More than 20 designer-crafted holiday vignettes will fill the showrooms of the Michigan Design Center on Nov. 6, when the fourth annual Gather event turns the building into a one-day showcase of tablescapes built from family heirlooms, salvaged bottles and even a slice of Detroit architectural history. The free, come-and-go event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and getting in the door costs nothing more than a non-perishable food item or a donation of your choice.
That admission goes straight to Gleaners Community Food Bank, according to Gleaners Community Food Bank, which lists the Michigan Design Center as a partner venue for the open-house portion of the day. The Detroit News reports that this is the fourth year for Gather. Gather features a wide variety of displays.
A Fisher Building Tribute Built From Family Photos
Among the most personal entries is a table from designers Jennifer Baross and Abby Wiinamaki, built around Detroit's Fisher Building. The piece uses a palette of rusts, greens and golds as a nod to the building's dramatic rooftop, paired with vintage place settings and photographs of the landmark. Those photographs come from an unlikely source: Baross's husband has spent years photographing the Fisher Building, amassing an archive of more than 1,500 images, the newspaper's report notes.
Designer Valeria Zozaya took a different cultural route, drawing on handmade Mexican dinnerware borrowed from a friend's collection. Empty tequila and liquor bottles get a second life as candleholders on her table, a design the same report frames around Mexican pottery traditions and how those customs continue to evolve. Elsewhere in the building, Joel Baird built a blue-and-coral table featuring mismatched custom and contemporary chairs, a handmade silk-and-wool rug and antique urns, with the overall look described as a nod to Hollywood designer Tony Duquette.
Family history also runs through Allison Ruda's table, which incorporates silver goblets given to her grandparents for their 50th anniversary. And Ruth Casper took a more whimsical approach, building a fairytale-inspired table with help from two local interior design students, deliberately leaving a fifth chair open for a last-minute visitor.
Previewing a Future Showhouse in a Converted Church
One table points toward a project still taking shape. Designer Rachel Nelson's vignette is inspired by her own adaptive-reuse effort: converting a 1949 Gothic church in Detroit's Indian Village into a single-family home. Per Divinely Detroit, that church sat vacant for 15 years before Nelson and her husband, Joe, began restoring it, and Nelson's Gather table previews the first annual Divinely Detroit Designer Showhouse planned for 2027, with proceeds benefiting Detroit Deserves Good Design and a specific date still to be announced.
Other designers leaned into local sourcing and seasonal color trends. Jenny Roush based her table on a day of boating on Lake St. Clair and incorporated Celery, which Sherwin-Williams has named its color of the year for 2027 — described by the paint company as Celery SW 6421, an airy, herbal green, according to Sherwin-Williams. Karen Sellenraad, meanwhile, assembled a wintry table from local finds, including stops at Bronner's in Frankenmuth, Blue Willow in Holly, Odd Fellows Antiques and Goldner Walsh.
Holiday Tablescapes
The event also features a range of holiday tablescapes.
Gather's tablescapes offer ideas for holiday entertaining.
