DIY French Ticking Place Mats

by The 2 Seasons

3 Materials

With a bunch of patriotic holidays coming up the next few weeks and months, I wanted to do something to make our meals a little more festive. I came up with the idea of creating a place mat that resembles old-fashioned French ticking in the colors of navy and cream. (Red and cream would work just as well.)

It is an easy project that involves some measuring, taping, and painting. Each place mat can be completed in about 10 minutes.

I took the easy route and purchased pre-made place mats, but if you want, place mats could easily be made out of painter's drop cloth fabric for this project. Using a drop cloth would give it an authentic look. (We have instructions on how to make place mats on our blog. See link below.) The first step is to decide how large you want your stripes to be and then carefully mark the fabric and tape off the lines. Be sure to press down on the edges of the tape extra hard so that paint can't sneak under it and ruin your project.

The next step is to use fabric paint in the color of your choice and a stiff brush to paint the lines. Fabric paint will dry very quickly.

After your first painted line is dry, then tape off the other lines following the same process.

I love the way this project turned out. It looks just like some old French linens that I saw recently at a flea market. This is an easy project that eve the kids can do with a little adult supervision. To see many more projects, please visit our blog, The 2 Seasons.