A great Thanksgiving table starts with great inspiration. You can find that in magazines, retail stores and even at your friends' houses. We recently found some great inspiration at a Guy Fawkes day celebration. The open house event, at English Living, 1520 Washington Avenue, featured several retailers from across the area, ranging from a chocolatier to a fabrics designer.

"November 5th is Guy Fawkes night in London," said Alan Richardson, owner of English Living. "That's England's sort of July 4th, so we thought we would use that evening to help the holiday celebrations start off with a bang."

You might find reason to celebrate with some of these ideas.

AUTUMN TABLE

Dottie Eaton of Design Service (designserviceds.com) designed this table using products from Williams-Sonoma. She said a Thanksgiving table is best when you think of an autumnal color scheme and bring in natural elements to make the table warm and inviting. The centerpiece is a mix of oak and acorns, bittersweet and maple leaves. Two vases ($118 at Williams-Sonoma) adorned with raffia flank the centerpiece and are filled with candles to provide soft light and more leaves to continue the theme. Woven placemats ($18) are topped with a brown charger and Williams-Sonoma Oak and Acorn pattern dinnerware ($28 to $38). A persimmon napkin is tied with raffia while a single acorn sits next to it. Eaton chose the affordable metal table ($510 at English Living ) because of its rustic look.

BOUNTIFUL BEAUTY

Resito Pecson, owner of Twigs & Moss, 7715 Clayton Road, says he wanted to come up with something "bountiful and harvesty for fall, going into Thanksgiving." He started with a piece of brown parchment, stretched across the table like a table runner. The table makes a big impression with the centerpiece, a vintage grape picker basket with a dried millet arrangement ($1,195 at Twigs & Moss). An assortment of figs, olives and plums spills across the center of the table, surrounding the mirrored plateau ($215) and ice bucket ($255), filled with more figs. The trestle-style table sells for $5,337 at English Living.

ELEGANT PLACE-SETTING

Stephanie Stitt of Veritas, 1722 Clarkson Road, Chesterfield, designed a table with six terrific place-settings from her store. This one was her favorite. It features a Juliska Octavia dinner plate ($39 at Veritas), a Juliska Taupe octagonal salad plate ($34), Match Gabrielle flatware ($215), a horn spreader ($42.25), Berti Plenum Steak Knife ($220), a silver basket weave L'Objet napkin jewel ($99 for set of four) around a chocolate napkin ($12). The side setting includes an Integrity Juliska small square dish ($24) and Eisch German crystal wine glasses ($30.50 to $45). All atop a cowhide placemat ($50) for a touch of the unexpected.