by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: March 25, 2010   Last Updated: July 04, 2011

Easter colors are no longer one dimensional. There was a time when traditional Easter colors were only pastels: pink, light yellow, light blue, light green, lavender and light orange.  Today Easter colors can be almost any color you like as long as you keep some traditional Easter flair in your decorations or table settings.

For example: Fill small wheat-colored baskets with lavender and orange-colored eggs and top the baskets with a dark-purple bow  Add in some salmon-colored dried flowers and a pearl garland and you can create the essence of Easter with some rather non-traditional colors. You can use this design idea for your dinner table or for your mantle.

Fuchsia, electric-blue and straw yellow plates or napkins look beautiful with white dishes and linens.  It’s okay to go bright as long as you limit how much bright you are going to display.  For example, bright-colored eggs look magnificent in tan baskets sitting on a bed of straw.  A bright blue tablecloth is a wonderful backdrop for off-white or white china.  Neutral colored napkins look festive when tied with a fuchsia grosgrain ribbon or placed into a bright yellow napkin ring.

You can select your Easter colors by looking at the available flowers in your area. Easter colors can be simply white with hydrangea-blue accents.  Fill a white pail with hydrangeas and set that in the center of your dining table.  Mimic the same color blue with your napkins and with the small eggs you place by each plate.

Daffodils and tulips are the ultimate Easter flowers.  Mix yellow daffodils with white or light-orange tulips in old blue canning jars. Keep the same three colors as a theme in your linens and other decorations.

Oval place mats or platters make great egg-shaped accessories for your Easter table.  If your mats or platters are each a different color, so much the better for your Easter table.  Pink platters can sit on pale green place mats or yellow platters on blue mats; mix and match your flowers and napkins to go with your multi-colored egg shaped plates and mats. If you are lucky enough to own a candelabra purchase egg-shaped candles to light at dinner.  Use multi-colored candles in the shades and hues of your plates or place mats.

Pale green, pale yellow and pale orange jelly beans look wonderful in glass basket-shaped candy holders.  Use a theme of glass and these three colors to bring a sparkly Easter feeling to your mantle or table.  Use glass serving dishes, candle sticks and even glass, custard-cups filled with Easter grass and tiny colored eggs.

For very formal Easter dinners, stick to black and white linens but scatter some pink eggs and jelly beans on your cloth for a bit of Easter without losing your formal setting. A small glass bowl filled with baby pink roses will be a perfect centerpiece for your formal table.

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