DIY Party Table Ideas

My summer already has been full of many celebrations and parties.  Lakley turned 18 and graduated from High School.  My 2 sisters and I all had daughters graduate from the same High School, so we threw a party for them (which I will post about next) and Lakley’s birthday was the day before graduation so we had a lot of celebrating to do.

This time in my life is very surreal.  While you’re raising your kids you know obviously one day they will turn 18 and move on to college but the time just flies so fast and you wake up and it’s here.  While having a great time at these parties I just couldn’t grasp that my only daughter would be moving away soon but in the same breathe I’m so excited for the next step in her life and I’m so proud of Lakley and her accomplishments.

Planning parties is one of my most favorite things to do.  All birthday parties are important to me
but I really wanted to make everything memorable for this milestone. 

I love to plan the table setting, the food and desserts, and since it was a birthday… the cake. 

Now for those of you ladies out there who have experienced a child graduating you know by the time the graduation comes around you feel like the money is being spent left and right… so my goal was to make the parties beautiful and fun and not spend too much money.  
I used many things from around my house and I want to give you some
 suggestions and examples of what
 I did to keep the cost down. 

One thing I love to do is use sheets for tablecloths.  The blue you see here is a twin sheet.
You can use ones you already have or you can purchase them pretty inexpensive at Ross or TJ Maxx. A few advantages over using plastic tablecloths is the fun colors you can find, they look classy (I don’t think you would ever guess that is a sheet), and they hold up better than plastic in the wind. This is a big plus for me since most of my parties are outside.

I collect serving platters at the thrift shop so I used those and just layered old tablecloths to give the table dimension.  The crochet cream colored one is really a throw.  I went to a party once and they used a quilt on the table and I thought it was so clever.

This “18” tag was made with burlap and chalkboard paper I found at JoAnn’s.  It is tied around a glass pickle jar that I added ribbon to and the green ball I took from my living room decorations.
This picture shows my latest favorite find from Savers, the colorful glass cake plate I paid $1 for.
 I love to find treasures like that.

Last summer when all us housewives went to Swiss Days we happened upon a antique shop and I found this old box… I think I paid $8 for it and at the time I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it I just thought it was cool. It had been sitting under my table forever and I decided to paint a quick white coat of paint, sand it a little and then stain it. After sanding it I didn’t feel it needed anything else so I left it be.  When you have plans to distress something the paint job can be pretty quick and even sloppy because the sanding fixes everything.  It literally took a matter of minutes to do.
The cups fit perfect and look adorable.

Picture frames are something I also collect.  The gold frame on the end had broken but I held onto it because I thought it was so pretty and though there had to be some way to reuse it. 
Here I placed it over a silver platter I bought from the Dollar Store. 
Really with decorating it is the small details that make things stand out.

I was super excited about Lakley’s cake and plan on sharing a new technique I used soon.

© The REAL Housewives of Riverton, 2011-2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s authors and/or owners is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to The REAL Housewives of Riverton with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.