The secrets to a holiday #tablescape that will blow up on Instagram

Although Diana and Josh Perrin are known for the meticulous eye they apply to the elegant tabletop wares they curate, rent and sell through their Los Angeles-based company, Casa de Perrin, "we're very laid-back people," he said.

For Thanksgiving, which they host every year at their home, they draw inspiration from tablescapes they feature on their hugely popular Casa de Perrin Instagram feed, which has more than 288,000 followers.

But they also dial it back somewhat from the inspirational — and aspirational — images they are known for.

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The Perrins launched the company two weeks after their wedding at Culver City's SmogShoppe in 2011, for which they assembled a collection of vintage china and glassware to use during the celebration. They were unsatisfied with the limited rental options available, especially charger plates (the oversize presentation pieces that are the foundation of formal table settings).

And so, a new business was born. "It was a right-time, right-place-in-the-industry" situation, Diana said. "We saw a need for it and kept going."

Given that Josh is a professional photographer and Diana a food stylist, their new venture was a "merging of our interests and skills," she said. That combination is reflected in the Casa de Perrin signature style that is so hot on Instagram.

These days, event planners and hosts create concepts not only for the guests but also for a wider audience that will see every detail once attendees start posting on social media. These images live on when engaged couples start their own Pinterest boards, for instance, in addition to poring over wedding magazines and websites.

When Casa de Perrin first launched, "there was no such thing as #tablegoals," Diana joked. The zeitgeist has since changed. "More people think about it now," she said, adding that shifted expectations apply to all types of events, not just weddings.

Sharp, creative instincts that both recognize timelessness and spark trends, along with a talent for managing complex logistics ("We could not run this business without being as detail-oriented as we are," Diana said), have positioned Casa de Perrin as a taste-making brand.

Once just a high-end tableware rental company, Casa de Perrin has since evolved to include online e-commerce, with its own lines of dinnerware, flatware, glassware and accessories.

The Perrins have also continued to expand their rental inventory of new and vintage fine china and other pieces such as iconic Heath Ceramics sets (two colors are exclusive to Casa de Perrin), shipping orders nationwide. Casa de Perrin rentals don't come cheap, however, and the company maintains a certain focus, since it doesn't stock table linens or serving dishes. The 25,000-square-foot warehouse in East Los Angeles contains enough goods to satisfy a wide range of client tastes, from flowery and traditional to starkly modern and streamlined.

Tablescaping goals

Here, Josh and Diana share Thanksgiving strategies and a seasonal tablescape created in collaboration with florist Megan Gray of Honey and Poppies.

Start with the fundamentals

"We usually will pick a place setting and base everything else around that," Diana said. For this layout, "we were thinking fall colors, mixed metals and woods and warmth" to go with Casa de Perrin's porcelain plates with a faux concrete finish, placed over handmade Italian glass chargers next to gold-rimmed, smoke-colored glassware. There's a lot of tweaking that goes into each tablescape, Diana said, but in the end, "we're visual people and we can tell what works. We eyeball it a lot."

Experiment with dried flowers

"If you're going to use dried flowers, this is definitely the season to do it," Diana said. Dried components can be gathered ahead of time and are sturdy, unlike fresh arrangements. Gray mixed in fresh sage, mini pumpkins and small fall fruit, which are available at most grocery stores, for variety and texture. She also incorporated natural beeswax candles to complement the mustard-color ribbon tied around earth-tone sprigs, and she found large dried leaves on Etsy. Diana and Gray linked the dried rosebuds with twine for a subtle flourish.

Add surprise touches

Diana says she likes to "include a little unexpected element that's not floral and not table settings." She bought these brass birds on Etsy, along with the blush linen napkins and ribbon. The soft napkins are a chromatic element "that you wouldn't necessarily expect" with these autumnal colors, she said. The candleholders are inexpensive flower frogs Gray bought downtown and spray-painted.

Don’t go overboard

A classic Casa de Perrin setup for an Instagram post and a blowout event includes multiple glasses and accouterments such as salt cellars and dedicated small spoons. The Perrins, however, don't expect people to do this at home. For their own dinners, they'll mix casual stemless glasses with stemware for wine, for instance, and they don't worry about matching wine varietals to specialty glasses.

Ask guests to pitch in

The couple treats their dishes with extreme care. But that doesn't mean they don't ask friends to help out after a big, celebratory, group dinner. "All that work and that whole meal for 10 minutes of work" is a reasonable deal, Josh said. Recruit kitchen helpers, including kids. Even two guests on washing and drying duties can make a huge difference to the hosts. "And then they leave feeling good about themselves," Josh said.

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