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Cottage, DIY

How to make a custom striped table runner

November 14, 2013

I found a great new list-keeping app for my iPhone a week or two ago. It’s called Tick, and so far it’s my favorite list-keeping app that I’ve tried, and believe me, I’ve tried many. You can customize the icon and color for each list. Right now I have the number 10 by the little icon of a house. That means I have 10 projects in my to-do list for stuff at home. And every one of those projects is a big, multistepped endeavor. That can get a bit overwhelming.

So it’s nice when I can pump out a little project that is fun and makes me feel like I accomplished something without having to think about it too hard, and this one definitely falls under that category.

Now that we have the newly finished tabletop in the kitchen (and I’m loving it by the way), I wanted to bring a little bit of brightness to it in the form of a runner (I sort of love table runners) that I can leave on all the time.

I wanted something that would be casual and help tie in the white of the cabinets and trim with the gray (Edgecomb Gray) walls. Stripes to the rescue!

Now I should say that you can buy beautiful custom table runners on Etsy. But because they are made by artisans, they are priced as though they are made by artisans, appropriately so. Sometimes, though, that’s not in the budget (or even called for, to be honest).

First of all, I think a table runner is probably very easy to make if you can sew in a straight line. I am severely challenged in the straight-line sewing department so I knew that trying to make my own would probably become yet one more “big” task that I dreaded doing. But I figured I could customize one that somebody else had made pretty easily.

I found the most basic white linen runner I could. Turns out it was way too long for my table, so I just hemmed it to the right size (no, the stitching is not super straight but who is really looking at the end of your runner?). I ironed it first, just to make sure to get all the creases out.

The runner started life as a perfectly fine but possibly a little boring plain white linen runner.

Then I just used painters tape of varying widths to tape off some stripes. I wanted a stripe in the center, so I folded the runner in half to find the center and went from there. After I had my first piece of tape down just to the right of the center, I just eyeballed it from there. I figured if any of my stripes were a little off I’d just say I was going for a more painterly look.

I did measure again to make sure my sets of stripes to the side were the same distance from the middle set of stripes, but from there it was more eyeballing.

Of course you have to make sure to press down the edges to avoid paint creepage.

From there, I just mixed up the color I wanted in Martha Stewart craft paint, which is also suitable for fabric. This is the same paint I used for the chairs in the living room and it has held up so well. For the runner, I watered down the paint quite a bit because I wanted to make sure to see the linen texture and I didn’t want ridges where the paint hits the tape.

I used a cheap craft brush to brush on the paint after putting some newspaper under the runner in case any leaked through. Then I pulled the tape.

To set the paint, I used a hot iron on the reverse side and then for good measure, threw the runner into a hot dryer for a few minutes, which I’ve found helps the painted areas soften up a little.

I did get a little bit of seepage on a couple of the stripes where I didn’t push the tape done enough, but it’s pretty minor. I figure it makes it look handmade, right?

And that’s it. The hemming took about four times as long as the taping and painting did and all told I bet this was a 45-minute project. There’s nothing like a little immediate satisfaction.

DIY kitchen paint runner table
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
7 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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Comments

  1. sunlightizm says: November 14, 2013 at 7:36 pm

    Great blog !!

    CARE

    Reply
  2. rightchoice says: November 15, 2013 at 9:47 am

    I've enjoyed reading your posts, We like the site and will be back Great blog you guys have, some very good news and important information. We love your site. if you have some time please visit my site which is about Wisconsin Tile Store and give me some good tips to approve my site like your site. thanks

    Reply
  3. Heather - New House New Home says: November 15, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    Love it! I made a similar one, but the lines run lengthwise. I used a custom mix to match the roman blind in the kitchen and it works beautifully.

    Great tips on setting the paint, Erin. I didn't think to throw it in the dryer. But it's been washed a few times and the colour hasn't faded too much. I kind of like it a bit washed out.

    Reply
  4. Karen says: November 16, 2013 at 4:23 pm

    Very, very pretty! Am definitely going to do this. Can I ask where you found your table runner? I have tried Ikea and Amazon with no luck. Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Americaneagle1 says: November 17, 2013 at 11:05 pm

    The kitchen with white table room's pictures are unusual. What are the black background and green plants called. Is the source online for me to purchase the two pictures. They appear to be paper or canvas. Your site the impatient gardener is useful. Thank you. Anothr Karen AL

    Reply
  6. Loi Thai, Tone on Tone says: November 18, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    Hey Erin – What a fun and fabulous project!! So excited because I can't sew or any of that fancy stuff, but this I can do 🙂 Your runner is awesome! BTW, Edgecomb Gray is one of my favorite colors.
    Cheers,
    Loi

    Reply
  7. Bootsie says: December 15, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    That's really cool! I will have to try it, I've been looking for something along those line, but you know how hard they are to find!

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Pen These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Penhill Watermelon (first picture) and Penhill Dark Monarch are the best two HUGE dahlias that I grow. They share slightly twisty petals (Watermelon more so) and, when you look closely, subtle striations that add a beautiful depth of color. Watermelon grows taller than Dark Monarch (7 feet tall or more sometimes) and they both need serious staking, but it’s worth it because they produce a lot of flowers for a large-flowering dahlia. 

I like them both but if I was forced to choose (and who would make me do that?) I’d give the edge to Dark Monarch because it’s a little easier to manage size-wise, produces more flowers and has a bigger variation in flower color so it’s always interesting. 

Which do you like better?
I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But w I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But when there’s only one tool that does that one thing really well, I’m here for it. This pottery/container knife from Sneeboer makes it possible to actually get plants out of pots without breaking or damaging the pot. It’s also really expensive. 😀
A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zi A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zinnias, pycnanthemum muticum and bronze fennel shown here.
My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love tryi My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love trying out new varieties and I feel like they just work so well in my garden from both a design standpoint and a cultural standpoint (they are happy here). Because I grow so many, the ones that self sow can be surprises. 

All of these self-sown Nicotiana are probably at least partly the children of the F1 hybrid Perfume series, which grow to be about 24” tall or so. Last year I grew purple, pink, white and lime versions and these are likely new variations on those. 

Picture 3 is, in my opinion, a good example of how these self sown second-year hybrids can go wrong. I’ll probably rip that one out. 😀

And the last photo is of my favorite colorway, lime, popping up amongst the Zinnias. I find these self-sown Nicotiana popping up all summer, so there’s always a fresh-blooming supply. 

Are you as enamored with Nicotinana as I am?
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