Burlap Love

I do love some burlap. I used to only think of it as “farmish” and “fallish,” but the past few years Ballard Design has made it anything but that.

 

From covered lampshades to curtains and table coverings, they’ve made some serious drool-worthy things using burlap.

Lately, I’ve also been seeing so many great ideas using burlap on Pinterest. I saw these football door hangers at the beginning of football season and decided to make one…

Then I made two more and passed them along to my SIL & MIL…

Such a cute and easy project… I hung mine on our front door and it was cute, but not cute enough to help the Gators have a decent season. Oh well, maybe next year…

The best thing about burlap is how CHEAP it is…(unless you’re buying from Ballard…ha)

Because I am border line insane and thought I needed one more thing to do on my project list, I decided a couple months ago, that we REALLY needed to start working on re-vamping our sunroom. For years, its just kind of sat practically empty, or been used as a storage room.

The first thing I felt like we needed was some curtains to warm up the area and make it feel more like a room. There are three large sliding glass doors (which will be the PERFECT spot for 3 sets of french doors that lead out to a pool someday…amen?) Anyway, since there are three sets of doors, that meant 3 curtain rods and 3 sets of curtains… curtains and window hardware is not cheap to say the least… I started looking around for some large, but inexpensive curtain rods and found some great ones at Ross for $16.99 each! Such a steal…  then it was to decide on curtains… I love the burlap panels I’d seen in Ballard (except for the fringe on the bottom) and decided that would be SUCH a cheap project and I thought the texture of the burlap against the red brick in the sunroom would look good, too…

While discussing the plan with my BFF, Carrie, she said she’d made burlap panels for Whitt’s nursery and gave me some advice and said wash it first. Since it was going on the sunroom, I decided not to take the time to wash it before. I also took the EASY route and HOT GLUED my panels instead of sewing them. I just glued a top seam and a bottom seam and then pinned them up Nester-Style, and I LOVE them.

The only thing I would have done differently is listened to Carrie and washed the burlap before… we’ve been airing out the room for weeks and you can still smell the burlap. My mom walked in and said it smelled like her childhood---a tobacco barn. :) Other than the smell, (which doesn’t really bother me either, because I too, have some fond memories at the tobacco barns), I am so pleased with how they turned out and how they warm up the room. Best part is, all the burlap cost me around $30.00 AND I had some left over! The big area rugs also help warm the space up. They are hand-me-downs from my parents’ house. :)

While my glue gun was still hot and the left overs were there, I decided to make a ruffled table runner. I’d seen some on Pinterest and even found a toutorial on how to sew one, but I decided to just go the easy route again and glue it. I just glued a seam around all four edges,

made my gather for the ruffle and glued it on.

I love how it turned out, too.

I had it on our dining room table for a couple weeks, but then moved it onto the table in the sunroom. I got the table at Goodwill with all the chairs for $55.00!! We were looking for an old junk dresser for another project I’ve got on my list, when my mom pointed out the table and chairs. DW and I  really like having a table area on the sunroom and have eaten out there several times already.

The last thing I thought I’d do with my leftovers, is cover a lampshade. I bought a couple of white lampshades at Old Time Pottery when we were in Destin this summer for $2.00. I wasn’t sure at the time what I would cover them with, but for $2.00, I thought I could come up with something.  I covered it, made a ruffled edge for the bottom and then tied a bow on it. Super easy and I think it turned out pretty cute, too…

I’ve decided that’s probably enough burlap for one room, so I’m quitting with it there! :)

We’re in Christmas and birthday party and get-ready for baby-sister mode around here, so the rest of the sunroom re-do will have to wait until the Spring, too! :)

~annie~