DIY Table Decorations

We had our engagement party last weekend at a local pub, it was pretty last minute although as I knew I was going to be away on my birthday I had already planned an informal meal/drinks on the Sunday already with a few people. We just made it more of an 'event' and invited lots of Toms family and friends as well.

I spent most of last week sorting out who was coming, booking the room and sorting menu choice but on Saturday managed to whip up some last minute table decorations.

I have a collection of jars that I keep for things like this (Tom was amazed I finally used them as I've had them ages!) so I thought I'd make 2 types of decoration, one for flowers and one for candles. I went into town on the Friday and picked up my materials

The stuff on the left is all from various pound shops, some organza, ribbon, balloons, mini pegs, paint (I also later got some table confetti and banners). The candles are all from Wilko, the small ones were £1 each, the large ones were £1.70 and the packs of 3 were £1.75.

I started with the painted jars, squeezing the paint into the inside of the jar and moving it around with a foam brush. I had hoped to get them all a light blue colour by mixing the blue and white paint but the first one came out marbled and I liked that better!

I left them all drying upside down to let any excess paint drip out (note: because of the paint being quite thick they take forever to dry and were actually still wet on Sunday when we were using them, so if you're trying similar do them further in advance!) then moved onto the candle decorations. My plan was to wrap the jars in the organza fabric add the ribbon and voilà! The first one I tried sticking down the organza to the jar but it didn't stick very well and I discovered wasn't really needed

These first 2 I also added in another sheet of organza but the finished article was a bit too fussy for my liking and since there were going to candles inside and the material kept going over the top (Fire Hazard!) I kept the rest of them a bit more simple!

I just wrapped the jars in the organza and tied the ribbon around the top and the bottom to secure it and add decoration

At this point I actually wasn't too keen on these bit I figured once they had candles lit and were glowing softly they would look prettier.

I had some ribbon left over so glued some around the top of the painted jars

And here they are in action

My mum very kindly got us the balloon bouquet

I ended up not using most of the candles, only using the small ones from the packs of 3 to put in the jars, as I felt we had enough and there were a lot of people eating so didn't want to crowd the table too much.

I really like the painted jars and have kept them, I added in a plastic cup to each one to put the flowers in. 

The decorations in total including the balloons and banners only cost £23.60 as it was mostly from pound shops!

We had a lovely party, with a meal and then a game of skittles as we had hired the back room with the skittle alley in and an evening of (far to much) drinking! 

I will probably not talk too much about weddings etc on here (we don't even have a date set yet or anything although looking at next year) although any projects like this that could translate to a non-wedding/engagement event or home décor (I'm going to find a home for some of those painted jars in our home) I will share. I'm sure there will be a lot of projects to do for the wedding and some of them will be of interest.

Runner - Phase 3

The third and final part, actually getting this thing made! I've spent a while gathering the materials for making my own runner, you can see the first part here and the second part here.

This is all you need (note the end chopped off the runner as it was too long), some spray adhesive (I went for carpet adhesive), tape (I used B&Q own brand 'high strength gaffer tape' as it's a strong adhesive), a sealant (which I ended up not using!) and some drop cloths to protect the floor.

Step 1 - Measure the width of fabric you need, remember to allow a good few inches either side for the fabric to fold underneath. Then cut to size. I was doing all this in the hallway and going through into the office, as it's the longest stretch of uninterrupted floor that we have.

Step 2 - Cover the whole place in drop cloths and lay out your rubber matting or rug or whatever you're using as a base. You might also need to curse at the doorway and try to find another area to do this, fail and decide to just move the rug once you get to the door or do this thing in two halves.

Step 3 - Line up the fabric and leave enough over at the start to fold underneath.

Step 4 - My technique was to then fold the fabric back into a loose roll, stick the first part down, then just keep spraying the rug and the fabric in sections and unrolling, smoothing out as you go. The pictures probably explain it better!

I knelt on the part that I had already stuck down after smoothing it out, so I could spray the next part and then fold it over and repeat, moving the drop cloth along so I didn't get any adhesive on the front of the fabric.

The carpet adhesive stuck together instantly and was dry in only 15 minutes, so it didn't leave room for error, but also that was good as it meant when I got to the door I could fold the start end up as it was dry and pull the rug through into the hallway and not have to try to negotiate the doorway.

