Friendsgiving Decor Ideas for a Small Space: 14 Simple Setups for Any Table

A small round table for four has room for exactly one thing in the middle. Use a short, wide vase of fall branches or dried leaves, two or three mini pumpkins and one candle in glass, all sitting on a square of burlap. Rust napkins knotted on each plate carry the color to the edge of the table. Woven placemats mark each place without a tablecloth.

On a wooden table, skip the cloth. Scatter faux maple leaves and a few pine cones around a jar of branches, add two tall taper candles, and put one white mini pumpkin on each plate as a place marker. The table itself becomes the background.

Instead of one big arrangement, line up four or five small glass bottles and jars along a linen runner, each with two or three stems: chrysanthemums, dried grasses, a branch of leaves. Put tea lights in amber glasses between them. The vases are narrow, so serving dishes fit beside them, and you can lift any of them off when the food arrives.

Lay eucalyptus stems down the middle of the table, overlapping, and tuck in dried oak leaves, orange berries and white mini pumpkins. Stand brass candlesticks with cream tapers along it. Greenery laid flat takes almost no height and smells good. A sprig tied to each napkin with twine finishes the place settings.

For a long, narrow table, a burlap runner with pillar candles of different heights, a few mini pumpkins, pine cones and fall leaves between them gives the most glow for the least effort. Use LED pillars if sleeves and serving arms will be reaching across.

No flowers needed: fill two or three glass cylinder vases with pine cones and faux fall leaves, and put a candle in the smallest one. It costs almost nothing if you collect the pine cones, and it works on a sideboard or the kitchen counter as well as on the table.

Roll brown kraft paper down the table and tape it underneath. Write each guest's name at their place with a marker, draw circles labeled for the dishes, and leave pens out so people can add what they are thankful for. It replaces the tablecloth, the place cards and the runner at once, and the cleanup is one roll into the recycling.

A coffee table seats four on cushions with the sofa as one side. Dress it exactly like a dining table at a smaller scale: a narrow gauze runner laid diagonally, one small vase, two or three tapers in short holders, and a napkin tied with ribbon on each plate. Clear the sofa of extra pillows and put them on the floor as seats.

Cover a low table, or a board resting on sturdy crates, with a dark cloth that reaches the floor, and put large floor cushions around it on a rug. A small arrangement and a few tapers in the middle are enough; the low seating is the look. Keep one side near the sofa for anyone who would rather not sit on the floor.

For eight or more in a room with no big table, build one long low surface down the middle of the room, as in the photo at the top of the page: boards on low supports, covered with a runner or paper, with cushions and folded quilts along both sides. A strand of battery micro lights down the middle replaces candles, which are easy to knock at floor level. Move the coffee table and armchairs to the bedroom for the evening; our small living room layouts show how to open up the floor.

Put a few bare branches in a heavy vase and set out paper tags and a pen. Each guest writes something they are thankful for and ties it on. It is decoration and activity in one, it fills an awkward corner or the end of a console, and it gives people something to do while the last dish is in the oven.

Cut leaf shapes from orange, yellow, red and green paper, write on them, and clip them to lengths of twine with small clothespins. Two or three rows across one wall make the room's main decoration for the price of a pack of paper. Fix the twine with removable hooks.

A bar cart, a bookshelf shelf or the top of a dresser becomes the drink station: a pitcher of cider, glasses or mugs, cinnamon sticks, a bowl of apples and a vase of fall branches. Putting drinks at the far side of the room from the kitchen splits the crowd and keeps the cook's space clear. Mugs in a basket on the lower shelf save a trip to the cupboard.

A wreath of fall leaves on the door, or a bunch of dried wheat tied with ribbon on an over-door hanger, tells guests they have found the right apartment. Inside, clear the entry: an empty row of hooks and a basket for shoes matter more than any decoration when eight coats arrive at once.