Everyone will surely be happy to take a seat at the Thanksgiving dinner table with these sweet and simple DIY Leaf Chair Back Placeholders! The crisp clean lines and monochromatic colors will mix beautifully with any Thanksgiving table decor.
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DIY-Leaf Chair Back Placeholders
We are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year! Now, it’s not like I have thirty people coming, but it’s still a big deal to me!
I’m kind of nervous, but also really excited. I’m not known for my cooking. I blame my mom. She is an amazing cook, and I relied to heavily on her growing up. She loves to cook for us, so it never bothered her that she did all of the cooking. At least that’s my perspective. She might say something else. Ha!
I’ve gotten better over the years, but it just doesn’t come naturally! I can follow a recipe…most of the time. 😉
I’m better suited to decorate the Thanksgiving table or mantle. We all have our strengths, right?
In preparation for the big day, I have been playing around with seating arrangements, and how I’m going to display the names. My aunt actually gave me these place cards that I had made for the Thanksgiving dinner table circa 1990! I guess I enjoyed entertaining decor when I was ten as well! However, I was looking for something a little more polished this Thanksgiving. 😉
I had collected these gigantic oak leaf hydrangea leaves from my backyard with the plan of creating something. Sometimes I collect or buy something without having a plan and just hope that an idea comes to me!
Well, the oak leaves and my seating arrangements were the perfect match. I decided to use the oak leaves along with some huge maple leaves for the seating “place cards.” Instead of putting them on the table, I decided to make them chair back place cards or placeholders. They are little different, and I like it!
I painted them white, because I LOVE the crisp clean lines of white mixed with the bright colors of the fall foliage and Thanksgiving decor. I decided to use the black and cream ribbon by Hearth and Hand with Magnolia from Target, since it went with my simple design.
I added some gold letter stickers for a little pop against the white background and some glitter to the girls’ names! Then I finished them off with some springs of lavender and a small white flower from my mums.
I LOVE how they turned out! Very fresh, simple, and classic in my opinion. 😉
Details to DIY the Leaf Chair Back Placeholders:
Materials Needed:
1. Leaves
2. Paint (white spray paint or craft paint)
5. Glitter
7. Lavender and Flower
8. Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
10. Scissors
11. Mod Podge
Step 1:
Collect the leaves! The leaves shown above are ginormous! They are from an oak leaf hydrangea bush in my backyard. I also used huge maple leaves from my backyard. You can use any leaf and any size!
Step 2:
Paint the leaves. I used white spray paint, and it made the project move very quickly. However, you could also use craft paint. I love the crisp clean lines that the white paint creates. Let the leaves dry.
Step 3:
Add the names of your guests to your leaves. If you are feeling brave, you can freehand the names. I prefer to use the stickers. I have pretty neat handwriting (if I do say so myself), but I like to use the stickers so that I don’t have to worry about messing up! I love these Remarks stickers in case you haven’t noticed. I’ve used them for so many of my projects. ( HERE and HERE are two other projects where I used these stickers.)
I used my gold paint marker to trace over the stickers to make them gold. You could use any color to trace over your stickers or keep your stickers white, as long as you have a colored background.
Step 4:
I chose to add glitter to the girls’ leaf chair back placeholders, because why not!? It separated them from the adults and gave them a little more edginess and fun!
I painted mod podge over the entire leaf. Then I sprinkled the glitter on top.
You also could have the kids get in on the action and paint the leaves themselves! My son is hit or miss when it comes to DIY-ing. He often loses interest before we finish a project, so I usually don’t get help. He’s only three, so I still have hope that he’ll take after me! 😉
Step 5:
Add the ribbon. Tie the ribbon around the stem. I used black and cream plaid ribbon from Hearth and Hand with Magnolia by Target.
Step 6:
Secure any other adornments. I added three sprigs of lavender and a small white flower from my mums for a sweet little touch. I glued the lavender and flower to the leaf using a glue gun, to ensure that they did not fall off. (The lavender will dry and keep until Thanksgiving, but I will replace the flower that day!)
Step 7:
Attach the DIY Leaf Chair Back Placeholders to the chair backs! I used these command hooks. You could also use wire, twine, double sided adhesive, or anything else that will stick!
DIY Leaf Chair Back Placeholders
On the Kids Thanksgiving Table
This is such a beautiful way to bring nature inside for your Thanksgiving decor! You can see a little peek of it here, but make sure you come back to take a look at my Kids Thanksgiving Table. It will make the adults jealous!
You can check out my “DIY Dollar Store Pumpkin Crayon Holder” that is perfect for the kids table to keep them busy!
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