Cornucopia Collection Centerpiece
Use a favorite collection as a fun table setting centerpiece idea.

The cornucopia is truly a Thanksgiving accessory! Therefore, it needs to be used for the holiday that celebrates bounty, harvest, and thankfulness. If you just happened to have 5 of them in your house (like I do!), why not use them all to create a bountifully beautiful centerpiece for Thanksgiving?! I’ll show you how to create a Cornucopia Collection Centerpiece today, along with some ideas to arrange a beautifully unique Thanksgiving table.
Today’s post is part of a “Gather Round the Table” blog hop, organized by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home. If you’re popping over from The Crowned Goat, welcome! I can’t wait to see all the inspiration from these talented bloggers!
I’m sure the ideas will be flowing with this great lineup of bloggers!
Today, I’m going to start with the Thanksgiving Centerpiece, and explain where my ideas have come from. Then I’ll share the whole table, all decked out for the bountiful day! Here’s where to begin in your creative process:
Use a Collection for your Thanksgiving Centerpiece
Instead of using a singular accessory, why not use a collection? Three to five items that are different sizes can be an interesting foundation for a unique centerpiece. I’m using 2 large grapevine cornucopias with natural texture, along with 3 vintage pottery cornucopias.
Arrange your Thanksgiving Centerpiece items on a Foundation
To anchor your arrangement, place all your items on a background, foundational element. Use a different texture than your collection for interest. I am using a vintage, galvanized tray to add metal texture to the pottery and the other natural elements I’ll be using.
As you can see, the cornucopias are facing out all around the table, so there will be interest for everyone seated. I added the decorative corn first so the husks wouldn’t stick out too far and so their natural texture would be a base for everything else.
Now to fill up the cornucopias with bounty!
Use Your Dinnerware as a Color Palette for your Thanksgiving Centerpiece
My plan was to use my newest church sale dishes, Friendly Village by Johnson Brothers. The rich colors and cozy scenes just seem perfect for a chilly, already snow-covered Thanksgiving. Using the same colors that are featured on your dishes is a great way to coordinate your centerpiece with the whole tablescape. These transferware-type dishes feature brown, along with rusty reds, golds, greens, and even a little bit of light blue. Everlasting, sugared fruit seemed the perfect, colorful choice for a bountiful Thanksgiving centerpiece and more unusual (and longer lasting and cheaper) than flowers.
Gather your Thanksgiving Centerpiece Filler Elements
Place all the elements you’re planning on using nearby so you can see what you have available for styling. To add to the everlasting sugared fruit, I’m using a mix of fall and winter elements: dried grasses, winter evergreens and pinecone sprays. Having all your textures nearby will help to keep the arrangement balanced and make sure you don’t use everything up on one side.
Plan out the Light you want to use in your Thanksgiving Centerpiece
Before getting too far into your arranging, decide how you want to add light to your centerpiece. Strings of battery-powered lights can add ambiance when worked into a centerpiece, like I did for my Easter-time veggie centerpiece {“An Organic, Vintage Easter Table”}. But for this table, brass candlesticks and good old fashioned pillar candles seemed fitting. I tucked them in before I started arranging the other elements. The candles add that touch of aqua blue seen in the dishes, too.
Add your Textural Elements in Layers to your Thanksgiving Centerpiece
I began by adding a layer of evergreens to the cornucopia collection centerpiece. Then I arranged the fruit, starting with the grapes and then the rounder, chubbier fruit. Lastly I inserted the pinecone sprays and the grasses for extra texture. It’s amazing how easy it is to style by just adding layers like this. Make sure you’re arranging all around the centerpiece so your guests on every side can be happy with their view! You can see how each cornucopia has a sampling of all the textural elements.
A bountifully beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece! It celebrates the harvest by featuring fruit, along with the fun vintage and textural cornucopia collection. It echos the colors in the dishes, which will harmonize the whole table setting. Once the centerpiece is done, it’s time to get out the dishes and flatware and set the rest of the table!
I used a neutral, green wool fabric as the backdrop for this Thanksgiving tablescape. Just like in nature, green sets off all the other colors beautifully.
I layered the bowls on the plates and tucked a paper napkin in between. The sunflower napkin added some gold to the scene, which is such an important color for Thanksgiving decor. Rather than lay the flatware in their usual spots, I gathered them together, tying them with simple twine and tucking in a fresh snip of greenery, along with a placecard greeting. (You can grab this placecard greeting in my Resource Library, by becoming a Lora B. insider, down below). Vintage, gold glass footed goblets seemed perfect to finish off the scene.
