Centerpieces can be simple, inexpensive

KAREN WIGHT

The rooms I love to live with have simple details and understated

elegance. In my home, a great room does not include a lot of

frou-frou; it has timeless color schemes like black and white and is

easy on the eye without being boring.

Elegant decor is not always easy to achieve, but it’s the easiest

to live with. On the other hand, elegant centerpieces can be very

easy and are a nice way to create a holiday mood. Something as simple

as a white pumpkin on a dark wood pedestal looks great in the

kitchen, on the table or anywhere you need a little something extra.

I’m going to let the pictures do the talking today and just give

you a brief description of several easy ways to create beautiful

accents for your fall table:

If you have a magnolia tree, beautiful arrangements are only a

snip away. Magnolia leaves are some of Mother Nature’s best work.

They are large, green and glossy on top with enchanting fuzzy copper

undersides, have gnarly gray branches and the dark-brown pods have

bright, orange-red seeds that make a statement. You don’t need to add

anything to a bucketful of magnolia branches. Just an enchanting

container and you can have a week’s worth of style.

One of my favorite stores for buying centerpiece material is the

grocery or produce store. The pomegranates I found this week at

Ralphs were enormous and a beautiful shade of deep red. I used one of

my long, skinny platters, spread nuts over the bottom, and then

placed five pomegranates in a row. The white platter looks great

against the dark wood of the table, and this took about two minutes

to put together. C’mon, you have two minutes, and you have to go to

the grocery store. You can do this.

Rosemary makes an aromatic arrangement. If you have upright and

cascading rosemary in your garden, cut enough standing stems to fill

the vase, but also add some sprawling rosemary to spill over the edge

of the vase. Keep it in the kitchen and use a few sprigs when you’re

cooking poultry.

The smell of fresh pineapple is unbeatable, and baby pineapples

are the cutest things in the produce department. Buy several tiny

pineapples and enough kumquats to fill a crystal vase. If you have

one of Tiffany’s bamboo crystal bowls, it is the perfect

accompaniment for this citrus/island combination.

Five simple centerpieces that don’t take a lot of time or a lot of

cash. Get creative, and get busy.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs

Thursdays.