Grommeted Linen Counter Skirt

4 Materials
I have a counter in my office/craft room that I use for my frequent projects, which sometimes include painting and gluing projects. While I love the usefulness of this counter, it's a standard builder's grade white Formica counter and so not the loveliest thing. I recently decided to update and redecorate this office/craft room and really wanted to find a way to improve the looks of this counter.
Replacing it with a nicer surface wasn't really a good option; I often use bleach and abrasives to keep this surface clean .
I spied a curtained table in a Ballard Design catalog and the lightbulb went off!
Here's a picture of my counter. Not only is it a useful surface, but I do enjoy having the storage underneath. But..no reason why it can't be useful AND good looking...that whole functional aesthetics thing!
Swing by the blog to see what else I did in my craft/office room.
Here’s what I used and how I made the counter skirt:


Fabric


I purchased 3.5 yards of linen. I calculated my yardage like this:


There is a 36″ drop from my counter top and I knew I wanted a substantial 4 inch hem at the top and a 1 inch hem at the bottom, so I added an additional 7″ for those, resulting in 43″ in vertical length.
The fabric is 58″ wide, so I just needed to know how many sections of 43″ high fabric I would need to go the horizontal length of my counter. As it is I needed 2 1/2 sections of 58″ wide fabric. With this linen I may have been able to get away with less fabric since there really isn’t a pattern and I could have pieced the shorter section on the end, but the last thing I wanted was for it to look all wonky so I bit the bullet and got the 3.5 yards. And I just wasn’t sure how thick I wanted the pleats, so I got the extra just to be sure. I can always use spare linen for something!


If you like the thickness of my pleats, then multiple the length of your surface by 1.15. The linear length of my counter is 119″, and my counter skirt is 138″.


I sewed the sides together so that I had the 3- 54″ wide panels side by side and put a 4 inch hem on the top and an 1 inch hem on the bottom.


Then it was time for the Grommets.


For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links to products I use, love and highly recommend. If you purchase any product through this site, I may be compensated, but you do not pay one penny more.


Grommets


I used these grommets. Once again, not knowing how many pleats I was going to have, I purchased more than I needed. But by using the factor of 1.15 for the pleat thickness, I needed 28 grommets, spacing them 5″ apart. They come in packs of 8, so I only needed 4 packs.


I marked every 5 inches on the top of the skirt. Do a little math to make sure you aren’t going to have one end with 3.5″ at the end…know what I mean?


I placed the circle shape that came with the grommets so that the center of it was on top of the marks I made, traced the circle and then cut them out.
Then it was just a matter of placing the grommets (which come in 2 pieces) on both sides of the hole you cut. We placed the fabric with the 2 grommet pieces in place between 2 books and then gently tapped with a hammer to push the 2 halves of the grommet together.
Now we were ready to put the hooks on the counter.


Hooks


I used these hooks which I found at Home Depot. They come in packs of 2 and I needed 6 total, so 3 packs. They were originally bronze, but I spray-painted them black. This size worked perfectly for my 1/2″ thick rod.
We drilled starter holes into the counter and then screwed the hooks in. On the rounded edge of the counter, there is a good 1/2" of wood for the screw to embed in, but on the side there was no wood. We glued a piece of wood to the underside so that the screw would have something to grab onto.
Metal Rod


Because my counter has a corner that I needed to go around, this rod was the one element that took me the longest to noodle. I spent countless hours at Home Depot looking at all sorts of options, and there are many if you don't need a bend in your rod. Ultimately, I called a local welding shop and had them bend a 1/2" thick solid metal rod at a 90° angle.


(In case you're wondering, I did figure in the weight of that rod as it relates to the hooks. Each hook can handle 95 lbs in wood and the rod was under 10 lbs)


I needed the end product to be 8' by 2' , but since the rod came in a 12' section, I just had them bend it at 9'. This gave us some wiggle room to cut it exactly as we needed it when we got it home and lined up on the counter.


When measuring, bear in mind that your rod will not be right up against the counter, so figure in some space for the hooks and your corner.
Once all the pieces were in place, it was just a matter of threading the curtain on to the rod and placing it on my hooks. This counter skirt turned out better than I had hoped and was really easy, once I figured the rod part out.
Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Lynn @ Nourish and Nestle
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  3 questions
  • Birdz of a Feather Birdz of a Feather on Feb 12, 2017
    How much did the rod cost you?
  • Nancy Sanders Nancy Sanders on Feb 12, 2017
    Why couldn't you us small pvc pipe to make the rods around the top?
  • Diane Schule Diane Schule on Feb 27, 2017
    You said you sometimes use glue and bleach on the Formica work surface: do you have to remove the curtain to avoid things that might stain/bleach/spoil it? It's so nice, and it doesn't look difficult to just lift the rod off the hooks. Yes, I'm a klutz....
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 82 comments
Next