A Return to Oil Cloth

Oil cloth is definitely a nostalgic nod to the past.  My grandmother used oil cloth on her kitchen table.   She liked the way it was so easy to clean up.  She also had it on the table in her laundry house.  Today lots of reusable shopping bags are made from oil cloth in fun colors, but it was definitely more popular in days gone by.  Maybe we should start an oil cloth movement and see how many uses we can create for it.  That would be fun.

 

 

 

When we had the antique armoire rebuilt and placed in our dining room, the furniture maker added two shelves for storage.  He also replaced the original back with a bead board back.

 

He just used a basic plywood for the shelves, and it needed some help.  I really didn’t want to paint them white to match the back because I thought it might be rough due to the quality of the wood.

 

Eventually, I decided to just wrap the shelves in oil cloth that I bought at the fabric store.  This basic picnic print was not really the look I wanted, but the selection was limited.

 

One-half yard was just enough to cover both shelves.

 

The oil cloth provides a smooth, clean surface for the shelves, and they are ready for storage if and when we need it.

 

These shelves will be the perfect place to store extra serving dishes, linens, and glassware.

 

Take care.