A Lilac Centerpiece with a Beautiful Unique Style

One of things I love most about spring is the lilacs – and of course, a lilac centerpiece! Because there are so many reasons to set a lovely table in the spring! There are also so many ways to style lilacs! But this beautifully simple way was new and unique for me.

It was all because of a wonderful trough-shaped flower container I got last fall. I got it for our fall party, which you can read about in the Fall Party Decor and Food post, and I loved it. But I haven’t used it since. Not because my ardor had cooled, but just because I put it away and pretty much forgot about it.

The Tree That Gave Us Our Lilac Centerpiece

Outside my dining room window, we have a beautiful light purple lilac bush. It’s taller than the first story of our house, so I guess it’s really a tree at this point! Unfortunately, most of the blooms are at the very top, so I can’t reach them on my own.

We were having a dinner party one night, and I wanted some lilacs for my centerpiece. I figured I’d go get the tall step ladder out of the garage, take the clippers out, and see what I could get. We had lots of other flowers in bloom too, so I thought maybe a lovely mixed spring arrangement.

It’s too bad nobody got a video of me trying to bend the branches down and reach those lilacs! (Ok, I’m actually glad nobody did, but I bet it would’ve been funny!) I was trying to cut them fast, too, because it looked like rain. And in fact, it did sprinkle on me quite a bit while I was out there. Then of course the minute I got back inside, the sun came out and it was gorgeous! But the point is, I got a ton of lilac blooms!

Finding a Lilac Centerpiece Container

Since I had run out to try to get them before the rain came, I wasn’t really ready to make an arrangement yet. So I was trying really fast to think of a way I could put them in water until I was ready for them. If you’ve ever had an armload of lilacs, you know they’re unwieldy – they’re top-heavy, the stems are woody, and in this case they were all different lengths and had lots of little brachts sticking out. Small or even medium-sized vases or buckets just weren’t going to do the trick.

Anyway, I’m looking around my kitchen thinking “what long low thing do I have that I could put these in temporarily,” and after several minutes I remembered this container! (This picture is from the fall party last year, but you can see what the trough looks like. It’s about 3 ” tall, 4″ wide, and 34″ long!)

I put the huge armload of lilacs on the counter, and tracked the container down. It still had the tape grid on it from the fall party, so I just stuck the lilacs in willy-nilly – just so they’d be in water.

And then of course, you know what happened next. They looked so good in the trough, that I just moved the whole lilac centerpiece (carefully!) to the dining room to star in the tablescape! It sure saved me time, too! And smelled spectacular!

So – The Tablescape

Which brings me to the tablescape itself. It’s a pretty basic one – just white and gold (to match the lilac centerpiece trough.) The plates are our regular everyday ones, but they look just fine on gold chargers!

I wanted this table to be nice, but not overly formal – no white tablecloth, for instance. I didn’t even use placemats. And since the finish on our table is such a mess, I figured it wouldn’t look like I had fussed too much!

I used a lovely natural linen raw edged table runner, and some napkins that match it in tone. (I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but I often use the back side of these napkins. The front side has a fun picture of a squirrel on it!

But I didn’t feel especially squirrelly that day, so used the plain side! Just goes to show how you can make one piece do double duty! And nobody noticed the squirrel until I pointed it out.)

Flatware & Glassware

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times my guests have used this flatware*, they still comment on it every time! It really is an elegantly fun shape, and high quality too. Plus, it goes right in the diswasher, and it isn’t expensive. That’s a seriously winning combination!

The glassware is what I almost always use – heavy duty crystal water glasses, some of our favorite champagne glasses, and our Riedel wine glasses.

Candlelight for the Lilac Centerpiece

I probably have candles lighted for 98% of my dinner parties. (Or regular dinners, even.) Since I was trying, as I said, to keep this table casual, I put out some gold mercury glass votive holders instead of the taller ones I usually keep on the table. I set them at each place setting so they wouldn’t be hidden from the person on the other side of the lilac centerpiece.

It looked fine, but you know I can’t help myself! When I stood back and looked at the table, it just didn’t have enough height to suit me. The centerpiece was pretty low, and the glassware didn’t really stick up high enough to give any depth to the table.

Tall vs Short

So I got out some gold taper candle holders and put them on either side of the trough, with tall white candles.

There – that looked better! But it did make the table fancier. Note to self: when you want to make a table a little more elegant, add some tall tapers! Also, remember to trim the wicks – the ones in this picture below are too long and if you light them this way, they’ll make your candles burn unevenly. I did trim them before dinner.

So to revert to my more relaxed vibe, I took them off again and just used the votives for the actual dinner. I don’t know if my guests would have cared either way, but they’re very casual people and I didn’t want the table to be too fancy. Not that our lilac centerpiece wasn’t fancy in its own way, but you know what I mean!

The Lilac Centerpiece Concept

So that’s our lilac centerpiece tablescape! This overwhelmingly spring vibe would be perfect for Easter or Mother’s Day, or a spring birthday celebration. The concept can of course, be switched to any season or theme. It would be beautiful full of sunflowers or lilies for summer, mums for fall, poinsettias for winter, or the guest of honor’s favorite bloom, for instance.

And it doesn’t have to be all one flower, although that is dramatic. As we saw at the fall party, it looks great with a long mixed arrangement too.

One thing to keep in mind before you buy one of these, is that the size of it needs to fit properly on your table. You’ll notice on mine, the trough is a little long for the table in this smallest position. The two end plates are hanging a little off the edges of the table, which I wouldn’t recommend, especially if you have small children or notoriously undexterous people at your table.

I could have extended the table, but I let this one ride, because the two people at the ends were very careful dinner party guests!

Let me know what you think, and whether you’ve ever done a centerpiece this long in one container. We love to hear everybody’s stories!

Barbara’s Boutique Recommendations

Click on the pictures below for links to the pieces I mentioned in this post. If something’s not available, I chose a similar replacement.

* This post includes affiliate links for your shopping convenience. If you click on a link and buy anything from that site during your visit, I get a small commission and there’s no extra charge for you! It really helps toward the cost of publishing Mantel and Table, and I seriously appreciate it. (You can read the whole disclosure policy here.) Thanks so much for shopping with me!

And remember, a portion of anything you buy from MANTELandTABLE.com goes to Habitat for Humanity and Proud Ground. With our purchases, we get to help people build homes for their own mantels and tables!

Or you could set your table in copper —

Or even silver! So many options!!

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• Tablescape Thursday 04.17.25 – Hosted by Between Naps on the Porch