Tea Stain Revisited (Saga of the Bedspread, Finale)
You may remember my first attempt at tea-staining a garage-sale treasure: a summer-weight bedspread.
I had high hopes for my great find. But a queen-sized bedspread is a bulky beast, and i wasn’t willing to risk permanently staining my bathtub to change its color. I finally resorted to chemically bleaching the entire thing, and leaving it in the sunshine to further the process.
I was pleased with the new, even coloring. But the bed was vanilla-bland: a big blob of nothing. It was certainly not what I had envisioned.
In further garage-sale adventures, I found two throw pillows that caught my eye:
They were stark white, but with great pleated details on each end. A little pilled, and generally in a rather worn state, I snatched them up for a total of $1 and plotted their restoration…with tea.
I ripped a seam or two and gave the covers a nice long steep in boiling tea (remembering to remove the tea bags this time!)
Then I ran them through the washer and dryer. While they were still a little damp, I ironed them on the hottest setting. This gave them a little scorching–the aged look I was after. And it also took care of the fabric pills.
That’s a $9 make-over if you don’t count the cost of the tea!
I like it!
Now I have a question I’m sure you will know how to answer. My dining room hutch is empty and ready to head for the garage to be made over. (My spouse would not have bought it, so I have to eat a lot of humble pie that it needs anything whatsoever). I like the look, except I don’t like dirty finger oily, nor pitted top surface. What do you recommend? It will be part of the kitchen dining room both when the make over of the kitchen is complete.
Elaine, how exciting! I can’t wait to see the new kitchen area. If you are wanting a painted wood, I love chalk paint because it is so easy to apply, and has such a silky, smooth, but low-luster finish. But I think we should put our heads together more on this. =)