So, what’s your St. Patrick’s Day game plan? Are you braving the crowds to watch Chicago’s river glow neon green? Marching with bagpipes and beads at Boston’s legendary parade? Or—my personal fave—are you just a hop, skip, and a shamrock away from me, down in Savannah, Georgia, where the Forsyth Park fountain turns emerald, and the tailgates get so rowdy you’d swear you were in Athens for a Bulldogs game? Beer (green of course) pong included!
Me? I’m keeping it cozy at home—cooking up a St. Paddy’s feast that’s half tradition, half “let’s see if this works.” Shepherd’s Pie (because meat and mashed potatoes are a hug on a plate), cabbage and potatoes with a bacon twist (because why not bacon), and a soda bread I’m begging not to turn into a brick. I’ve never made soda bread. I have never had soda bread. So here goes nothing! No Guinness for me—I’ve never gotten the beer bug—but I’m dreaming up a festive green cocktail instead. Got a recipe? Drop it in the comments!
March 17th’s got me buzzing to deck out a tablescape, because if there’s a day to let color run wild, it’s this one. With a fun mix of Irish (plus English, Scottish, Swiss, and French) in my veins, I’m all in for St. Paddy’s. Who wouldn’t love an excuse to dye rivers green and hunt four-leaf clovers? (Yes, I know shamrocks and clovers aren’t the same, but they’re close enough for this gal!) Fun fact: the odds of finding a four-leaf clover are 1 in 10,000—apparently there was a statistics-lover who figured out the probability. Me? I’ve got the gift. Back in my softball days, I’d get yanked from the outfield for clover-hunting mid-game. Dad had it, my brother too, but my sister Stephanie? Bless her, I’d point her to a patch just to be nice.
Stick with me as I unveil this St. Patrick’s Day table—where color, pattern, and a sprinkle of luck collide. Sláinte!
My Creative Process: Crafting a St. Paddy’s Tablescape
I shared my Blueprint For Stunning Tables on launch day, so I’m breaking it down step-by-step with all the colorful details for St. Patrick’s Day!
- Find Your Inspiration…
Shamrocks, obviously! But not just any shamrocks—these Bordallo Pinheiro (BP) shamrock plates stole my heart. I didn’t even know BP made them until last year when they popped up in my daily eBay alert for new BP listings. I’d been set on using my Belleek tea set (an estate sale gem I’d just featured in a tea table), but variety’s more fun! When I saw these at a steal, I smashed “Buy Now” faster than a Leprechaun chasing gold.
Feast your eyes on these beauties!
They’re pure St. Paddy’s magic—textured basketweave yellow featuring lively green shamrocks, and screaming “Irish charm.” Inspiration locked and loaded!
- Select a Color Palette…
St. Patrick’s Day demands green—no pinches here! (Remember elementary school when forgetting green got you pinched? As a teacher, I’d echo our principal’s “No pinching, even today!” speech, and some years I’d hand out St. Paddy’s pins to keep the peace. Oh, the teacher life!)
The BP plates brought yellow to the party, and I rounded it out with white—my trusty trio vibe. I toyed with just green and white, but with the yellow plates the palette required a third color. Three (or more!) unlock endless possibilities for stacking and styling.
Here’s the palette—simple, bold, and oh-so-St. Paddy’s Day ready:
Color has been my love language since I was a kid pairing crayons—yellow and green, red and blue, purple and pink, you name it—long before I knew a lick about color theory. Now I’m bolder (illustrating book covers at Alt 19 Creative will do that!), but sometimes, like here, I lean on those childhood combos. They just work.
- Make It All About the Patterns…
Green and yellow can be tricky—especially that Crayola vibe I was chasing. My stash had no perfect match with a yellow green and white, so I pulled my green patterns and yellow patterns, then hit a wall. Nothing screamed “Pick me!” I took a breather, pivoted to stacks, and played with plates for clarity. Mid-rummage, I found a killer spring combo—gorgeous, but not St. Paddy’s. It’s banked for a future table—stay tuned!
Here’s a peek at the chaos of the table (aka Staging Area) in my Dish Room in full swing. Two future stacks are queued up (yes, you’ll see ‘em!), and I’ll reveal the whole Dish Room next week!
Piling greens together showed off their undertones—some yellow-leaning, some blue. Tricky stuff!
Quick rundown on undertones… Undertones are the underlying color apparent in most color. It’s the “secret ingredient” that makes a color lean warm or cool. Think about gray, most grays have undertones. That’s what makes it a green-gray or a blue-gray. If you’ve painted walls, you’ve probably come across this!
If you struggle with undertones here’s a tip: Use a color wheel, not your basic one, but one with lots of colors on it like this one from Amazon, (paid link) Find the shade that is closet to your item. Some colors may be closer to yellow, some colors may be closer to blue, This will help you determine undertones, which are a bit trickier in making colors work together, so we’re sticking to the basics!
In the end, this Amazon tablecloth won me over—green with blue undertones and a buffalo check I can’t resist.
- Pick Your Stack…
With the tablecloth set, the stack clicked fast. I pulled these reticulated plates from Williams Sonoma—sadly discontinued, but I found near-identical plates on Amazon. You’d swear they’re twins! Check this out—can you spot the difference? The dinner plates are WS and the salad plates from Amazon,
Quantities are limited, so snag ‘em if you love ‘em! (Heads-up: I’m an Amazon Affiliate, so I get a tiny kickback from purchases via my links—hugs of gratitude if you do!)
I used the WS plate as a charger (my usual move) but needed a dinner plate. My first pulls weren’t vibing with that darker green tablecloth, so back to the shelves I went. Then it hit me—Mottahedeh Torquay Green was perfect shade of green.
