greenery cut from the yard.
Hunter green dinner plates come 240 to a case and hunter green beverage napkins in 3 ply run 500 to a case, with a 2 ply version at 1200 for anyone feeding a hall. White luncheon napkins at 600 per case and ivory 9 ounce cups at 240 per case finish it. Lay a run of cut cedar or magnolia down the middle and the table is done.
Black with gold
Unexpected and genuinely good for an adults-only dinner. Black Velvet luncheon napkins come 600 to a case and the color is a soft matte rather than a hard black, which matters on paper. Glittering gold Sturdy Style dinner plates at 240 per case, black velvet 20 ounce bowls at 200 per case, and a gold metallic tablecover or a 29 by 14 foot gold tableskirt if you are dressing a buffet table. Two colors and no third, or it tips into New Year's Eve.
Mimosa yellow and ivory
For anyone who wants warmth without orange. Mimosa is a clear soft yellow rather than a gold, and it is the closest thing in the range to late afternoon light. Mimosa luncheon napkins and beverage napkins both come 600 to a case. Build the rest in ivory: plates, cups, cutlery, tablecover.
How to build any of them
Three rules do most of the work.
- Two colors and one metal, never three colors. The third color is always the one that makes a table look like a kid's birthday party
- Put the color on the plate and the quiet shade on the tablecover, because the cover is the largest block of color in the room and it should not be the loudest
- Add texture instead of a third color, which is what a sequined runner or a metallic tableskirt is for
Everything above lives in the solid color range, which is deep enough that you can get plates, napkins, cups, bowls, cutlery, covers and skirting in one shade. That consistency is the thing printed tableware cannot do.
One thing to skip
The five-color harvest print, if you are going down this road at all. You cannot coordinate with a plate that already contains orange, red, gold, green and brown. Pick one printed piece or pick a palette, not both. Rose gold is the other one to leave alone; it reads bridal shower and spring, and on a November table it looks like it wandered in from another event.
If you want a little of the traditional alongside the color, the Thanksgiving decorations include pieces that read as autumn without the full print, and the Thanksgiving collection has the guest towels and tablecovers to match. One order, 10% off with PARTY10, which each customer can redeem a single time.