Tuck Votive Candles throughout your Thanksgiving Table
Tucking faceted, clear glass votive candles throughout your table, reflects the pretty glasses and dishware, and even the sugared fruit. They don’t compete with the rest of the colors and adds a special, coziness to the occasion, even reflecting well on your guests!
The Cornucopia Collection Centerpiece and the whole Thanksgiving table is set against the backdrop of a Thanksgiving vignette, which I shared in “Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas”.
Light the candles, it’s time to celebrate a bountifully, blessed Thanksgiving!
Become a Lora B Insider for Free, Creative Resources:
If you need some pretty placecards for your Thanksgiving, or would like all the fun and helpful resources I’m constantly creating, I’d love for you to become a Lora B. insider! You’ll have free access to all my downloadable, printable seasonal art and a bunch of “pieces of my brain” to help you with styling and refreshing vintage:) You won’t ever miss a creative idea!
If you’re already an Insider, check your weekly email for the Resource Library password, so you can grab your Thanksgiving placecards;)
I hope you enjoyed following the process of creating a Cornucopia Collection Centerpiece, and harmonizing it with the rest of your tablesetting. Thanksgiving is really the season to add lush layers and lots of color and texture. It’s what makes the holiday bountiful! Now let’s enjoy the rest of the “Gather Round the Table” blog hop. You can pop on over to Beauty for Ashes and see Heather’s lovely home. Heather is a vintage loving gal after my own heart and I can’t wait to see what she’s come up with!
pin, share, & enjoy the rest of the hop!
“Gather Round the Table”
Follow The Yellow Brick Home| Poofing The Pillows| A Stroll Thru Life| Our Southern Home
Decor To Adore| Petite Haus |Rosemary and Thyme|Botanic Bleu
My Thrift Store Addiction| Let’s Add Sprinkles| The Painted Hinge| Belle Bleu Interiors
Art and Sand| Virginia Sweet Pea| Debbee’s Buzz| White Arrows Home
The Crowned Goat| Lora Bloomquist| Beauty For Ashes| County Road 407| Decorate and More with Tip
Sharing at these lovely parties:
Lora, you have such a beautiful home! Your cornucopia centerpiece is gorgeous and the perfect thing to grace a Thanksgiving table. Your table is so pretty set for the holiday. I hope that you have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Thank you, Shannon!
What a beautiful Thanksgiving setting and room it will be a great time for all, love the centerpiece and hope you and your family have a great time together with your children home.
I’m so excited to have all the kiddos home, Marlene! And looking forward to treasured time together will all;) Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Oh Lora, it is so pretty! Your photography is amazing of the table and bits of your outdoor fall decor showing through the beautiful view out the window. Since we got to see some of your amazing porch and yard for the fall porch tour, it is easy to imagine dining at your beautiful table and looking out to see such perfect fall views.
I love how you taught us how to set a festive table step by step! I like how you have the cornucopias facing in different directions so that each person gets a view of something interesting. I try to do the same thing when using vintage turkeys or Santas.
Oh of course I am crushing on that awesome piano too!
Thank you so much for joining the hop. I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Photography compliments from you are extra special, Amber, because I love your pics! Thanks for all your sweet words;) I kind of use my piano like you use your mantle in the dining room; perfect vignette spot! Enjoy your Thanksgiving and get some much-deserved rest; you deserve it!
I loooove your cornucopia centerpiece! It is beautiful! Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks, Angelina! It was a fun one to compose! Now…on to Christmas;)
Hey Lora! Your cornocopia collection is the absolute bomb! I especially love the ceramic ones – I don’t see them too often and I’m going to start keeping an eye out for them! I love that you shared how you filled them as I always find filling cornucopias challenging for some reason. And your place settings and that plateware is gorgeous! So happy to be hopping with you!
Always enjoy hopping with you, too, Michelle! Can’t say I see the cornucopias very often either, but think I found all 3 of these the same day, so someone had a thing for them;) Have a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving!
Gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing how you put together your magnificent centerpiece. It is awesome and so is the rest of the table. Absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks, Marty. Hopefully people will see it’s really not that hard…just start layering!
