Find summer table and centerpiece inspiration with themes and ideas ranging from nautical, seaside, tropical, woodland, pollinator-inspired, tropical, patriotic and fresh-from-the-garden for your outdoor entertaining and dining. You’ll find DIY floral arrangements, flower arranging tips, creative centerpiece ideas and seasonal decorating inspiration for summer entertaining.
Happy Thursday!
I think alfresco or outdoor dining is at its best when combined with a fun summer theme or activity! With a little imagination, you can be transported to a tropical or seaside locale, celebrate the flowers or fruits of the season, or bring the beauty of nature right to your table.
I pulled together some summer table and centerpiece inspiration from the archives. Whether you’re planning a lakeside gathering, patriotic celebration, garden luncheon, or casual dinner with friends, you’ll find plenty of ideas for flowers, centerpieces, table settings and seasonal entertaining.
Click on the links in red to see the original post if you’d like more details, table sources
and centerpiece inspiration for your summer dining!
Buzzing with Bees and Blooms Lakeside Table + DIY Floral Centerpiece
Celebrate summer’s pollinators with a bee-themed lakeside table featuring a garden-inspired floral arrangement filled with cheerful blooms, buzzing bee details and plenty of summer charm. You’ll find flower arranging tips along with inspiration for creating an easy seasonal centerpiece.
A Tropical Table and Lake Breeze Cocktail
A tropical-inspired tablescape and cocktail for lakeside dining and sipping.
Hydrangeas and Butterflies Summer Table + DIY Hosta & Hydrangea Centerpiece
Welcome summer with hydrangeas and butterflies. You’ll find tips to create a hydrangea and hosta centerpiece and Hydrangea Frosted Cupcakes with Butterflies, easy and fun to make for a birthday, tea or garden party!
Lakeside Nautical Table and National Lighthouse Day
A nautical lakeside table in celebration of National Lighthouse Day
Lakeside Summer Table: Red, White and Blue and Nautical Too
Set sail into summer with some nautical fun on the dock and celebrate the red, white and blue.
DIY Blooming Watermelon Vase and Patriotic Table
Create a blooming watermelon centerpiece for the Fourth of July or summer entertaining.
Stars and Stripes Forever Lakeside Tablescape
Lakeside table celebrating the red, white and blue with pocket napkin fold and DIY Patriotic Party Favor Cones.
A table on the porch with a patriotic tree and galvanized three-tier stand makes an easy centerpiece to celebrate the Red, White & Blue.
Red, White and Blue Ridge Tablescape
North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains provide a blue back drop for our red, white and blue dining! Blue bottles in varying heights provide vases for an easy and casual table centerpiece.
DIY Woodland Trayscape Floral Arrangement and High Country-Inspired Table
Bring the beauty of the mountains to the table with a woodland-inspired trayscape and floral arrangement filled with natural textures, rustic charm and high-country inspiration. You’ll find an easy centerpiece idea perfect for summer entertaining, cabin dining or anyone who loves bringing the outdoors in.
DIY Summer Fruit and Flower Arrangement + Tablescape
A fruit and flower centerpiece and table on the porch
A garden-inspired table with blooming watering cans and a quilt for a casual alfresco table.
Lakeside Tea Table with Peonies
Take pleasure and drink in the floral notes at a lakeside tea table and setting. You’ll find an easy technique and recipe for Rosette Cookies with Almond Buttercream, a sweet treat and pairing with China Rose Petal Tea.
Anchors Aweigh and Nautical Table on the Pontoon
All aboard on the pontoon, decked out from stem to stern, with anchors, ship’s wheels, red, white and blue, and stars and stripes for some nautical and patriotic fun for boating season!
A beach-inspired tablescape with the colors of sun, sand, and sea.
Table inspiration from Loggerhead Sea Turtles and summer family vacation.
How to Make a Seashell & Floral Centerpiece for a Seaside-Inspired Table
Add some coastal charm to your table and find the steps to create a flower arrangement and centerpiece incorporating shells for a seaside-inspired summer table setting.
Fantasy Island Getaway Tablescape
A fantasy island getaway and boating excursion tablescape.
A Caribbean {Floating} Island Picnic
The pontoon decked out with frolicking flamingos, tropical bunting and hula skirt swags with a Caribbean-inspired menu and picnic
Celebrating tomato season with a tomato centerpiece and Heirloom Tomato Pie.
Dockside Dining with Butterflies and Hydrangeas
Garden hydrangeas provide a centerpiece for a dockside table with Lenox Butterfly Meadow Cloud. Post includes an easy tip to keep cut hydrangeas from wilting.
