Pepper Design Blog

DIY Chevron Painter’s Tape Cloth Napkins

Here’s another little project that I finished up this week:

I was inspired to DIY my own cloth napkins after checking out these awesome gold chevron shelf liners (which I’m now dying to try out) that I came across on Pinterest. Aren’t they perty?

I thought something for the dining room table would be equally cool and considered placemats before finally settling on cloth napkins.

It’s all in an effort to finally start creating out of those great big pin boards I have over on Pinterest! And to participate in this challenge.

When it came to narrowing down which project to tackle this week I had a hard time choosing just one, so I actually attempted three that I plan on sharing with ya’ll – this being the first!

And I’m really thrilled with the results so far.

Update: I’ve now had a chance to wash these and I’m happy to report NO bleeding! but there is a slight bit of fading so next time I might try line drying. Perhaps fabric paint applied with a sponge would be more fade resistant.

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Chevron Painter’s Tape Cloth Napkins
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Materials: Rust-Oleum metallic gold spray paint (or fabric paint), cloth napkins (though you could use placemats or the like), painter’s tape, scissors

1. I began this project by marking off my chevron design with painter’s tape. I ended up eye balling the design making is a super simple process, though you could measure for more accuracy with a very light pencil mark to keep you on track (I would be nervous about pencil lines showing through the paint, so I’d recommend just little dots here and there if you opt for this route).

My drop cloth was also white so I apologize for the white-on-white effect, but you can see the thin edge of the napkin if you look really close. It was helpful to let the strips of the tape from the chevron design overlap onto the drop cloth to keep my napkin nice and taut for painting, too.

Here’s a close up of the painter’s tape application, you want to essentially be sure that the straight edge of the tape is in contact with the fabric with no ripped or squiggly lines.

Scissors were useful for cleaning up some of those edges where two strips of painter’s tape connected.

Another tip worth noting is that I found it really helpful to go over each line where the tape met the fabric to press down and really create a sealed off stick. You won’t want any gold bleeding through!

2. Next up was applying a thin coat of gold spray paint over the entire design (keeping the can about a foot above the napkin is the best way to create an even application without any drips – be sure that you’re spraying in wide, even motions too).

At this point in the process I was just really digging how the painter’s tape looked when spray painted – so shiny and bright! But alas a cloth napkin covered in shimmery tape would not be a useful napkin at all…

3. I let the paint dry for 20-30 minutes and then slowly began pulling up tape. It’s amazing how fast spray paint dries – no need to wait overnight which is always helpful in that instant gratification moment.

The Rust-Oleum website suggests not using a clear top coat on its metallic line so as not to dull the finish, but if you were using another paint color you could apply a final coat before pealing the tape.

I also attempted to research the ‘food safety’ of the Rust-Oleum metallic line of paint but without much luck – it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t use this cloth napkin as a lining in a bread basket and I’d definitely wipe my mouth with the other side . Same goes for babies, thankfully Liv’s not an everything-must-go-in-mouth kind of baby, but I won’t be giving her the opportunity to chew on these spray painted napkins either!

Here’s a little example of what happens if the edges of the strips of tape don’t meet just right at each intersection.

Other than a few hardly noticeable boo boos, we’re all done! So pretty.

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I’m really digging the results! I haven’t tried washing yet so TBD if there’s any bleeding involved.

This was a very fast, easy project with just three basic steps, it could easily be replicated for a BIG party without a problem (so, so fast!) and I think that a set of these would look just stunning at a shower or even small wedding. Would also make a neat gift for Mother’s Day or as a housewarming present! Sort of like when I stenciled my winter cloth napkins.

One Pinterest project down and two more to share with you this week!

PS My hallway wall is Finished! and I’m so so happy with how it all turned out – I’ll be sharing all of the details manana.

A Wintery Stencil Project

Hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas! We’re trying to still keep it low key around here as we soak in as much holiday as possible before the New Year. This is always one of the best weeks.

I wanted to share with you one of the handmade gifts that I put together this Christmas. Oh I had high hopes of sharing this project with everyone before Christmas! but… you know how that goes. There I was on the 23rd of December after everyone had gone to bed and I’m finishing up spray painting stencils by backyard patio lights at my in-laws. Haha! Motivated to create a truly handmade present for family this Christmas, I had started this project several weeks earlier but as luck would have it I finished just in the nick of time.

Simply Spray contacted me back in November about a product review regarding their fabric spray paint. Immediately the wheels started turning with creative present ideas for family and friends this holiday season. My initial idea was to track down basic white flour sack towels and several wintery stencils to design some fun kitchen gear for our Grandmas, moms and aunts.

After much searching, I stumbled upon inexpensive white flour sack towels at Rite-Aid (I think they were about $1 a piece), and several sets of patterned cloth napkins and solid-colored oven mits at Target. For the record, I also scooped up a couple of white and tan table runners from Ikea but I haven’t finished those yet (sigh).

Simply Spray sent me several different types of fabric paint to try out. They carry an upholstery spray (think spraying an entire chair or even couch), a fabric spray (for use with a stencil, soft to the touch, soaks into the fabric) and stencil paint (more of a silkscreen effect staying on top of the fabric). For these projects I used the stencil spray in gold glimmer, silver glimmer and textured white.

