Looking to spruce up your outdoor dining space without breaking the bank? You can transform your patio, deck, or backyard into an intimate gathering spot filled with rustic charm and cozy style. With a mix of DIY projects, thrifted finds, seasonal blooms, and other budget-friendly accents, you can create a welcoming outdoor tablescape that looks polished but didn’t cost a fortune.
Keep reading for loads of tips, ideas, and inspiration for decorating your outdoor dining table on a dime. We’ll share easy ways to make your own table linens, unique centerpieces using foraged and repurposed materials, and how to set an elegant outdoor tablescape by mixing and matching flea market dishware. You’ll be ready to host outdoor brunches, family dinners, and summer soirees with our simple ideas for making your outdoor table Instagram-worthy, even on a tight budget.
Planning Your Outdoor Tablescape
Assessing Your Space
Before decorating your outdoor dining table, take measurements of the table’s length and width as well as the shape. Is it a long rectangular banquet table or a quaint bistro set? Note how many chairs can comfortably fit around it. Check the placement of the table and visualize the sun’s path to determine how much direct sunlight it gets at different times of day. Consider the typical weather elements like rain, wind, and humidity year-round. Choose durable materials like wood, metal, and weather-resistant fabrics.
Thinking through the functional aspects first will ensure your decor selections work with the existing space and withstand the outdoor elements. Write down your tablescape vision and create a budget for any additional items you may need to purchase.
Determining Your Style
Consider the overall aesthetic you want to achieve for your outdoor table decor. Rustic tables filled with wildflowers, herbs, and weathered elements pair nicely with an informal, farmhouse style. A vintage look may incorporate touches of antique lace and distressed dishware for a timeworn feel. Shabby chic mixes feminine patterns like florals and ruffles with rugged burlap and linen in soft, faded hues.
The decor doesn’t need to match your home’s interior or exterior architectural style, but should complement it. For example, a mid-century modern concrete patio could be softened with French country style table linens. Let the plants, outdoor structures, and permanent built-in accents guide the aesthetic direction.
Setting Your Budget
When setting a budget, remember that small touches can make a big visual impact without blowing your budget. Thrift stores and dollar stores are great places to find inexpensive accents. Prioritize spending on durable fabrics and invest in a few special vintage dishes you really love while filling in the rest with flea market finds.
Give yourself permission to splurge on just one or two special items, like an artisan ceramic vase or embroidered tablecloth, then improvise with inexpensive DIY projects for the remaining details. Getting creative with upcycling and repurposing materials you have around the house is a thrifty option too.
Fabulous Fabrics for Outdoor Tables
Table Runners
Add a pop of color while protecting your tabletop with easy DIY table runners. For a casual, beachy look, use nautical stripe drop cloths trimmed to fit your table perfectly. Kraft paper runners look modern and pair nicely with wood tables. Embellish inexpensive fabric like muslin or even bedsheets with tea-dyeing techniques and simple stenciled designs.
Burlap runners embroidered with floral vines or monogrammed with burlap letters add rustic farmhouse charm and can be made affordably. There are also many quick no-sew ways to fringe and hem basic cotton fabric for a homemade table runner with artisanal texture.
Tablecloths
Check flea markets, thrift stores, or your own linen closet for cotton and linen tablecloths with charming vintage flair. Mixing prints, solids, and subtle patterns creates visual interest when layering tablecloths over table runners. For eclectic style, combine different shapes like rectangles and squares.
Soft, washed linen and cotton tablecloths have organic textures that suit the outdoors. Going for muted, natural hues will conceal outdoor elements like dirt well. Iron-on adhesive hem tape makes it easy to cut any fabric to custom fit your table too.
Napkins
Napkins are another area where you can inexpensively introduce color and pattern to your tablescape. Tea-dyeing plain white napkins or dyeing with coffee grounds, avocado pits, or turmeric creates pretty variations in tone and hue. Using mismatched napkins in different prints, florals, stripes, and solids cultivates bohemian character.
For unity, repeat your main tablecloth fabric for a few matching napkins. Incorporate fabric scraps or even bandanas for a eclectic and thrifty napkin assortment. Fold them in creative ways like pinwheels or add unique napkin rings.
Rustic Accents
Natural looking jute, raffia, and burlap make perfect rustic tablescape accents. Wrap flatware bundles with twine and accent place settings with strips of burlap or lace. Tie small clusters of herbs or flowers to place card tent flags using raffia or string.
