Black, Yellow, and White Cabin Tablescape

Every summer we spend a few weeks at our little cabin in the Pioneer Mountains of southwest Montana. One of my favorite things to do when we arrive is to set a new tablescape at the cabin. I don’t have a lot of black and darker colors in my decor at my other homes, so look forward to setting the table at our cabin when I can use darker colors in my tablescapes. This Black, Yellow, and White Cabin Tablescape was so much fun to create and I love how warm and cozy it is.

The Inspiration for the Tablescape

I always find something that inspires each tablescape I create. As I mentioned earlier, our cabin has a lot of dark, rustic, colors and and the dining table and chairs are black. I love gingham and checkered patterns and when I found these ruffled gingham round placemats at Homegoods, I knew immediately that I would use them at the cabin. I also found these matching gingham napkins at HomeGoods.

Tablescape in a Box

When packing for the cabin, I always pack what I call a “tablescape in a box!” First, I start putting all the items I’m going to use for the tablescape in a pile and then I box it up and haul it to the cabin. I had found some dark yellow salad plates online a few weeks before our trip and decided to order them as an accent plate to go with the black charger and white scalloped dinner plates and I hoped the would arrive before we left! Also, I had the smaller, matching white scalloped bread plates, but in the end, I decided not to use them because they covered so much of the yellow salad plates which added so much color to the plate stack. (Actually, I found another way to use them for a picnic that I’ll explain further down)

My dining table at the cabin seats eight and we usually have the leaf out of the middle so that it seats six, depending on how many people are at the cabin. This past visit we had eight people there so I packed eight place-settings. It was kind of fun to switch it up this time!

Foraging for the Centerpiece

I have this obsession with foraging for flowers, branches, and dried weeds of any kind. I don’t know why I am so obsessed with it but its so much fun! It’s a challenge to see what I can find on my property or around me and to create something with it. For the centerpiece, I literally went outside and walked up our road at the cabin and picked sage brush, dried grasses, and whatever else I could find and then tossed it into this tin can. It seriously took me ten minutes or less to do this! See what’s in your yard or the side of the road and be creative! It’s also free!

The Place-Setting

Layering is the key to a beautiful place-setting. Here I used these black and white gingham round placemats. Then I used a black solid colored charger for the plate stack. Mixing patters and solid colors always works well for me. The solid black charge also provides contrast between the checkered placemat and napkins.

I had originally planned to stick with the all white and black theme and then the dark yellow salad/side plates I mentioned earlier, showed up as I was leaving for the cabin. I added them to my cabin tablescape box and I’m so glad I did as it gave me many options! The cabin is very remote so I make sure I have everything I might possibly need!

It’s a good thing I brought different options for the plates because I ended up doing a little birthday celebration picnic for one of our guests who came to visit the cabin and I used the other items I brought for this surprise picnic lunch. Here’s a little peek at the picnic tablescape I set in the Pioneer Mountains.

My son and I surprised our darling guest with this cute picnic tablescape! I made my homemade fried chicken tenders, pan gravy, boiled potatoes, summer squash from my garden, and my homemade fresh peach dessert. It was so fun surprising and spoiling her!

Okay, back to the cabin tablescape!

I layered the white scalloped dinner plate and then the yellow/mustard colored plate on top and to tie in the checkered placemat, I used the black and white checkered napkin. The sunflower napkin rings were a HomeGoods find and I wish I could find more of them. They are so cute! (I’ve linked similar options below)

I then added the old fashioned looking drinking glasses and some rustic looking silverware. Most importantly, I love how it all came together!

Mixing and Matching

Mix and match your dishes, placemats, and chargers. If you don’t have a full set of dishes, mix them with others. It does not have to be perfect! For example, I don’t have an entire set of many of my dishes, but I will mix them with another set or two to make a place-setting.

Use what you have and then slowly, as your budget allows, find a side plate that mixes well with your other dishes and build a little dish collection from there- if that’s what you enjoy doing! I love dishes and setting a pretty table is just part of who I am! I will often set a paper plate tablescape too and its so fun and everyone loves it!

Here are a few more photos of the cabin tablescape. The mountain views from the cabin never get old!

I especially love the view of the pond out the dining area window at the cabin. Sometimes we are lucky enough to see a moose or a deer hanging out down by the pond!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this years cabin tablescape at our little cabin in the Pioneer Mountains of Montana. If you would like to see more of our cute little cabin, click here for this Montana Cabin Home Tour and you can also go to my Instagram @homewithhollyj and watch the IGTV video home tour.

For Information on renting our cabin its listed on Airnnb. Click here for the link to the listing.

Enjoy!

Sources and similar items linked below:

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CABIN TABLESCAPE

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Montana Cabin Home Tour

So many of you have asked me about our little cabin in the woods so I decided to do a Montana Cabin Home Tour post and share all the details. Our cabin is located in what is called, Gold West Country in southwest Montana. It’s in a little known town called Polaris, which is in the Pioneer Mountains.

We purchased the cabin back in 2005 when it was about 4 years old. The original cabin was smaller and we added on the front section and the porch a few years after purchasing it.