Creating a stencil was a bit more challenging. I first took advantage of Kevin’s seriously honed x-acto knife skills (from years of architectural modeling) and printed snowflake designs on thick white paper.

But the process was time consuming (poor Kev) and the stencils lasted for just one use. Where oh where could I find the outline of a snowflake to use as a stencil? That’s when I thought of a cricut machine and ended up at a scrapbooking shop where I learned that you can use chipboard (super sturdy) in a diecut machine! Perfect. For about $.30 a pop I made 10 ish snowflake stencils out of chipboard.

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Stenciling with Fabric Paint
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Materials: cloth napkins/tea towels, chipboard stencil, spray adhesive, Simply Spray Stencil Paint, cardboard (or hard surface to lay out fabric on), newspaper to keep your space clean! plastic gloves to keep your fingers clean – optional

To stencil the snowflakes onto my cloth napkins and tea towels, I first gave the back of the stencil a quick douse of spray adhesive to keep my stencil in place on my fabric and to help prevent bleeding. (Note – it’s best to do this holding the stencil up rather than spraying at a surface such as this countertop – but for picture purposes here’s the example)

Apply your sticky stencil to your fabric and follow the instructions on the stencil spray can for application (basically, shake shake shake). Before you spray your actual napkins, towels, etc be sure to test the spray out on scrap cloth. A few lessons learned from scrap cloth: the cans drip and they can cause giant droplets on your fabric and the spray is not always even. It’s easy to compensate for once you play around a bit.

A quick email to Simply Spray resulted in the suggestion of starting and ending the spray ‘off’ of the fabric (such as in a paper towel), this helped a ton. A couple of other tips from me would include: 1. the white textured spray has quite the ‘spray’ that will end up all over your fabric regardless of your aim – use chipboard to cover the entire piece except for the stencil area to prevent any sort of splatter (not an issue with the gold or silver glimmer spray), 2. the gold and silver glimmer spray tended to bleed quite a bit – I found it best to get about 6-8″ above fabric and quickly swoosh over stencil area with a light flow (the bleed doesn’t go away, the watermark look will dry and stay), 3. I needed roughly two cans to finish six cloth napkins and three tea towels which I didn’t anticipate, so I did end up making a Michaels run half way through the project.

Let dry in the sun for several hours to cure, then wrap up and gift!

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I played around with different materials, including a terry dish towel, dark brown napkins and even several oven mitts.  I attempted a bit of lettering but the white bled through around the edges.

In the end, the projects that I ended up gifting and loving the most were the white flour sack tea towels and the light blue patterned napkins I found at Target that I covered in a few subtle silvery snowflakes.

The tea towels each received three or so small snowflakes and two large in one corner so that about 1/3 of the towel was covered with a random pattern.

The napkins were painted with three ish snowflakes in one corner in a random pattern. Having some snowflakes just half on the napkin helped to create a random and pretty look.

It was a fun project! Simply Spray is revolutionary in that it’s the one and only aerosol fabric spray paint brand (I’ve heard the spray bottle versions are super messy) and it’s really fun to work with. Be prepared to mess up on a few of your fabrics (I bought eight cloth napkins to create six) and make sure to set up a station covered in newspaper for painting and drying. I think my mom, mom-in-law, aunt and cousin dug their new towels, napkins and mitts.

Tags: Blue, Crafty Solutions, Dinner Parties, DIY, Fabric, Paint, Parties & Entertaining, Silver, Tutorial, white
Posted in Crafty Solutions, DIY, Holidays, Parties & Entertaining, Product Review | Comment »

Office Makeover: On the Search for a Credenza

One of the biggest design challenges in the new room is working around the lack of storage. As you know, we nixed all of our closet space in favor of a second full bath in the house, so we’ve been getting creative around here on what can be stored where and what can be downsized.

Part of the functioning space of the office/guestroom is for it to be my art room as well. So the office will need to cleverly house a sewing machine, fabric swatches, paint + charcoal + pastel supplies, yarn for knitting, etc. The solution? A super large credenza for the opposite side of the room across from the desk.

And so the Craigslist/swap meet/thrift store search was on. My only criteria was that the new credenza needed to have strong bones (a sturdy, wooden piece that would make for a long lasting addition) as well as plenty of shelving or doors for storage. That, plus the more over-sized the better – at least 70″ (your traditional credenza/buffet is about 60″ long, so that was a challenge).

After finding plenty of furniture that was too small, too expensive or in too terrible of shape, I stumbled upon this Craigslist posting:

The size was just right at 72″ long, and the clean lines had a mid-century modern flair (especially those legs!). The drawers, door and shelving would offer plenty of storage, and a cabinet maker’s stamp on the inside of the drawer confirmed that she was well-built with solid wood and strong bones. She came home with me for $135 cash – what a steal!

Right now I’m imagining a little TLC involving paint + some kind of pattern in those great open shelves + pretty hardware:

I’m feeling a weekend project coming on… she should be up and running in no time!

For more Office Makeover posts, check out: new trim, dining table-to-desk,  a new desk & bookshelves, installing remnant carpeting, grasscloth wallpaper, painting the office nook, finding carpet for the office, chocolate brown wall ideas, plastering progress,  inspiration for a diy desk, back in action!, desking hunting for under $300, bookcases under $300, inspirational rooms, room layout options, demo part 1 & demo part 2.