In addition to lasting longer, produce is also edible after serving its time on your table. On your next visit to the grocery store or farmers market, pick up a few extra pumpkins or colorful gourds to recreate one of these simple centerpieces. Go with what catches your eye...or makes your mouth water.
Entry tables and coffee tables are great locations for these displays because they set the mood and don't interfere with the meal. A simple arrangement for the dining table, which enhances the decor without hindering the functionality of the table, is always a bonus.
Top Row:
1. The raw form and warm colors of this bowl of persimmons is simple and absolutely elegant. Via White on Rice Couple.
2. Playing with different shapes, sizes and textures under one color scheme makes for a dynamic piece. Via Martha Stewart
3. Celebrate fall with this assorted vegetable centerpiece. Tips on how to assemble one yourself vía a subtle revelry.
4. Like pebbles in a vase, the kumquats add a pop of color to the tabletop. Experiment with various shapes and sizes in glass vases for different outcomes. Via Better Homes & Gardens.
5. This minimalist apple arrangement would be perfect on a long narrow entry table or sideboard. Via House Beautiful.
Bottom Row:
6. Root vegetables, while not always an obvious choice, can be used in a variety of ways. Lighten up the mood with this playful collection of daikon radishes and turnips. Via Martha Stewart.
7. Make your own cranberry centerpiece spheres via Better Homes & Gardens.
8. The deep colors and organic form of grapes draping over the bowl, add a touch of elegance to any table. Via Martha Stewart.
9. Incorporate a punch of color with green apples gathered in small bowls. Via Orange Tree Weddings.
10. Pumpkins and gourds of all kinds look festive, yet refined, grouped together on the table. Via White on Rice Couple.
Images: As credited above.
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Squash is nice, too.
Number Six is cute, if not especially colorful. It also wins my personal trifecta by being long-lasting, not overly expensive (just how much would all those kumquats in #4 cost?), and stuff I'm actually likely to eat (although I'd probably do parsnips instead of the daikon radishes).
BTW, I see only two kinds of veggies in that bowl: daikon radishes (sans comma, since daikon is a type of radish) and turnips.
I'm using seasonal produce this year. It seemed like the easiest (and most edible) choice for centerpiece. On one table, I have a trifle bowl that I'm going to fill with green pears. In a low glass bowl on the other table, I'm going to use clementines. (I wanted to use baby pumpkins but can't find them anywhere). In the entryway, I have a long narrow bread basket filled with green apples.
A wood bowl of nuts, a nutcracker, and a smaller bowl for cracked shells arranged on a coffee table can be holidayish.
I usually put out a variety of gourds as my dining table centerpiece too throughout the fall. I also eat them. :-D
I always find it strange when fruits are treated as a decoration. Its food people. Sure, it can look nice, but surely one buys food because one wants to eat it and that it will look nice in the fruit bowl one uses the whole year is more incidental?