Painting Stripes Somewhere New

We have lived in our house for almost two years now, my decorating is slow and steady. This summer, I have been working on the kitchen. In June we painted it gray and I LOVE it. Since then I have been working on decorating  and one of the last pieces I wanted was a new tablecloth. The previous one we had was mustard yellow and blended in with our wood floors and table.

Here is a before photo. You can barely see the tablecloth because it blends in so much.

I wanted a very light kitchen, but a white tablecloth seemed daring with two toddlers. So after seeing all of the painted striped curtains on Pinterest, I decided to paint a striped tablecloth.

Not knowing how it would turn out and remembering the budget, I used a cheap white sheet that I already had. We laid it out in the kitchen and went to work taping out stripes. We measured one foot from the side all of the way across the sheet and connected the tick marks with masking tape.

Then I laid out cardboard and old drop cloths in the garage and went to work painting. I think a roller would have gone faster, but I brushed it on by hand with only one or two drips.

I used the gray paint leftover from painting the kitchen and I did not use fabric medium. The painted parts would have turned out less crunchy if I had, but it still worked out. I left the white strips of the sheet as white stripes.

I wish I had pulled the sheet up from the cardboard sooner because layers of cardboard did come up with the back of the sheet. We hung it from the deck to finish drying in the sun. Because I didn’t paint on a totally flat surface the top of the cloth ended up somewhat bumpy. On a whim, I laid another sheet on top of it and ironed it flat. Who knew, but it worked!

Then I trimmed the sheet to the size I wanted. My Mom has always put a sheet of clear plastic over our tablecloths to protect the cloth and the table from the inevitable spills. I have followed her tradition and it works great. You can find the plastic sheets in the fabric section at Wal-Mart or at the fabric store.

I LOVE how it turned out!