Lakeside Limonata Table and Sparkling Cans of Flowers
Sunny lemons provided some cheery table inspiration in a tablecloth and dinnerware for lakeside dining. Sparkling Limonata cans are repurposed as vases for flowers.
DIY Lemon Vase Flower Arrangement and Alfresco Summer Table
An alfresco summer table with steps to create a lemon vase flower arrangement. Mini lemon ‘vases’ are filled with garden blooms.
August Blues Lakeside Table and ‘Pitcher Perfect’ Limelight Hydrangeas
Embracing the August blues with transferware and Limelight Hydrangeas
Dining with Sunflowers on the Dock
Sunflowers meet a bright farmhouse plaid and blue water views
Lakeside Table with Sunflowers and Black and White Buffalo Check
Black and white buffalo check marry cheery sunflowers in a lakeside table for two.
Alfresco Table Buzzing with Bees and Summer’s Last Hurrah
Summer’s last hurrah and getaway to North Carolina’s high country and table buzzing with bees
I’m happy to *bee* a part of a Summer Tablescape Blog Hop next week!
I hope you’ll buzz back to find summer table inspiration from 16 table stylists on Tuesday, June 9th.
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You really know how to set a table! I really enjoy looking at all the details. You are so creative, it inspires me. Thanks for sharing.
I want to get inside your dish cupboard and your creative mind! So many gorgeous table ideas. A few that I particularly remember are the fantasy island getaway, the nautical pontoon, and the lakeside table with quilt. Love that lemon sanpellegrino can vase, a detail which I didn’t readily recall. So many great floral arrangements, timed perfectly with the seasons. I’m really looking forward to next week’s hop.
Hi Mary ~ So many fabulous summer party ideas, so little time ! Just gorgeous 🥰 Hugs, Dorinda xo
This is a book waiting to be published…truly beautiful, helpful, intriguing…luved it!! franki
Beautiful tables Mary…you are so inspiring to us all. I enjoyed re-visiting many of your Summer tables. Looking forward to the June blog hop to see what new inspiration you will bring us. Have a great and glorious week.
This is so inspiring! Thanks for all the beautiful pictures of so many summer fun themes along with all the links and a blog hop too! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Great collection of your tables. All are wonderful. I especially like your take on patriotic tables since those are on my brain right now. Have a great summer.
These are really gorgeous but my heavens, where do you store all this. I enjoy your recipes and little projects. The dollar tree strainer over a bird feeder, mosaic flower pots, the waterer for bees. Easy instructions, easy to complete, so pretty and functional, i look forward to what you’ll do next,
Mary, this is a stunning collection of tablescapes and centerpieces. I enjoyed looking back on each one with each having loads of inspiration. There were a couple that I don’t remember seeing before. I hope you are having a beautiful Thursday. The weather is just about perfect here today!
Oh Mary, each and every one of your tables and centerpieces is a masterpiece!!! Thank you for sharing these from the archives as I’d forgotten about many of them. I have to say the watermelon vase one is such a cheerful favorite of mine. I hope you’re having some wonderful weather in NC. It was a beautiful day here in Texas today. ❤️
Mary, always a joy to look back and admire the beautiful tables. There are so many lovely inspirations for anyone wanting to entertain this summer. Love them all. Thanks for sharing these pretty table. Happy summer.
I am so happy a found you again! I moved to the country and it has taken a few years to get settled? I love your site❤️
Good evening, Mary. I enjoyed every table. I am glad you shared them with us again because they are all so creative and inspirational.
I am looking closely at your red, white, and blue tables since I have family here for the 4th.
Thanks for this round up. I know how hard it is to gather all the links. Bravo!
Happy June!
The mention of a pollinator-inspired table with buzzing bees and blooms stood out—it makes summer entertaining feel like a gentle invitation to notice the garden’s quiet life, not just set a pretty scene.
Mary, I enjoyed reviewing the many beautiful tablescapes you have created. Summer time tables have so many interesting and bright, colorful elements. It’s wonderful inspiration! Enjoy your week. Clara❤️
Absolutely STUNNING collection of some of the most beautiful summertime tablescapes of all time. Mary, NO ONE does it better than you do, my dear. Talk about eye candy drooling-on-keyboard beauty. GREAT book it would make.
But you already knew that, lol.
Mary, your tablescapes are always stunning. I am curious to know…do you have a special place in your home where you store all of your dinnerware, flatware, table coverings, vases, etc.?