Decorate Your Tabletop: Spring Has Sprung!

Haviland's Rose Centifolia

Have you noticed how April showers usually always bring May flowers? Well, it's true this year as a bumper crop of floral designs are now gracing new dinnerware collections.

Coeur Rouge Dinner Plate from Anthropologie

Evenings in Quinto Dinnerware from Anthropologie

Crate & Barrel's Lotta Melamine Plate

Interior design aficionados and our students in the Complete Course in Interior Design should be aware of seasonal decorating trends, and floral themes pick up steam appreciably when the weather turns warmer.

Amour En Cage Tea Cup and Saucer from DeVine

Collage Peony Dinnerware from Lenox

Pottery Barn's embroidered floral Sierra Dinnerware

Click on each photo for more product information, and think spring this year as you aim for chic spring tabletops that wow your family, friends, and design clients.

Butterfly Floral coupe from DeVine

Anmut Bloom Dinnerware from Villeroy & Boch

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Event Planning: You're Going to Love This Peachy Kids Birthday Party!

Love the simplicity of this peachy 4th birthday party from Michelle Sterling for her daughter, Avery. Click here to see Avery’s 2nd birthday party. And this is perfect timing as a number of you asked for more “realistic” DIY birthday party ideas, in addition to those planned by moms who are event designers. We couldn’t agree more! This one is adorable and do-able. The best kind.

The inspiration for the entire party started with that fuzzy orange cat, affectionately known as “cat ball” around the Sterling house. These guys have been a favorite of Avery’s since her first steps. One actually makes an appearance in her 2nd birthday photos!

How cute is this idea for a party activity? Cheerios and lifesavers on pretty ribbon, inspired by an idea in this book. Easy enough for small hands of all ages.

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Set a Beautiful Wedding Table: 5 Alternative Place Settings

Simple floral place settings harmonize well with a Wyoming ranch wedding.

It's nice that there are no set-in-concrete rules regarding how to plan a wedding. Yes, you want to stick to the budget. Yes, you want to stay on schedule. Yes, you want to have everyone wear nice clothes (unless your clients are naturists, of course). Okay, so there are definitely rules ... but there's a wide latitutde of what's acceptible in today's wedding that's essentially cutting every wedding couple a big break. Everyone can relax, take a deep breath, and pay attention to personal style over expected formality. Here are some alternative place settings that caught our eye. Click on each photo to check out the rest of the wedding!

Plain white dishes harmonize well with the rustic elegance of this Indian wedding table in California.

Simple and colorful, this Netherlands table adds a homey touch with doilies underneath the place settings.

Old World Italian elegance, this table setting combines romantic flowers with handcrafted lacework, bone-handled utensils, and marine decorations.

 A French chateau wedding inspires beautiful vintage china and silver with soft touches of wildflowers.

Thanks to 100 Layer Cake for their beautiful photographs, posts, and wedding and event inspiration. 100 Layer Cake is a unique, comprehensive wedding and event planning resource for and by thoughtful, crafty modern women. Their vendors, projects, weddings, resources, sponsors, and marketplace are hand-picked and thoroughly researched with the hope that every single one is a truly unique addition to both your wedding and your planning process. Visit the 100 Layer Cake website today.

 Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Throw a Very Special Kids Halloween Party This Year

Pottery Barn Kids: Halloween Tablecloth

If your household has young children, it's important to make each holiday count towards making wonderful lifetime memories. Special decorating and tabletop touches will elevate a Halloween meal or party from the everyday to the memorable, and that's just what you're looking for. Here are a few of my favorite Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn tabletop and decor items to help you throw a festive Halloween party this year. Click on each photo for more information. 

Pottery Barn Kids: Halloween Luminaries

Pottery Barn: Curiosity Appetizer Plates, Set of 4

Pottery Barn Kids: Personalized Owl Chairbacker

Pottery Barn Kids: Halloween Treat Basket and Liner

Pottery Barn: Owl Tree Punch Bowl Stand with Ladle

If you're interested in learning more about interior design and decorating, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Hanukkah Favorites from Sheffield School

There are over 3,000 Hanukkah jewelry items for sale on Etsy!

It's that festive holiday time of year, and we scoured the Web to bring you our favorite Hanukkah tips, recipes, crafts and projects, and tabletop ideas. Seasons greetings - and click on each photo above and below for more information.

All these ingredients form something holiday yummy, thanks to The Enchanted Cook

Apartment Therapy gives us modern Hanukkah table decor ideas

The Sweet Shoppe tempted us with delightful Hanukkah gift baskets

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