Los Muertos — TABLEAU for Ryan House
A Día de los Muertos fantasy table for the IFDA TABLEAU benefit — nearly every element made by hand — with proceeds from ticketed seats going to Ryan House, a children's respite and palliative-care home.
- Location
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Project type
- Experiential installation — IFDA TABLEAU benefit for Ryan House
- Scope
- A Día de los Muertos fantasy table for the IFDA TABLEAU benefit — nearly every element made by hand — with proceeds from ticketed seats going to Ryan House, a children's respite and palliative-care home.
The challenge
Designers were given free rein to build a fantasy dining environment for the charity night. I chose a celebration rooted in my own Mexican-American heritage — a table that could carry cultural pride, while still out-charming twenty other tables across the ballroom and rewarding inspection down to the flatware.
The approach
Rather than buy themed décor, I made nearly all of it: hand-iced sugar skulls at every place, sewn textiles, individually colored place settings over a unifying black ground, repurposed skeleton figures, and a marigold centerpiece built around a Spanish glass candlestick — substantial enough to command the long table without overwhelming it. Only the plates, flatware and glassware were bought. Everything was researched from the traditions and symbolism of Día de los Muertos, prototyped as a studio mock-up first, then installed on site in about a four-hour window with my husband and daughter.
What it became
The whole table came together for about $500 — fabricated, repurposed and researched rather than bought — while other designers spent thousands. It's the extreme version of a rule that runs through all my work: a budget doesn't decide whether design is good; how intelligently it's used does.
Attention to detail
- Hand-iced sugar skulls at every place setting
- Sewn textile elements and individually colored place settings
- Repurposed skeleton figures
- A marigold centerpiece built around a Spanish glass candlestick
