Display for Vintage Linens or Storage for Tablecloths
I've mentioned that I come from a long line of people who never throw anything away. I have tablecloths and sheets that have been hand-mended over a hundred years or so. Those never throw anything away people are my maternal ancestors. My mother, Granny Tea, had a friend build her a rack for hanging her vintage linens. It looks sort of like the side of an old fashioned wooden crib turned so the short end is on the floor and the tall end is towards the ceiling. It leans against the wall and is attached to the wall at the top. It doesn't really lean, that's the angle.
Well, I wanted to hang some of my linens as well, and I want some storage for tablecloths, which we use every day. I guess I should explain that the reason we use tablecloths every day is mainly because I don't have a table large enough for my family of nine and our frequent guests. So we push two long tables together, end to end. But our long tables do not remotely 'match.' One is a plastic topped conference style table you might find in a Sunday school classroom, the other is a wooden table belonging to my great-grandparents. If I cover them both with a matching tablecloth, then the room looks unified and not so cluttered and disjointed.
I looked around for an old ladder, and did find one that used to go to the side of a set of bunk beds that we no longer use as bunks. I hung that on a closet door using ribbons and over the door hooks. But that ladder wasn't really big enough for more than three old quilts. It looks rather pretty, and it's nice to have the quilts out for display without taking up valuable floor space, but I still needed something more.
What I'm doing is taking apart an old toddler bed, which I previously purchased at a thrift shop for about 15.00. We used it for a couple years, but we don't need it anymore.
Now, ours isn't as fancy as this. It's not a 'sleigh' bed. Each of the sides is straight, making them ideal for linen holders. But it comes apart, and the two side pieces make nice smaller racks for hanging smaller pieces, placemats, doilies, vintage dishtowels- all together, the toddler bed breaks down into five great pieces for hanging linens and quilts. The bottom piece is the largest, and we'll hang that one on the wall rather than over the door. The nice thing about something like this for linens is it can be practical rather than just decorative, too- sheets, extra blankets, towels- these could be stored vertically instead of horizontally, in space that you're not using otherwise. And it keeps them from getting too wrinkly, too.
So the fifteen dollar toddler bed, having done its duty as a bed to at least one other family before it came to us now has a new life and many more years of use in it than the typical toddler bed. And, as it turned out, the 'footboard' piece ended up being exactly what we needed to help hold up and stabilize a computer table with a broken leg.
That's what I had in my hand this week. Feel free to share what you had in your hand.=)
Want more like this post? Read on!
- How A Stick-It Note Helped Me With a Frugal Hack Monday I was on my way home from a dentist...
- Stay-Cations I dislike the word coinage of staycation, but it turns...
- Mulberries, summer heat, and our extra houseguests What's in my hand this week? Mulberries, and now black...
- 7 Important questions to help you prioritize your storage a short excerpt from my upcoming e-book: There are two keys...
- 5 Ways To Furnish A Kid’s Room Cheap My son's room has been stripped to the bare boards....
2 Responses to “Display for Vintage Linens or Storage for Tablecloths”
September 19th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I used an old bedsheet to make several dozen cloth napkins recently. It was red-checked and heavy cotton – nothing that we would use on a bed, but perfect for napkins.
I’m just kicking myself for getting rid of the green one that was also given to us. It would have matched my kitchen/dining area perfectly!
May 25th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I have an older baby bed, and going to paint it to use as a day bed. The extra rail I am going to turn it into a place to hang my weaving, or vintage cloths, or then I may use it in the laundry room to hold all the cloths I hang to air dry. I love the idea you used sheets for napkins! I going to cut up a commercial type table cloth to make and hand dye napkins.
Leave a Comment