DIY Place Mats!

Base housing is hard to decorate. Most of it is old, it’s cramped, and fitting all of your decor in can be a chore. After owning a home, and then deciding to live on post after this last PCS, I have struggled with making this space mine. The settling in period can take some time, but its been a year and I am still not feeling at home.

Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I needed to do something to make it feel more homey. I bought a painting to go on my wall, I revamped my decorations and brought in some new to mix with what I already had. I even got the hubby in on it! When we got a new table to allow for having more guests over, I could not find the place mats I wanted. I had a very specific idea in mind, and I wanted to make sure that it would go with the themes that we have running through our house. First off.. kudos to all of you who can work with one theme! We have a mix of themes going, but done right, it looks fantastic! We have Americana, outdoors (we love hunting and fishing, so wildlife photos and duck calls are golden), but we have a slight vintage farmhouse theme going for the kitchen area. I love digging through and finding historical/vintage items that I can fit into my house.

While I was on vacation a couple weeks ago, I was telling my mom about not finding what I wanted to put on my table. I have the lantern, but finding the cute place mats was not happening. While visiting a craft store, I found what I wanted… in DISH TOWELS. I grabbed them up (two sets of 3 dish towels), knowing that I could make them into what I wanted, and use them here at home. When I got my back to my moms, we laid them out and found that we could get TWO place mats out of each one. So I set two aside for that, and the third one, we used to make cloth napkins. This super easy craft is already HALF DONE for you! How awesome is that!?

Base housing is hard to decorate. Most of it is old, it’s cramped, and fitting all of your decor in can be a chore. After owning a home, and then deciding to live on post after this last PCS, I have struggled with making this space mine. The settling in period can take some time, but its been a year and I am still not feeling at home.

Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I needed to do something to make it feel more homey. I bought a painting to go on my wall, I revamped my decorations and brought in some new to mix with what I already had. I even got the hubby in on it! When we got a new table to allow for having more guests over, I could not find the place mats I wanted. I had a very specific idea in mind, and I wanted to make sure that it would go with the themes that we have running through our house. First off.. kudos to all of you who can work with one theme! We have a mix of themes going, but done right, it looks fantastic! We have Americana, outdoors (we love hunting and fishing, so wildlife photos and duck calls are golden), but we have a slight vintage farmhouse theme going for the kitchen area. I love digging through and finding historical/vintage items that I can fit into my house.

While I was on vacation a couple weeks ago, I was telling my mom about not finding what I wanted to put on my table. I have the lantern, but finding the cute place mats was not happening. While visiting a craft store, I found what I wanted… in DISH TOWELS. I grabbed them up (two sets of 3 dish towels), knowing that I could make them into what I wanted, and use them here at home. When I got my back to my moms, we laid them out and found that we could get TWO place mats out of each one. So I set two aside for that, and the third one, we used to make cloth napkins. This super easy craft is already HALF DONE for you! How awesome is that!?

Here is what you need:

Dish towels in your choice of colors and cloth – the ones I bought were 20″ x 28″.

Sewing Machine

Scissors

Directions for place mat:

1. Fold your dish towels in half, and cut. Make sure that you get them folded as though you are hanging them by the stove. This allows for the shape that you are wanting.
2. Cut a straight line, and fold 1/4 inch. Pin if needed to keep in place.
3. Sew your straight line, and VOILA.. you have a place mat!

Directions for napkins:

1. Cut in half, and then cut each half in half.
2. Fold 1/4 inch. Pin if needed to hold in place.
3. Sew a straight line.
4. Fold to your desired width for your table.

How easy are those!? The choices in towels is endless, and you will have your own unique set of place mats to go on your table! Share your creations with us and show off your own style!