How did your Father's Day go? I was sadly working but as I work at a gliding club, I was able to treat my husband to a flight in one of the club's gliders. He liked it so much he went up again later that afternoon. I got to spend lots of time with him and my son who became our youngest receptionist that afternoon! My manager kindly took my boy for a trip round the airfield which he was super excited about. It's lovely working in such a nice sociable relaxed environment. We treated my husband to a meal out in the evening rounding off a lovely fun day for him.
When we aren't out to eat (which isn't very often I have to say), I love to cook. Since I began meal planning, I've found how much easier it is to just make something from scratch that we can all enjoy and love to eat. Sure I pick quick and easy meals (I fully utilise my slow cooker!) for weekdays but knowing it's all homemade is very satisfying.
We have not changed our kitchen since we moved into the house over 7 years ago. It was put in the year we moved so we decided to live with it, even though the layout is bonkers (lots of wasted space) and the style is not to our taste. We were pretty appalled by the state of the ceiling and the walls however, so a couple of years ago I painted it a lovely warm yellow and bought and made some wall art to make the place feel more like ours. I got some new appliances and cake stands which has transformed the kitchen into a place I like to be.
We have this gorgeous tile top dining table which went beautifully with the changes, but it still felt like something was missing. I started looking for ideas on Pinterest and saw lots of crafts with burlap. I really liked the idea of a table runner and decided burlap was the way to go! I like old fashioned, vintage style items over modern and burlap fits the criteria, not to mention blending in well with my kitchen!
I remembered seeing some small rolls of burlap in Hobbycraft, so went off to investigate. I bought a large 2m roll in cream (you can purchase online here) rather than the darker more usual shade of burlap. I also bought some cream fabric paint and a reel of lace trim (purchase here).
I already had other fabric paint colours, so gathered them together so that I could decide what would look best with the cream.
Firstly I unrolled the burlap and laid it out on the table.
The 2m roll was the perfect size for my table with a little overhang at each end. As you can see it is frayed as you would expect. I have very little sewing skills and decided that I would glue the lace trim to the edges of the burlap.
I trimmed the frayed part down but left a little for the lace to adhere to. I found some large pieces of card and placed them under the burlap to protect the table. By completing the project on the actual table it was for helped with the design and scale.
I measured out some of the ribbon for the ends and cut with just a little overhang. The reel I used was 5m which was the exact amount I needed to do all four edges.
I next drew a thin layer of fabric glue and gently placed the ribbon down from one end to the next, pressing down as I went along.
I followed this same method on the sides. I glued both ends first and then the sides so that the ribbon from the sides would be stuck over the top of the ends. When the glue was dry, I trimmed away the last pieces of the frayed edges that were showing next to the ribbon edge. For the detail on the runner I used a home made stencil. You could easily buy one.
I found a leaf border over on The Graphics Fairy which reminded me of the painted olives on my dining table. They seemed Italian in design! I then used PicMonkey to design a monogram with the border and printed it out on A4 card.
I chose a fairly simple border that would be easy to cut out. The font was kept simple for the same reason. I used a craft knife and carefully cut out each segment of the border and letter. This was surprisingly easy and took me about half an hour to complete.
I laid the runner out flat so I knew how much overhang there would be on each side. I then laid the cut stencil out on one end of the runner near the edge of the table. The cream fabric paint I purchased was too close to the colour of the runner so I decided to use yellow and blue to match the kitchen and the table. I took a small sponge to dab the paint onto the stencil.
I used a bit of tape to hold the stencil in place and used the fabric paint very sparingly so as to not bleed or smudge the design. When I took the stencil off I took a very thin paintbrush to fill in any gaps or pale areas of the design. I also decided that the F looked a little washed out on the burlap, so outlined that in blue to match.
Before edging.
After!
Some of the paint I used was actually acrylic craft paint rather than fabric paint. I have read that to set this in place you should iron it. I have to say I have yet to do this, but I am only planning to sponge clean the runner rather than wash it to stop it fraying any further.
I am so pleased with how this turned out. It has given my table a new lease of life!
I decided to keep the design uniform and re used the stencil on the other end of the runner. The stencil could probably have been used a couple more times if I had wished. I would certainly use that method again for customised designs.
When the sun shines the whole kitchen feels warm and cosy!
Do you like burlap? Have you used it in any crafts? Do you like a more vintage look or are you modern all the way? Share your experiences on my Facebook page.
Have a great day!
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