{burlap + hot glue}

 I don't sew.

I mean, I made a dress hospital gown in 8th grade home-ec class, and a pillow that looked like an ice cream sundae {I wonder what ever happened to that thing...} but since then I haven't layed a finger on a sewing machine.

But like some Project Runway contestants, I do work well with a hot glue gun. We are like BFF's really. So when I decided our newly refinished (!!) dining room table needed a runner to dress it up {and cover the one yucky spot in the finish}, I started brainstorming ideas that could work without a needle and thread.

And then it hit me yesterday...

BURLAP!

So of course I headed to Pinterest to see what inspiration I could find. One of the first pics that came up was this lovely ruffled number...

The person that made that runner probably sewed it. But whatever. I knew all I needed was some burlap and my trusty glue gun. So I headed to JoAnn and grabbed two yards of burlap at just $3 per yard. And while the boys were napping I got to work!

First I laid it out on the table to eyeball how wide I wanted it to be. No measuring here...I just used our centerpiece to figure out what width would look right.

And thanks to the lines in the burlap it was easy peasy to cut a straight piece.

I won't lie...at first I was just going to leave it like this...

But the ends looked really sad and weren't hanging down very well. So I cut two long strips {about 1 1/2 times the width of the runner} and used hot glue to make them into ruffles. I forgot to take pics of this process because I was busy trying not to be burned by the hot glue seeping through the burlap. Ouch!

But here is the finished product!

I think it turned out pretty darn close to my inspiration. What do you think?

Now I just wish we were hosting Thanksgiving so I could show it off!

The cool wooden bowl on the table was hand carved by my husband's Grandpa...pretty amazing huh?

And yep...still need to remove the ugly brass fireplace doors, decide whether or not to paint the brick, and figure out what to put on the left side of the fireplace. Ideas?

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