Thursday, September 7, 2017

Fabric Afoot

This time last year Mr. Lucky and I were happily moving back into our renovated and redecorated kitchen and family room.  One change for us was to carry the hard wood floors into our kitchen space, removing the former no clean no wax vinyl flooring.  We bought new wool dhurrie rugs for the dining and sitting area but wondered what to do in th kitchen.  I had seen a great contemporary design floorcloth covering at the Baltimore American Craft Council show and thought perhaps I would paint my own floorcloth.  Well, one of these days I might just do that.  But in the meantime I needed something practical and cleanable in the kitchen area.  We have been using a matching wool rug...a mistake was made for the dining area version so we had it cut down, professionally edged...but that wasn't going to be a long term solution, especially with jam making and tomato sauce making season arriving soon.
When all else fails, spend hours on Pinterest...and that's where this inexpensive, relatively easy project came about.  Most of the time floorcloths are either primed and painted canvas or else the 20th century version, primed and painted vinyl flooring remnants. How about combining the two and actually just cover the vinyl flooring (the most inexpensive piece I could find at Home Depot) by spray gluing some fabric in place 
Floorcloth from cotton fabric wrapped over vinyl flooring

then coating it with four layers of satin finish poly acrylic.  I was sure I would have to go out and find some fabric to coordinate with my new color scheme but surprise, surprise, I actually had something in my resource center that doesn't look bad for a temporary solution.  I bought maybe five yards of this cotton canvas cloth for I think $1 or $2 per yard, intending to use it for making some coat or long jacket mock ups.  
Gluing the fabric to the vinyl on our basement floor

Let's give the appropriate credit to this blogger for giving me the idea:  Easy Floorcloth

Previous temporary wool rug
But it turns out that the colors are neutral enough to blend in with my color scheme.   I would still like to paint something more fun and contemporary next year but even if I don't, my kitchen wood floors are protected, I have a washable floor covering and I think I spent a total of $50 for the whole project.  Just another reason I can justify those frequent Fabric Mart visits.
Lucky wanting to know if kitchen tidbits would still fall on this kitchen floor covering.

12 comments:

  1. This is brilliant! And your "fuzzy kitchen accessory" is so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucky is our little treasure, thanks. Just did one of his "Pets on Wheels" visits today, this one to a nearby assisted living center where he's a real hit. And yes, I thought this was such a clever way to make a floorcloth. Working out just fine with a damp microfiber cloth to wipe it down.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. Thanks Barbara and thanks to the fellow bloggers who share their ideas, successes and failures so we can all learn.

      Delete
  4. Great idea and love your cute vacuum cleaner. Best wishes for your friends in Florida too !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are sweet, Janinine, and I will pass your compliments along to the little guy. Yes, we've been messaging and texting our friends. It's hard to mentally reconcile the gorgeous weather we are having here in MD with the awful fires and storms elsewhere. Prayers and aid for all in harms way.

      Delete
  5. What a wonderful idea and it's beautiful! In my previous house, I had hardwood floors in my kitchen and as much as I loved them it was difficult when something spilled and/or a pan or dish accidentally fell causing dents. I was always stressing out over things like this and your floor cover would have been the ideal solution! I love the beautiful, subtle pattern.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Vicki, you so understand how gentle I want to be with our new floors but let's face it, it's the kitchen! Turned out to be a terrific solution.

      Delete
  6. Jane, your floor covering is genius! Love it. Sheila

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sheila, and so grateful to a fellow blogger who shared the idea.

      Delete
  7. That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love this! My kitchen floor is less than half the size of yours but eventually I would like to ditch the vinyl tile and do hardwood, as in the rest of the house. It's an old beach house and the flooring is ridiculously weathered, but I don't care, it's oak! The kitchen is the room that gets the most brutal abuse in any house and this is such a great solution.

    ReplyDelete

Love your comments, opinions, advice and questions. I just ask that we all "play nice."