Labor Day is summer’s encore — the last long weekend before the calendar turns serious. One more cookout, one more crowd in the backyard, one more excuse to fire up the grill before the white shoes go away. And because everyone’s a little nostalgic for the season that’s ending, it’s the perfect moment to send summer off in full color.

Here’s the easy win. You don’t need new decorations — you need a bright, effortless Labor Day cookout table that looks intentional in about five minutes. With Renova’s colored paper you can carry one last burst of summer across your table, your drinks station, and your clean-up kit. Here’s how.

The end-of-summer palette

Lean into warm, sunset colors with a patriotic wink — it reads as both “long weekend” and “last hurrah.”

  • Red & blue — the holiday-weekend anchor: cocktail napkins by the drinks, a stack at each place setting.
  • Lime & orange — the summer-sunset pop that keeps it feeling like a cookout, not a formal dinner.
  • Crisp white — the neutral that makes every bright color look deliberate.

1. The cookout table

Lay crisp white napkins at each seat, then run alternating red, blue and lime cocktail napkins down the center. For a big group, bulk beverage napkins mean you never run dry mid-party — and the two-tone stacks always look fuller and more festive than a single color.

2. The drinks station

This is where color does the heavy lifting. Fan a few napkins beside the cooler and the lemonade, keep an orange paper towel roll close for the inevitable spills, and the whole corner looks styled without a single store-bought decoration.

Hosting tip: set out twice as many napkins as you think you’ll need, in two colors. Guests grab them all afternoon, and the doubled stack reads as abundant rather than fussy.

In stock and ready to ship before the long weekend

Shop the Labor Day cookout palette

3. Clean-up that keeps up

Ribs, corn, melting popsicles — a Labor Day spread is gloriously messy. Keep a colored paper towel roll within reach of the grill and the kids’ table. Renova’s 2-ply jumbo rolls handle real spills, and because they match the palette, the clean-up kit looks like part of the decor.

Send summer off in style

The beauty of decorating with color is that it carries through the whole calendar — from the Fourth of July to this last cookout and right into fall. Once you start matching your paper to the moment, every gathering gets a little more festive.

Ready to set the table? Browse the full Renova napkin collection or stock up on colored paper towels — there’s a shade for every weekend on the calendar.

Happy Labor Day, and happy hosting. 🌭