How to pack for the perfect picnic
IT’S time to up your picnic game. “Picnics take a bit of planning and preparation, but once you lay out the blanket and everyone climbs on board, you know you will create memories,” says Christen Bensten, an Arlington, Virginia design blogger and furniture painter. We asked four tastemakers to come up with accessories for an Instagramworthy meal alfresco. There’s something for everyone: a chic post-work gathering in a city park, a hunt-country repast, a laid-back beach picnic and a kid-centric Fourth of July party. Check out our delicious buffet of unexpected picnic gear, including boho cotton sari rugs, festive glasses with silicone sleeves and tops, jute totes with waterproof linings and more. Add a vase of fresh flowers, lanterns, mosquito repellent and some straw fans, and you’ll be ready to picnic until the stars come out.
On a warm summer evening, you might find Amanda McClements spreading out a colourful Indian kantha quilt and picnicking on Logan Circle in Washington.
The owner of the District’s Salt & Sundry stores, two stylish home boutiques, says cities are among the best places to toss out a blanket. “With all these large expanses of grassy spots and parks, they are wonderful for enjoying the outdoors,” says McClements, who lives a few blocks away from the circle.
We asked her to imagine an after-work gathering for a group of friends at Yards Park, the riverfront expanse in Southeast Washington with cooling fountains and green terraces.
McClements chose a blackand-white palette, taking a cue from a round Australiandesigned terry-cloth blanket. She added black-and-white vintage-inspired enamelware and melamine plates. Her favorite tip: Enlist friends to carry a lot of things to make you more comfortable at your picnic. “The more pillows, the better,” she says. “Imagine you are creating a living room outside.”
Instead of a traditional basket, she used a jute “District of Columbia”-inscribed market bag by Apolis she picked up at Redeem on 14th Street NW. Apolis also makes totes celebrating other locations, including Detroit, Austin and the Fort Greene neighbourhood in Brooklyn.
McClements says, “You can show off your city pride.”
Dana Gibson, a product designer and artist based in Richmond, grew up in the 1970s enjoying rural picnics by the James River on wool tartan blankets. “We would catch the fish, and my parents, who looked like preppy hippies around the Volkswagen van, would grill them up,” she says.
Gibson, whose line of boldly patterned ginger jar lamps and tole trays tends towards the traditional, still likes a little boho style in her country picnics. “I like to think of country today as more modern, not campy. I lean toward mixing a little preppy with a little bohemian.”
We asked Gibson to style a picnic with a hunt-country polo match in mind – Great Meadow’s summer Saturday Twilight Polo matches in The Plains, Virginia, perhaps. She said she’d start with some vibrant rugs made of upcycled saris that she’d spread out Moroccan-style. A rustic wood tray would hold a vase of flowers and a plate of deviled eggs.
She’d make fried chicken to enjoy on Kate Spade candy-coloured striped plates. And to give the whole thing a true hunt-country vibe, she’d top it off with a silver-plated candelabra.
Designer Erin Paige Pitts, whose speciality is coastal homes, likes to host beach picnics in the late afternoon, when temperatures are cooler and the light is more gentle. We asked her to imagine a gathering by the ocean.
Pitts always provides lots of soft Turkish beach blankets, plus floor cushions for lounging. She likes to create ambiance by lighting a path to the picnic location with lanterns and then having candles around the spread as evening descends.
She says picnics are meant to be relaxed gatherings that are easy and laid-back, not too contrived. “We keep the menu simple: cheese and crackers, some nuts and wine and other drinks. Maybe some pre-sliced salami.” She says melamine is better than paper plates in a beach setting. ( Think wind and dampness.) And because picnic baskets can let in sand, a roomy tote is a better option for a picnic by the shore.
“There is something about the light at this time of day that gives everything a warm glow,” Pitts says. “It’s a great time to take photos of family, kids and the dog.”
“When my husband and I were first dating, we went on picnics all the time,” says Christen Bensten, who writes the design blog Blue Egg Brown Nest. “It’s a simple gesture but so meaningful when you sit under a big blue sky and unpack the goodies in the picnic basket with someone you care about.” Now that she has three kids, she still loves picnics, but they are a little different.
“When it comes to picnics, kids care about food and fun,” she says. “Don’t forget either.”
We asked her to consider a picnic on the National Mall for the Fourth of July. She recommends using paper takeout containers so there is no “smelly Tupperware to bring home in a hot car.” And she always brings along fans for when kids complain it’s too hot. She also suggests packing a bag of fun stuff, including a Twister picnic blanket that’s also a game, a portable radio and a joke book. And don’t forget the red, white and blue pinwheels to festively mark the perimeter of your blanket.