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 Elza Hirsch Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes

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

Designer Barbara Elza Hirsch Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Tablescape closeup 2

Designer Beebe Parker

Designer Beebe Parker Interiors Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes place settings

Designer Beebe Parker Interiors Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Tablescape plants and candles

 

Designers Dane Austin Andy Staszak

Designer Dane Austin Andy Staszak Heading Home to dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes

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

Designer Dane Austin Andy Staszak Heading Home to dinner 2019 table scape

Designer Elizabeth Benedict

Designer Elizabeth Benedict Heading Home to dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes top

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

Designer Elizabeth Benedict Heading Home to dinner 2019 chandelier

 

Designer Kate Maloney

Designer Kate Maloney Interiors Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes

Designer Kate Maloney Heading Home to Dinner 2019 placesetting Beautiful Tablescapes

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

Designer Kate Maloney Heading Home to Dinner 2019 compassion Brene Brown

Designer Kelly Rogers

Designer Kelly Rogers Heading Home to dinner 2019 Beautiful Tablescapes 2

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

Designer Kelly Rogers Heading Home to dinner 2019 table chandelier

Kelly’s table featured textiles from Rootcellar Designs.

Designer Kelly Rogers Heading Home to dinner 2019 placesetting Beautiful Tablescapes

 

Designer Kristen Rivoli & Elena Boiardi

Deisgner Kristen Rivoli and Elena Biordi heading home to dinner beautiful tablescapes chandelier

Deisgner Kristen Rivoli and Elena Biordi heading home to dinner beautiful tablescapes

Deisgner Kristen Rivoli and Elena Biordi heading home to dinner beautiful tablescapes place setting

Designer Linda Cabot

Linda Cabot deisgn Beautiful dinner tablescapes Heading Home to Dinner

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

Linda Cabot deisgn Beautiful Tablescapes Heading Home to Dinner

 

Designer Linda Weisberg

Designer Linda Weisberg Heading Home to Dinner 2019 birdcage beautiful dinner tablescapes

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 Linda Weisberg Heading Home to Dinner 2019 beautiful tablescapes 2

Designer Linda Weisberg Heading Home to Dinner 2019 dinner tablescapes colorful

Designer Linda Weisberg Heading Home to Dinner 2019 beautiful tablescapes placesetting

Designer Mally Skok

Designer Mally Skok Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Positano beautiful tablescapes placesetting

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

Designer Mally Skok Heading Home to Dinner 2019 Positano dinner tablescapes

 

Designer Margot Heilbronner

Designer Margot Heilbonner Heading Home to Dinner 2019 beautiful tablescapes purple yellow gold

Beautiful textiles!

Designer Margot Heilbonner Heading Home to Dinner 2019 tablescape placesetting overhead

Designer Margot Heilbonner Heading Home to Dinner 2019 dinner tablescapes placesetting closeup

Designer Tanya Capello

Designer Tanya Capello Heading Home to dinner 2019 beautiful tablescapes

Designer Tanya Capello Heading Home to dinner 2019 place setting dinner tablescapes

 

 Dinner Tablescapes – Designer Tina Anastasia

Designer Tina Anastasia Heading Home to Dinner 2019 beautiful dinner tablescapes chairs and chandelier

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.

Designer Tina Anastasia Heading Home to Dinner 2019 tablescape chandelier

 

Designer Tina Anastasia Heading Home to Dinner 2019 tablescape placesetting

Designer Tina Anastasia Heading Home to Dinner 2019 dinner tablescapes table and velvet chairs

 

Designers Vivian Robins & Johnny Geraghty

Designer Vivian Robins Johnny Geraghty Heading Home to dinner 2019 beautiful tablescapes

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

Designer Vivian Robins Johnny Geraghty Heading Home to dinner tablescapes 2019 tabletop

Designer Vivian Robins Johnny Geraghty Heading Home to dinner tablescapes 2019 place setting

 

Dinner Tablescapes – Heading Home to Dinner Founder’s Table

Designer Founders Table Heading Home to Dinner 2019 dinner tablescapes closeup with flowers

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

xoxo Linda

18 thoughts on “Heading Home to Dinner Tablescapes for a Great Cause”

  1. I was hoping you would post about this!! Great photos and what a lot of creativity represented! My favorite of these was Linda Weisberg’s elegant table – so pretty! I have no idea how this event works, or how the funds are raised, but I love the idea! I look forward to your follow up and more pictures!

    Reply
  2. Linda: OMG. I live for visual eye candy feasts like this. This post is so chock full of beauty I almost can’t handle it all in one sitting! Thank you for taking such magnificent and detailed close ups: I have a million ideas now… and MAJOR congratulations to all the designers who helped raise 170,000 in one evening for this wonderful charity!

    Reply
  3. I am so impressed with all the beauty and creativity these designers used to support this great cause. Fun to see as I either know some of them personally or follow them on instagram! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

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