The Living Room Addition

We added on a living room addition so we had a larger place to gather. The original cabin was barely a thousand square feet which made it a little crowded for our family of 6. We hired a local guy to do the addition and I love how it turned out.

The Living Room addition is lower than the main cabin and has made the cabin much more enjoyable with our large family. We chose to do stained concrete floors and put the heating inside the floor. It gets below zero often in the winter and the floors are always warm in the winter which we love.

I decorated the living room areas in darker colors to blend in with the original part of the cabin. The white buffalo and mountain goat are made from real animal skins on the Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico. They were a gift from my Mother-in law and I think they are the perfect addition!

The Kitchen and Entry Way

This is the original part of the cabin. The kitchen is quite small and we don’t have a dishwasher but we don’t mind! We have everything in the kitchen that we have at our other homes and I enjoy cooking for everyone. We often have members of our extended family come visit us here and it’s so fun cooking and entertaining at the cabin even though it’s small. We’ve made some great memories in this little kitchen!

We’ve added some extra storage where possible and there’s a tiny pantry behind the fireplace. One of the main support beams was made out of a local aspen tree with the bark still in tact which gives the cabin character.

All the wildlife photos throughout the cabin were taken by my father, Bruce Benson. He’s a wildlife and landscape photographer and loves sharing his photos with all that come to stay at the cabin.

The Main Floor Bedroom

There is one bedroom on the main floor of the cabin. The bedroom is very small and we’ve done our best to maximize the space. The log bed was made custom for the room and while it takes up most of the space in the room, we love how it looks.

The Loft

The loft overlooks the main cabin and has two beds. I recently updated the bedding and added some new throw pillows. On my next trip down, I’ll be updating the curtains because the ones there now are about twenty years old and are hand me downs from our days when we lived in military housing. I figure it’s about time we update them! The cabin seems to be the catch all for my older decor from our other homes.

The Tablescape

I like having a pretty table set and every summer I enjoy creating a new tablescape at the cabin. I enjoy foraging for wildflowers and grasses on our seven acres and making a pretty centerpiece from what I can find outdoors or I use faux flowers to make a centerpiece as I did for this tablescape shown.

I always pick one thing that inspires the tablescapes I create. The dining table at the cabin is black with some sanded patches of brown and as I was thinking about what I could use for this years cabin tablescape, I remembered that I had these cute black and ivory checkered napkins. I used these napkins as the inspiration and designed the rest of the elements of the tablescape around these. I love decorating with black and white so I really enjoyed pulling this rustic, farmhouse style tablescape together.

I like to mix textures and patterns which is so easy to do with black and white. The black woven placemats and the table runner were a good mix with the checkered napkin and the solid off-white plates.

For the centerpiece, I used a galvanized tin flower can as a vase and some faux ivory colored flowers.

Here’s a photo of last summers Montana cabin tablescape using my dollar store dishes. I bought these hand painted sunflower dishes from a dollar store over twenty years ago when we lived in Kansas. I’m so glad I saved them as they were the inspiration behind this fun tablescape at the cabin.

The Front Porch and Pond View

The view from the front porch is so beautiful. The porch looks out over the pond and the Pioneer Mountains. We love to sit out here and enjoy the peace and quiet. Every so often, we see a moose wander down by the pond which is always a sight to behold!

This is such a special place for our family. There is no cell service or internet at the cabin and we added satellite TV a few years ago. This is our place to disconnect from our busy lives and reconnect as a family. We play games, hike, visit both Elkhorn and Jackson Hotsprings, ski at Maverick Mountain in the winter and most of all, we relax and do nothing at all!

We have created some wonderful memories in this little cabin in the woods of Montana and we are so grateful we’ve been blessed to have such a special place to gather with our family and friends.

I hope you enjoyed our Montana Cabin Home Tour! Our little cabin is truly a piece of heaven!

XOXO,

Sources for the Cabin Tablescape:

If you’d like to visit the cabin, we do rent it out on occasion. You can contact me via email at homewithholly@gmail.com

If you’re’ visiting southwest Montana and the Pioneer Mountains, here are some great things to do while there:

Crystal Park – Dig for quartz crystals and purple amethyst, Cost is $5 to park, bring your own digging tools, located about 10 miles from the cabin on the Pioneer Mountain Scenic Byway.

Maverick Ski Mountain is located about 2 miles from the cabin.

Bannack State Park – Territorial capital of Montana and ghost town, located on Hwy 278 about 15 miles from the cabin.

Elkhorn Hot Springs – Located about 5 miles from the cabin, rustic hot springs, lodge, cabin rentals, and restaurant.

Jackson Hot Spring and Lodge and Restaurant – Located about 20 miles from the cabin in Jackson Montana.

Coolidge Ghost Town – located 15 miles or so from the cabin off the Pioneer Mountain Scenic by way. Unrestored silver mining ghost town. There is a photo of one of the old cabin framed in the living room of our cabin.

There are many hikes up to alpine lakes in the area and our favorite is Sawtooth where you can hike up to Sawtooth lake.

Dillon Montana is about 35 miles away and is the closest town and is located off I-15. The Taco Bus is a must and is on the main road through town. Can’t miss it! Best authentic street tacos and mexican food.

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