How To Style A Picnic For Two

Summer weather calls for a fancy picnic. I styled this picnic for International picnic day and am going to share all of the little details that made this scene magical.

Start with a dreamy location. Think lakeside, mountain viewpoint, garden, beach, fireside, forest, etc. The earth is beautiful so no matter where you're located you've got somewhere scenic near you. Find your perfect spot and start planning. I chose a picnic just before sunset at Shoreline Lake Park in Mountain View, Ca.

To create this specific look you need to put work into it. I custom built this table. You can do it too. Get the full DIY tutorial here. If you don't want to do all the DIY a small coffee table could do the trick.

The star of the show here was the Charcuterie board! The actual board was a bit of a hack. The total cost of the marble platter was about $3.50 I used a porcelain floor tile from Home Depot and scrap wood. On the table saw I rip cut the wood strips into thin pieces that would frame the tile. Then I spray painted them and glued them on. I did just happen to have this lying around my apartment from a past project, but it's a simple DIY that you could do for your own picnic. Or you could use this marble platter from Williams Sonoma for a similar look.

3 hours before we were still deciding what we were going to eat at our picnic. We debated between grabbing sushi takeout, Quiznos sandwiches, or Baja Fresh burrito's. Since we just decided to do a picnic that day without planning I didn't want to get ingredients for a charcuterie board, it just seemed like a lot of work.

While still deciding I made a quick trip to target for some baby food which we never have enough of. While I was there one thing led to another and I walked out with ingredients for a charcuterie board. The sourdough bread even came pre-sliced so the work was minimal. I chose delicious warm toned foods to complement the setting sun, and my gold charger plates. With the ingredients in hand, I rushed home and whipped up this raspberry chia seed jam. It took 10 minutes and was delicious. I did modify the recipe and added sugar instead of stevia this time around.

When we got to the lake I was in a mad rush to get things set up. It was dangerously close to my daughter's bedtime. I started with bigger items like the bread, cheese, chia seed bowl and spaced them out across the board. Then I started filling in gaps with salami, prosciutto, and pretzels. Next I sliced an apple and grapefruit and placed them out evenly. I filled extra holes with the yogurt/chocolate nut mix. At this point the board was looking pretty good. I don't have any pictures of progress because like I said it was a mad rush. I finished up by adding kalamata olives and the bowl of hummus. I love the spinach and artichoke Sabra brand hummus. Given more time I would have put it in neater, but I literally just scooped it right out of its container into my bowl and plopped that roasted pepper goodness on top. Speaking of the bowls, I picked those up at target too from the Hearth and Hand collection.