Ribbon is another versatile addition, whether tying silverware sets or berry sprigs to napkin bundles. These organic materials heighten the natural elements and textures around the table.
Centerpieces and Focal Points
Flowers and Greenery
Fresh flower centerpieces don’t have to be expensive. Pick wildflowers from your backyard or nearby fields for rustic arrangements with texture and movement. Seasonal blooms like dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers from the farmer’s market make colorful focal points.
Herbs like rosemary, lavender, sage and mint will release their fragrances when gently brushed against and provide sensory depth. Intersperse ferns, grasses, vines, and leaves throughout floral displays for lushness and volume.
Collections of Containers
Gather an eclectic mix of vessels in varying heights, shapes, and sizes to create whimsical flower arrangements. Look for inexpensive options at thrift stores like old glass bottles, enamel pitchers, and vintage milk glass vases.
Stoneware crocks, ceramic planters, galvanized buckets, and woven baskets also make fun non-traditional flower vessels. Cluster your containers down the center of your table or space smaller groupings out evenly for balanced distribution.
Candles and Lanterns
Candles instantly set a warm and welcoming mood. Mini votive candles can be set directly on the table among flower arrangements and decor. Floating pillar candles of varying heights in glass containers filled with water creates ambient light. Place larger glass lanterns fitted with LED candles or real tealight candles safely anchored in sand or glass beads.
Hammered metal and ceramic lanterns give off a soft glow and provide charming accents between flower arrangements, stacks of books, and other tabletop items. They become dazzling focal points lined up down the center of the table or at each place setting.
The Finishing Touches
Dishware and Glassware
The layered textures and eclectic patterns of mismatched plates, bowls, and cups cultivate easygoing charm ideal for outdoor dining situations. Scout flea markets and thrift stores for inexpensive vintage and antique dishware options in a variety of patterns.
Unifying tones, like different blue transferware plates for example, still allows mix and match flexibility. Repurposed mason jars add casual character to outdoor place settings as drinking glasses. Similarly, overturned pots or bowls can serve as whimsical flower vase placeholders.
Flatware
Incorporate charming character into outdoor flatware by looking for flea market finds with engraved, monogrammed, or ornamental handles. Vintage silverplate sets with floral motifs complement cottage style tablescapes.
Tying flatware with natural jute cord or twine gives a collected look. For casual outdoor dining, mismatched engraved, wooden-handled, or ceramic-handled flatware pieces create an eclectic place setting.
Menu and Placecards
Get creative with your menu and placecard displays. Framed small chalkboards or mini easel chalkboards provide a useful space for noting the meal offerings. Painted slate tiles or plates announce each course or drink options in artistic fashion.
Placecards get displayed attractively tucked into a planter of succulents, propped against stacked books, hung with ribbon on wine bottles or water glasses, or placed atop each guest’s plate or napkin.
Animals and Other Whimsical Accents
Carved woodland creatures like squirrels, rabbits, deer, and foxes make charming occasions when nestled in the tablescape. Groupings of mushrooms, ferns, and moss create an enchanted forest setting for critter figurines. Mini watering cans, wooden trucks, and birdhouses are other playful touches blending rustic style.
Books and tea tins stacked to form towers or pyramids generate visual interest and points of verticality among flowers and candles. Pretty garden accents like gazing balls, windchimes, and bird baths can make unique decorative accents when placed in clear glass bowls or plates.
Bringing It All Together
Once you have all your thrifted, repurposed, and handmade elements ready to go, play around with arranging them into an aesthetically pleasing tablescape. Combining different patterns, textures, heights, and colors creates visual diversity, while repeating dishware styles, fabric hues, and decorative accents pulls the look together into a cohesive theme.
Consider your table’s footprint and how to create balanced points of interest down the length of the table. Place key focal points like tall candle lanterns and lavish flower arrangements at intervals along the table. Fill in between with complementary accents. Think about laying the tablescape out symmetrically or asymmetrically to maximize visual flow and dynamism based on your table shape and seating configuration.
You can decorate your outdoor dining space in a budget-friendly style. Use these simple ideas to craft beautiful outdoor tablescapes from inexpensive finds and homemade accents. The ambiance you curate invites lingering conversations, laughter, and connection.