My grandmother always included a cornucopia in her centerpiece for Thanksgiving. I don’t see them used that often anymore and I don’t know why because they look so pretty filled with fruit and greenery. Your centerpiece is beautiful and I love how you set your table. I also spy a beautiful antique piano in the background that reminds me of the one in my mom’s home. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family!
Cornucopias are so Norman Rockwell, aren’t they, Paula? And Thanksgiving is really the only time to use them, so I just went all out;) We got our antique upright from an old church years ago when my kiddos were little and just starting lessons. I love when my daughter comes home and plays it! Even when it’s not making music, it’s a great place to enjoy a vignette! Happy Thanksgiving!
This post was very touching to me. My mother had two cornucopias that we only saw at Thanksgiving. I loved that she would let me set the table, but she always arranged the cornucopia. I had not thought of those in years.
Thanks you for a few tears tonight.
Sorry for the tears, but glad for the good memory, Carol!
Very nicely done, Lora, …both the arrangement and the tips for recreating it. Good tip for facing all the cornucopias outward so all of the guests have a nice view of the centerpiece.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Judith
Glad you enjoyed it, Judith! It really works when you’ve got 5 cornucopias;)
Lora, I’m always excited to see your new posts because you find great things and you are so creative. Your tablescape is lush and beautiful. The old piano in the background, the cornstalks, the light through the window…it’s all beautiful!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
You’re too sweet, Stacey!I love to hear you’re excited to see what I come up with; think sometimes it surprises me, too;) Fun to be hopping with you again!
What a gorgeous collection you have! BUT….that china is absolutely gorgeous! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks, Christy! I’m a declared dish-a-holic; my hubs says we could feed the 5000!
Lora, we have the twin, giant grapevine cornucopias! I’ve had mine for years. Love what you did in creating a stunning centerpiece. Mine goes on the dining room table until Thanksgiving. Then it gets booted to the top of the grand piano as you can’t see around the table when eating.
How fun, Debbee! I’ve had mine for years and this is the first time I’ve used it!
I would never have thought to group a collection of cornucopias. This is brilliant. I cannot believe you found the set of Friendly Village at a church rummage sale. It’s a sought after pattern. Beautiful photos. Beautiful tablescape.
Thanks for your kind words, Katie! Guess I’m a go big or go home girl; might as well use them all!
I especially loved your cornucopias as I almost always buy them to make arrangements for our church’s bazaar. But I have always passed on making a collection; my table is too small; it would be great on my buffet, though. Love Friendly Village; as a New Englander, it is just SOOO classic! I can just see the bowl of mixed nuts getting passed around after dinner in your lovely setting!
So glad to hear there’s another cornucopia hunter out there, Kathy! And yes…I’m thinking the nuts in one of those bark-covered dishes with the silver crackers to open them; so classic!
your table is absolutely beautiful. Love the dishes and how you created the centerpiece. Such a great inspirational tutorial on how you created it. Your dining room is very pretty. Love everything.
Thanks, Terrie! Glad to be part of the hop today!
I love any post that features the Friendly Village as I own the beautiful setting as well. The centerpiece is fantastic but I am truly in LOVE with the pine chargers. Wherever did you find them?
Thanks, Laura! I picked them up at Pier 1 last year and love that I can use them throughout the winter holidays!
Well that is one stunning centerpiece of collected cornucopias girl! Just beautiful. The entire room is so inviting. Love how you’d decorated everything. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 🙂
Thanks for your kind words, Cindy! Especially coming from a decorating expert such as you;)
Lora, I can’t get over your beautiful centerpiece! It’s amazing. I love your Friendly Village pattern too. It always brings back the best memories of home whenever I see it no matter what the season. All the details and layers you’ve gathered together here are totally fantastic and I love the candles too. I hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving, CoCo
Thanks, Coco! I was so excited when I found 2 still-in-the-box sets of Friendly Village for $20 each at the church sale! I need dishes like a hole in the head, but I’ve always wanted that set; so classic:)
Lora, your cornucopia centerpiece is fabulous! I have the same Friendly Village pattern–glad I used my green transferware for this hop! Happy to be joining the hop with you! Blessings, Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction
We should actually ask each other which dishes we’re using before we do these hops, Cecilia, since we have so many of the same;) Dish-a-holics unite!
That is so true! Thanks for sharing your beautiful centerpiece at Vintage Charm!
Your welcome, Cecilia!