Placemat Solutions

Sometimes the simplest of solutions is right under your nose.

My husband and I love dining in the den now since it's just the two of us.  After refurbishing this table and adding it to the den I have been very selective in setting it up so that it coordinates well with the rest of the room.  I purchased this giraffe table runner from work and love how it coordinates with my decor and other animal print pillows in the room. 

 The real decorating dilemma for me came in finding just the right placemats that fit in well here.  Luckily, I already had these lovely oval shaped woven grass placemats that fit the curvature of the table perfectly.  I thought the style seemed to fit in well enough but....they were so much higher (or thicker) then the table runner and that uneven balance was throwing old picky me waaayyy off!

Then there was the fact that as beautiful and interesting as the texture is on them, they just were not practical when it came to everyday dining and everyday cleaning from food spills.  I cannot stand when food stains and particals linger on placemats!

After a while I began to search around and keep my eyes open for just the right placemats.  I have a huge selection already to choose from but they are mostly all rectangular which just do not fit the size of this table without looking awkward and cluttered.   I tried my square placemats and they too where a bit too large for the space of table available between the existing table runner and the edge of the table.  I looked and looked everywhere and finally bought another somewhat pie shaped placemat that did fit the space well but looked strangely out of place to the rest of the room.

The oblong shaped placemats fit perfectly so I wanted to find more of those.  I did actually find some that were perfect in color and size but they were linen and again not practical for everyday cleaning unless you don't mind doing laundry everyday.  No we're not extremely messy but accidents do happen you know.

After searching around for weeks a light bulb finally came on when I remembered I already had the perfect placemats at home.  I had purchased the placemats shown above from the clearance section when I worked at Steinmart.  They are made from a rubbery type of woven plastic and are the perfect color and texture solution for this room.  If your wondering why I didn't remember them to begin with it is because they were rectangular until last week.

After remembering I had these and how flexible yet durable they are I knew I had the perfect solution right under my own nose.  I simply laid down my oval grass mats on the top and traced an outline with a pencil and then got out the kitchen shears and cut them to size.  Eureka!!!!   The beauty of this product is not only that they are so easy to wipe clean but because of the material of the weave they will not fray.  No sewing or edging needed after cutting and they are the perfect fit!

I can just imagine all the different shape adjustments you could cut these into and still look cute and decorative while dining without being too cheesy, can't you?

More importantly now when we are not using the table at night the emphasis here is on the beautiful table and runner and not the placemats that blend beautifully now.

Who said, you can't be practical when being decorative?

Dropping by Metamorphosis Monday today to share this small little tip of practicality with anyone else who might be interested.  

Have a wonderful week Y'all!