Alfresco or outdoor dining is at its best when you combine it a fun summer activity or theme.
With a little imagination, you can be transported to a tropical locale,
enjoy a summer activity like picnicking, or celebrate the flowers or fruits of the season.
I pulled together some summer alfresco table inspiration from the archives.
Click on the links in red to revisit for centerpieces inspiration and
table sources for your summer dining!
A Tropical Table and Lake Breeze Cocktail
Lakeside Nautical Table and National Lighthouse Day
Purples, Plums & Petunias Alfresco Tablescape
Alfresco Table with Hosta Leaf Vase Centerpiece DIY
Summer Table in a Cornfield
Seaside Dining Tablescape
More Loggerhead Love Tablescape
Fantasy Island Getaway Tablescape
A Caribbean {Floating} Island Picnic
A Farmers Market Table
Crowing in Delight: Sunflowers and Rooster Tablescape
Red Fish, Blue Fish Lakeside Table
Anchors Aweigh and Nautical Fun on the Pontoon
Magnifique!!!😍
Mary, Thank you for this wonderful round up and all your alfresco table inspiration. There are several of these tables I missed before I found your beautiful blog.♥
Exquisite! Adorable! Gorgeous! Your creativity and execution are unsurpassed.
Good Morning Mary! I love this post with all of the tablescapes! I’d like to say jokingly that you have way too much time on your hands, but I know it must take so much time and creativity to put together these themes. And I realize this is a full time job for you. Yours is the only blog I subscribe to and I tell all of my friends to check you out! Your ideas are so creative, but so doable. And people like me, that work and don’t have so much time to think really appreciate your ideas so that on the off days, we can wow our friends with minimum effort and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors. Have a great day!
You never fail to amaze me. I wonder which of all of these fabulous designs is your favorite?
Mary, what a great round-up of alfresco tablescapes. Great minds think alike, I am planning a round-up also!😎. Have a beautiful Wednesday!
Wow, Mary!!! Sooo much of my all time very favorite!!! This is the most wonderful post ever!!! I am totally in “Alfresco Heaven!!! Love, Love, Love!!! Your alfresco is not only my fav, it is also the best!!! Makes me want to just stay and visit forever!!! Thanks for Making My Day!!!
I absolutely love every single one of your tablescapes. Unlike me, you have the view that goes with such a great table theme, and I enjoy taking it in as much as I enjoy the carefully crafted decor in each setting. Lovely!
Love your tablescapes, each one is beautiful. Where do you store all of your “stuff”? Would love to see that . You make the mundane beautiful.
I loved going through your archives and seeing all those pretty tables, Mary. I did, however, get stuck on your Farmer’s Market table, because of that beautiful quilt that you used as a table covering. Thank you for sharing!
It’s always such fun looking back and revisiting Mary, and what a great time to do an al fresco tablescape round up! Perfect for our Al Fresco Tablescape hop week!
Jenna
WOW WOW WOW Your attention to detail is wonderful. You bring each table to life, and inspire anyone to try and to work with things that they may have around their home. I have said this before, you have the most impressive ironed linens of any one. This shows in every photo. My Mother and Grandmother instilled this lost art into me. I look forward to every one of your ideas and I pin them and put them in my favorites and I print some of them and place them in my scrapbook for up coming party ideas. Look forward to your next tablescape.
YOURS is my favorite blog that I always read…every post. I do wonder how in the world you find storage for all your creative props and dishes. Any storage hints or ideas you could share?? We love your work so much!
Mary, the table with the plums and purple petunias is stunning. A stunning presentation. Thank you.
Too hot to dine alfresco here of late, but I love seeing this beautiful inspiration. Each table is so inviting, Mary. I want to sprout wings and fly in for dinner.
Merci pour toutes ces bonnes idées de décorations de tables. Mes deux préférées sont : la table “seaside” et la table “purple” , mais toutes sont ravissantes.
Bonne soirée
Alfresco, thank you for the new word for me Mary
Everyone is a special setting, very beautiful. Well done Mary. Lots of creativity and great ideas to remember for future tablescapes, Thanks! Today I am changing out patriotic / July 4th dishes /decor and getting out my nautical dishes /beach items. A little behind, but better late than never, ha. So enjoying summer, it’s just going way to fast!
Mary, your work is awe-inspiring! Many of your devoted followers have wondered how do you organize and store all your dishes and accessories? Maybe you could do a series on this? You must have a giant barn or something to be able to coordinate and inventory all your treasures! Always enthralled by your creativity; one of my favorites was the woodland/fairy like tablesetting in your potting shed. Also, when you set up your pontoon boat for ANTHING; but especially Autumn, it’s like being there…….with your fur babies of course!
The best of the best in alfresco dining! My eye immediately caught those turtle napkin rings, very similar to those I used this year – your post is from 2011! My goodness, what a storage of table elements you must have! I would love going through your stash! Better yet, I’d love sitting down at any one of these tables, Mary. So good, so good.
How your creative mind works is amazing to come up with so many themes, colors, etc
Bonjour Mary
Que vos tables sont belles, colorées et gaies….Des petites merveilles ! De vrais bijoux !!! Merci pour ces magnifiques photos encore une fois !…que d’idées….
Bonne journée
Gorgeous! I really do love that table with violet glasses, and fantasy island tablescape, Everything. Just beautiful.
Outstanding post!! Definitely pinning for future inspiration. Thanks!
Thanks for reminding me the Blog Hop is still in progress and for sharing your beautiful tables from the past. Just read an interesting article in “Our State” featuring the restaurant Hello Sailor. You are so fortunate to have such an acclaimed restaurant nearby.
Your creativity and sense of style plus encyclopedic knowledge of dishes, cutlery and all accoutrements always leaves me amazed.
I want to go shopping!
Oh my, I think I have visited almost every one of these tables here in the past, and they evoke such happy memories for me. I know you style gorgeous tables at your lakefront home and I always look forward to them. I did love the one by the cornfield, too, maybe because it was a little different! I look forward to seeing what you continue to come up with!
Your “round-ups” are always amazing…and yes, my favorite are your table settings by the lake…there is always such a peaceful calm at each table set so beautifully. Catching up on my reading…have a fabulous week Mary!
There are so many favorites here I don’t think I could pick one! They are all so beautiful. I just got several of my girl friends to look up your blog – and now they are each in awe!!! Thanks for all the work you put into these lovely tables just so we can drool over them!!!!