DIY Burlap Initial Place Mats

Y’ALL….seriously, I am LOVING these burlap place mats. I told you here when I posted about the polka dotted ones that I had another set in mind…well they are just as fabulous in my opinion but simpler and less time consuming! After the polka dotted set I started thinking of all the possibilities..chevron, initials, etc. All you really need is the right stencil. I knew the initial set would be quicker so I started with it.

I followed the same process as I did in the others and prepped my burlap with starch, cut them to the size I wanted and removed 4 strands to give the outside frayed look. You can use the link above to refresh your memory.

Burlap can be a bit difficult to paint with the holes so I figured I’d test a piece to see if I could just spray paint the initial…it was a FAIL! I’m glad I decided to use a scrap piece of burlap to test it! Not only was I a messy sprayer where I got paint off the stencil, the lines for the initial just weren’t crisp like I wanted them.

That left me to paint them with a sponge dauber like the last set. I used bricks to secure the stencil so it didn’t move around at all while I was painting.

I quickly realized this stencil was flimsy and I was afraid paint may start seeping under the stencil so to keep that from happening I did the first layer with the sponge dauber which very thin and then I went back with a small paint brush to thicken up the paint. The brush gave me more control over where I was painting so that I could keep it in the stencil area.

Here is an example of the layer with the spondge dauber and then after I went back with a paint brush:

 

Once I had the paint thick enough I just gently removed the stencil and placed the burlap place mat on a fresh sheet of newspaper to dry. Definitely make sure you let it dry on a new surface because you do not want to be pulling newspaper or whatever you have stuck to the back! It’s not fun!

I LOVE the way these turned out!!! They make burlap in so many different colors now so the color combination options are endless!