Pattern 411: Torquay Green (also in blue and pink) hails from 1820, inspired by the English coastal town of Torquay. It’s a Winterthur Museum repro by Mottahedeh, and I scored it (plus Regency Rose) at an Atlanta estate sale. We’ve got killer sales around here—watch for my IG estate sale adventures and a future post on how I find the best estate sales!
- Select the Linens…
Since that buffalo check tablecloth strutted in and stole the show early on, I was left to to think about napkins, because I had already pulled out these beaded beauties from my stash—estate sale finds I’d been hoarding like a squirrel with a prized nut. I found them a few months back, and a sweet soul in a Facebook table crew clued me in: they’re Pier 1 throwbacks! Oh, how I miss that store—wandering in, drooling over tablescapes, and hauling home treasures I swore I needed.
I dug through my napkin pile—greens, yellows, you name it—but nothing clicked. So, I turned to my trusty white-on-white monogrammed napkins from Fancy Nancy Embroidery. When in doubt, these babies save the day with just the right whisper of texture. Folks always ask, “Melissa, where’d you get those napkins?” Well, Fancy Nancy’s the queen behind them! We met at a tablesetting group event not long after that estate sale that led me to join a table setting group, which you can read about here (link). We drove two hours just to attend—worth every mile of the road trip with my hubs. Thankful he’s always up for a road trip, even one that involves all things dishes and tablesettings. If you love monogrammed napkins, join her Facebook group!
Now, I’d dug out some old green shamrock placemats from years back, but their particular shade of green—clashing hard with that tablecloth. I needed something to frame those Williams Sonoma reticulated plates. A solid backdrop makes was just the thing to make that design pop! I’d tossed some round yellow and green placemats on my planning pile, and the green ones? Reversible magic—solid on one side, gingham on the other. Found ‘em on Etsy from Greenleafshop (the store is on a break—any Friends fans out there?).
But if you know me—you probably aren’t surprised that I kept going with the layers! I spotted these perfect yellow rectangular placemats at Hobby Lobby and couldn’t resist. Rectangular placemats on a round table? They really don’t work without overlapping! BUT… I just rotated them 90 degrees, and—unexpected perfection. Predictable? Not really my style!
Here it is layered with the green circle!
- Time for Glassware & Flatware…
Glassware was a given. Anchor Hocking’s green glasses—Bubble Foot and Burple Inspired—are pure St. Paddy’s gold. I found them on Facebook Marketplace from a sweet lady two miles down the road. We got to chattin’ (as we collectors often do), and turns out she was downsizing a collection. She tossed in the Burple and some Lenox Sky Blossom for free. Best Marketplace haul ever—Southern hospitality for the win!
Flatware? I dream of this Vietri Aladdin set—but settled for this not as expensive set. (a girl can dream!) It does have that same chic vibe. I use it on so many tables!
Here’s the Vietri for you to drool over…
7. Centerpiece Magic…
Here’s a little secret: yellow’s my least favorite color… unless it’s a flower. Daffodils, tulips, ranunculus—those sunny blooms just scream “happy!” Some folks swear by fresh, others by faux. Me? I’m team “whatever looks real.” Fresh is fab, but when you’re setting tables like it’s your job (kinda is!), permanent botanicals let me reuse and remix. I nabbed some faux daffodils at—you guessed it—an estate sale, originally for a spring table. They screamed St. Paddy’s, so into the mix they went!
I raided my yellow bin (everything’s color-coded ‘round here) and whipped up a cheery mass of blooms. My process? Fill, turn, fill, turn—not rocket science, but it works! I’ve been arranging flowers pretty much my entire life—thanks to my step-mom’s landscaping wizardry and three flower-lovin’ grandmothers. I filmed the process, (or chaos, depending on how you look at it!) and might share it soon—fingers crossed!
And by the way… here are (compensated) links to the tulips, ranunculus, boxwood and chicken wire that I used for this centerpiece.
For the vessel, I used a Pier 1 bowl that’s straight out of a scene from Disney’s Little Mermaid. It just gives me ocean vibes! Flowers, fruit, salads, desserts—it’s done it all. Found a twin at—yep—an estate sale. What haven’t I snagged there? That is a very good question I’d have to ponder!
- The Final Touches…
With everything piled on, space was limited, but I squeezed in some moss balls to channel that Irish countryside vibe (Ireland’s on my travel list—someday!). These little green gems are everywhere—here’s a link to some of the ones I used.
- Capture the Look…
Now that I’m pleased with everything, time for photos. You’ll find this view very familiar if you follow the blog a while. The lighting! The view! It’s just perfect, except in July and August when Georgia is in the throes of summer when It’s hotter than blazes out there and the bugs treat me like a buffet. I’ll set up outside, but we’re eatin’ indoors—praise the AC!
So, what’s your St. Patrick’s Day looking like? Spill the tea (half and half, remember?) in the comments—I’m all ears!
From My Table to Yours,
Melissa
6 Responses
This table is so cheery and inspiring! I just love the Bordallo shamrock plates! Thank you for providing links, I’m definitely grabbing that color wheel and maybe the flatware! Thank you for the great tips and tricks!
Thank you so much, Melissa!! I’m glad you found links that will work for you!! I appreciate your support!!
Beautiful and so informative for the design process used by you in creating this lovely table setting! Wish you all the best in this new blog endeavor! Everything selected gives this table all the charm of an Irish country home!
Thank you so much, Diane! I appreciate that! I’m so glad you found it informative!
I could read and view your magic all day long! ☘️☘️💚💛💚☘️☘️
Oh, sweet friend, you’ve got me grinning ear to ear! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed my St. Patrick’s Day table magic—makes my heart skip a beat to know you could soak it in all day! ☘️💚 Here’s to more shamrock sparkle for you! 🍀💛 Happy tablescaping!