I love moving things around and it’s amazing how things for one room can often work well in another room, if you have similar look and color palette. I decided I needed slipcovers for my kitchen chairs at the farm. To be honest, we’ve been covering the chairs with tea towels when we eat. I know, not elegant, but that’s life. I decided it was time to make slipcovers for the chairs. Here they are sans the tea towels!
But before I started sewing the slipcovers, I remembered that I had made some gray linen slipcovers for these chairs several years ago.
Over the years, the gray slipcovers were packed into the back of my armoire, and I replaced them with more colorful slipcovers.
Yes Molly brushed past this chair and left some collie hair that I didn’t see until after I took the photo. Any way I wondered if the gray slipcovers would work on the farm kitchen chairs and see for yourself! I still had some fabric left, so I added the ties at the back, and I had to add some ruffle to some of the covers, since some were originally for arm chairs and now I’m using them on side chairs. To see my tutorial on how I made these linen slipcovers. CLICK HERE.
I saved a lot of sewing hours, using the covers I already had, and that made me so happy. They don’t fit perfectly, but they’re good enough for farm use. The rug has plenty of color, so the gray slipcovers are perfect for the room. I really like the look.
I also wanted to show our farm kitchen, because it isn’t white. I know a lot of people don’t have white kitchens, and I think it can be lovely, no matter what color your cabinets are. These are a greige color. The counter top is a brown/black/gray granite, which is apparently ‘not on trend’.
I think there’s something to be said for being content with your home and loving it even if it isn’t perfect and even if it isn’t ‘on trend’. I hope you love your home, and enjoy it. There’s always room for improvement, no matter what house you live in, but it’s also important to enjoy your life now, not later when you get a new floor or a new kitchen. Enjoy the scuffed baseboards, and the smudges on the refrigerator. Our collie has scratched the floor at the farm almost everywhere, but we love her, and she’s an important part of our family. The floor is just a floor. My father-in-law used to say when the grand-kids left his house, that it was good to get everything put back together, but it made him sad at the same time.
Your slipcovers look great! It’s always such a treat when we can “shop our home!” It is my goal within the next few months to make a built in plate rack like the beautiful one in your dining room. Did you build it yourself? If so, could you do a post on how it was built. It would be awesome to hear first hand how to go about putting one together.
Oh that’s exciting Linda. If you are building the plate rack then you are much more clever than I am. I just told the carpenter what I wanted, and then it appeared.
Oh Anita, I love your chair covers and collie hair! I have always had at least one dog, sometimes ducks, sometimes horses, an occasional kitty. I also like to see some colors, while I do appreciate the whiteness of recent “on trend” homes, I think that colors, in small doses, reveal personality. Dimension is often lost on all white interiors. While my style is rather different I am leaning more to English Country. The differences are minor in some ways but probably more floral. In small doses. Right now, it is snowing an inch or so per hour in Pennsylvania and white seems to be the color of the day.. Thank you for all you share, makes my day!
“My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?” Erma Bombeck.
Erma nailed it…don’t you think? You have nothing to apologize for, your home is so cozy and just seeing your pictures, is very inviting. My sweet Blaster died last year and I would be happy if I had dog hair to sweep up today. I love your style and look forward to reading your blog daily.
I was sad when I saw that granite was not on trend but then I realized I love my pale sage cabinets and my silver/sea green granite make me happy. A trens is just that, a trend.
So happy to hear that someone so talented in design lives like “normal” people – with dog hair and imperfection. Your farm home is beautiful and welcoming. The perfect shade of white walls and cabinets and the “on trend” design movement is so over-promoted and so shallow as to make us all into sheep who will follow anything current, then hurry to empty our bank accounts in order to change course the next year when “trends” change – as they always do. You have found what is right for you and you share that with us – and we appreciate it greatly.
I love that your kitchen isn’t white. So many bloggers have white kitchens that they tend to all look the same and boring, but yours is different and I appreciate it’s warmth and coziness and the rug just fits perfectly!
I have the same chairs .I also use tea towels.lol You inspired me to make the same covers that you did. They are stunning. Did you have a pattern? I have 10 chairs. So it will take a lot of material. But I believe it will be worth it in the end. Thanks ,you inspire me on a daily basis.
Cathy, I apologize for not including a link to that tutorial. I’ll add it to the post, but here it is for you. https://cedarhillfarmhouse.com/making-caned-chairs-elegant-and-sturdy/
Thank you so much,I’m reading this at 3:00 in the morning and can’t wait for the fabric store to open so I can buy my material and get started. No more tea towels for me.lol
Always such a nice post. It made me feel good to see your kitchen cabinets. Mine are a similar color but have a more yellow undertone. Odd thing is they looked “whiter” when we looked at the house 4 years ago. I’ve realized too late that changing out the black appliances and countertop for stainless and a lighter granite made the cabinets look worse instead of better. We are seriously considering painting them since they are a high quality wood cabinet and don’t have the budget to replace at this stage in life. When we purchased an additional cabinet it cost a small fortune to add the matching glaze that gives them this dirty looking color!
But really, I agree with other readers that making changes to just follow trends is a costly mistake. Especially when you remember that real farmhouses were inhabited by people that could not afford to rip out parts of their home just because they didn’t like them. In a lot of instances the houses were shared by multiple generations and became a hodgepodge of a lot of styles. And then for me, I don’t want something everyone else has. I like my decor to be different, to stand out from the crowd.
The most important thing is that meals in your kitchen are prepared with love not designer items.