Heading Home to Dinner Tablescapes for a Great Cause

Three years ago, Boston area designers Mally Skok, Elizabeth Benedict and Kristen Rivoli had the idea that they wanted to create something that brought the interior design community together to do good for the greater community. And boy, have they ever succeeded. I attended their first designer kick-off meeting about 2-1/2 years ago where they announced this new initiative – a dining by design-like event featuring beautiful tablescapes and tricked-out bar carts which would be shown at a cocktail event, public viewing hours and then a gala dinner where sponsors and designers could host attendees at the tables. The bar carts – such a cute and clever idea – would be auctioned off.

They decided on the Heading Home organization as the beneficiary of this endeavor and the design event was dubbed Heading Home to Dinner. Heading Home is Boston’s leading provider of housing and support services for families with children and individuals – a champion of innovative solutions that move people out of homelessness.

Circumstances (aka a sick dog) didn’t allow me to attend the first two year’s events but I was able to go this year and spend time taking photos of the beautiful work, that I wanted to share with you. As you’re perusing the beautiful tables below, give thought to how much you think was raised. In three short years, Mally, Elizabeth and Kristen have truly made a difference. Brava ladies.

Designer Barbara Elza Hirsch

Designer Barbara Hirsch’s table featured her own chairs with her collaboration with Dowell Furniture.

Designer Beebe Parker

Designers Dane Austin Andy Staszak

This glass iridescent table top just elevated this beautiful tablescape to another level.

Designer Elizabeth Benedict

This chandelier was truly magical and one-of-a-kind.

Designer Kate Maloney

Kate Maloney created a design that incorporated inspiration quotes at each place setting.

Designer Kelly Rogers

Kelly Roger’s table was called The Kid’s Table – which was definitely not your Grandma’s card table!

Kelly’s table featured textiles from Rootcellar Designs.

Designer Kristen Rivoli & Elena Boiardi

Designer Linda Cabot

Linda Cabot’s table featured her organic and sustainable fabrics and was so pretty and serene.

Designer Linda Weisberg

Linda Weisberg’s table was my favorite – I never met a green I didn’t like. It’s just good classic table design. The birdcage center piece was filled with fairy lights which weren’t lit when I was there. Since it was daytime, they probably wouldn’t have shown up in photos anyway.

Designer Mally Skok

Mally Skok’s Positano-themed table featured her own line of textiles and chairs from her furniture collection with Dowell Furniture.

Designer Margot Heilbronner

Beautiful textiles!

Designer Tanya Capello

 Dinner Tablescapes – Designer Tina Anastasia

Designer Tanya Anastasia’s table featured a spectacular chandelier installation and the most comfy-looking chairs.  I don’t know if she added the velvet inserts or the chairs come this way, but it was so unique and fun.

Designers Vivian Robins & Johnny Geraghty

I didn’t get a good photo of the bench seat, but it was beautiful and featured contrasting fabrics.

Dinner Tablescapes – Heading Home to Dinner Founder’s Table

The colorful Founder’s Table featured Dunes and Duchesses Candelabra snuggled into a wild-flower styled centerpiece.

I think some of you may be thinking about the height of the centerpieces and how most seem to block the view across the table. I would say that in normal settings at home or at a wedding this is an important thing to consider. But at an event such as this, the tables themselves are the stars, so the centerpieces shouldn’t be hampered by practical concerns. Also, I didn’t attend the dinner, but given the number of tables and the venue itself (no carpets, little draping to dampen the sounds) it was probably fairly loud and cross-table conversation probably wasn’t possibly anyway.

There were several other beautiful tablescapes and all the bar carts which I will try to show in a later post. Some I didn’t get good photos of and there’s too much for me to put in a single post. I took 250 photos! Here is a list of all the participating designers – congrats to all who participated. It’s a hard space to shoot in with so much visual noise in the background of the photos. I do hope the Boston Design Center paints this space all black at some point – like a black box theater – so that events or exhibits held in the space have a clean background to work with.

Learn more about Heading Home . This year, they raised over $170,000!

All photos of these beautiful tablescapes ©2019 Linda Merrill