Step 5 - Leave the adhesive to dry, then flip over. It's a good idea to use a fresh drop cloth, as you don't want to get carpet adhesive on the front of the fabric, and that stuff gets everywhere!

Step 6 - Fold the edges over and stick them down. Make sure they're pulled in tight and the edges are all even.

 Just fold the edges like wrapping a present, nice and neat you don't want any bumps showing on the top.

Step 7 - Edge the fabric with the gaffer tape to make sure it's really stuck down.

I left everything to dry overnight to make sure all the adhesive was dry and not still smelly before flipping it back over.

So here it is!

There is one more step, which would be to coat it with the poly finish, but I remembered at this point that we have a fabric protective spray (for car interiors) that would maybe be better as it's made for fabric. So Tom gave it a coat of that and we'll see if it does the job. It doesn't make it wipeable like a coat of poly might but it should stop it getting stained and doesn't make it shiny or 'crunchy' feeling as I was worried a sealant might. If it does start to show any signs of damage or staining I might give it a coat of spray sealer as well. So far it's stood up to being walked on, clawed by the cats a bit (although they got shouted at for that!) and even a bit of cat puke which seems to have come off ok.

I'm planning to make a doormat for the kitchen with the rest of the fabric and the part I chopped off the original rug, so will probably seal that one as it will be for actually wiping feet on.

I'm so happy with it and surprised at how easy it was to do once I had all the materials, you can feel the texture of the original mat underneath but it's just like walking on any rug as most have some kind of weave or pattern.

The budget breakdown is:
Fabric - £35.96 (4 metres of 'Autumn Leaves' from here)
Gaffer Tape - £5.98
Carpet Adhesive - £5.98 (I bought 2 cans just in case but only used one)
Pink rug - Free :)
Dust sheets (3 used) - £5.94
Total - £53.86

So I've got a 4 metre runner for under £55, I didn't count the polyurethane spray into that total as I didn't use it (and will use it on other projects so it won't go to waste) but even with that added on it would be under £60!

Runner - Phase 1

We need to get a runner for behind the sofa in the living room, as the carpet there is getting so much wear that it's starting to look a bit grubby and worn, and being tenants we don't want to lose money off our deposit. I have been looking out for one for a while but we want a 4m runner and for a nice one it's quite expensive, even second hand. I also struggled to find what I was looking for in this size, most runners seem to go up to 2 or 3 metres but longer ones you have less choice.

What I wanted was a rug to go with the rest of the colours in the living room, which are grey, black and white. I settled on grey as I though a white rug would get dirty quite easily and black is a bit dark for the room. A pattern was fine just not too busy as it's in a very narrow space and might look a bit much. It also had to be a low pile or a cloth type rug, as the cats would pee all over a deep pile (They pee on the bath mat if they can get to it and a deep pile door mat we once had) as I think they confuse it with dirt!

After seeing the tutorial from this Friday Inspiration post, I decided to have a go at making my own as I'd be able to decide the material and size, and it might be a bit cheaper.

So I ordered a load of fabric samples in my colour palette, this is them laid out in order of preference, from top left to bottom right.

The three on the top row were definite favourites, the two on the right are actually from one fabric I just wanted different areas as the pattern was quite big. I was quite keen on this one as I liked that it was grey but with the cheerful bit of green, but when Tom looked at them he said he doesn't like green in décor, it reminds him of his family's old 80's living room carpet apparently. So that one was out and the top left was favourite, the rest were discounted because they were too light, too busy or we just didn't like them as much in person as we did online. I do want to get some colour into the living room eventually but we don't know what this will be yet and I didn't want the rug to be a main feature in this room, as it's just going behind the sofa to save the carpet and I'll add in colour with artwork and maybe some cushions and a window treatment.

The fabric is called Autumn Leaves in Sable and it's from www.terrysfabrics.co.uk. I've got 4m of it on the way to me, and we're just figuring out something to attach it to as the rubber matting is actually proving difficult to find in the length we want! I have feelers out in a few places and also ideas for alternatives, and will do a how to post one I get all my materials.

In the meantime this will be the pattern for the new rug, and I'm looking forward to the fabric arriving to see it to scale!