Saturday, February 25, 2012

Silverware and Curtains

I've been searching high and low lately for the perfect rug to compliment our new kitchen (which is still taking shape - bear with me).  We had a solid red one before, but it showed every speck of dirt and lint and just plain junk that graces the kitchen floor.  Not to mention the fact that I sucked up a corner of it in the vacuum cleaner...no worries, it found another home.  But, after several stores and several rugs strewn about the aisles, I still came up with nothing.  So, in true Jessica fashion, I decided to alter one to work for me.

I found a heavy duty, red-trimmed, straw grass rug at Target for $24.99.  While, yes, this is more expensive than I would have hoped considering I still had to work some magic on it to get it how I wanted it, but it was good quality for the space right in front of the sink.  So I splurged. 

So the design?  Well let's backtrack a minute or two to another project I knocked out on my day off this week.

The new curtain for over the sink.  Once I took the original "beer mug" curtains down, I really liked the light that came through the window.  It opened up the space, so much so that I actually considered not putting anything back up at all.  But, the decorator/DIYer inside me couldn't resist.  So while I was in Target searching for the perfect rug, I came across the clearance aisle where several dishtowels were on sale for less than 2 bucks each.  Score!

When I purchased them, I had no idea what I was going to use them for.  They weren't exactly great quality - the kind of dishtowel that never really dries anything off, dishes or the like.  So I wasn't completely surprised that they made it to the clearance section, but I vowed to find a use for them at some point.  And the rest is history. 

The silverware outline wasn't long enough to stretch across the whole window, but I bought the abstract black lines one too.  That was added to each side to extend the material.
So fast forward to the rug project...inspired by the silverware motif.
First, I drew and cut out silverware shapes from scrap cardboard.  Then, using them as a stencil, I traced them with a Sharpie onto the rug.

I used black fabric paint I had on hand and began painting and filling in the shapes. 
And Tada!  It lays on the floor directly below the new curtain, so the repeated motif makes sense.  Plus, it won't show every single fleck like the previous one did (which now lays on the landing inside the back door).
All's well that ends well.

1 comment:

Hi there. Thanks for leaving some feedback on all of my hard work! I love hearing from everyone - friends and strangers alike. :)