Elementary Organization: teacher by day, upholsterer by summer.

A couple of week's ago, Jenn over at Little Green Notebook wrote a little diddy about upholstering a Parsons table, an idea she had gleaned from Matters of Style.

Drool. My heart melted like a popsicle on the Fourth of July. Let's discuss: the fact that I could take a table from Ikea, wrap it in some of my fave fabric, and have a swoon-worthy result is like Christmas in a Swedish box.

I started this little project by heading over to my fabulously cheap fabric outlet. I decided I wanted a fabric that would be sturdy enough for a table, have some sort of print that was bold without taking over the room, and that was a different texture than anything I already had in the room. I also was mildly in love with this console table from Ballard and it's earthy, textured feel:

After a little bit of digging in the fabric trenches, I came across this bamboo-ish, grass-ish, woven-ish make.my.heart.stop. fabric:

Want even better news? It was $8 per yard. I'm so sorry, como?! This would mean that after buying my $70 table from Ikea and $32 worth of fabric, I would have a hallelujah table in no time! Eat my dust, Ballard $600 console table!

I practically skipped to Ikea and snatched up my 75-inch table, and could hardly wait to get it out of the box and put it together! Once the table was constructed, I rolled out my fabric and placed the table face-down on top of the fabric.

I used a staple gun to staple the fabric into the "feet" of the table first:

I then began wrapping the fabric around each of the corners on the table like I was wrapping a gift for nice, smooth edges:

With the legs finished, I then wrapped the fabric around the "top" part of the table, being sure to pull it very tightly:

To make a nice edge on the second side of the fabric, I simply tucked the edge of the fabric, creased it, then stapled the fabric into the table. So sorry I forgot to document that part!

After finishing the top of the table, I flipped that puppy over and was so thrilled with the results!

I love the texture that the grasscloth adds to the table - it's just a subtle spice that I think adds so much to the space!

I paired the table with some blue, blown-glass lamps I found at HomeGoods and my mercury glass candlesticks.

I love the mix of the earthly fabric with the color of the lamps...

and the shiny-ness of the candlesticks.

One of my next projects will be to re-upholster some x-benches to place under the table for aesthetic loveliness and extra seating (after I get the cord confusion under control, of course).