Our dining set still has good bones but it already shows some wear. I just had the chairs reupholstered 3 years ago and now they already look like this! Look at all the claw marks!
The Culprits:
The table itself also has heat stains – white marks from hot dishes being placed on it. It’s not pretty anymore, and that’s why I’ve been covering it with a tablecloth. I’ve tried many of the tricks on the internet on how to remove them but I can’t fully remove them so I gave up. Tablecloths are easier to maintain – when it gets dirty, just remove it and put it in the laundry for washing!
EASY, AFFORDABLE DINING SET MAKEOVER
Most of the time, I’ve been buying tablecloths from department stores, but lately they’ve become expensive and don’t have the designs that I want. They also fray very quickly because they are usually just edged and not double-fold hemmed.
For practicality’s sake, I prefer tablecloths that are thin, easy to launder, dry quickly and don’t need ironing (but you can if you want to)! I now only use the nicer tablecloths from the department store for special occasions; but for daily use, I use my Divisoria tablecloths.
I am not a good seamstress, not at all! But I can sew a straight line on my sewing machine 
Thank you, Home Economics class in high school! Have I made back the money I spent on the sewing machine in savings from my sewing projects? No. But I have been using it for little projects like this and it has been very convenient to have a sewing machine, even if I only sew straight lines. There’s just a certain confidence that comes from knowing that I can make / fix things myself without having to spend time looking for a seamstress and then paying for a sewing job that I might not be particularly happy with. Ako nalang gagawa, tapos na agad.
Haha, one time, we made a Princess Leia costume out of cheap white curtains that were on sale
EASY TABLECLOTHS
So, back to my Divisoria tablecloths. I recently went to Divisoria again to buy these cloths:
There are many, many more designs and colors to choose from! What’s more, instead of being limited to what’s available at the department store, I have all of Divisoria to choose designs from, depending on whatever I am inspired by 🙂
I wanted something summery, hence the yellow. They were P60/yard, 60-width. I’ve been looking for tablecloths like this on and off whenever I’m browsing department stores and Shopee, but I couldn’t find what I wanted so one day I just did it myself to get it over with.
I call them “picnic” cloths but the tinderas call it “oxford” and also “pang school uniform”, also “checkered”. But I think they are actually called polyester gingham. I like these because they are light, easy to wash and dry quickly. They also don’t need to be ironed! Easy drying is really important to me – rainy season is almost upon us and a fast drying tablecloth is what I need! After spin drying, they only need 30 mins – 1 hour of sampay time and they’re dry! This also avoids the amoy kulob problem. I just needed 2.5 yards each for our dining table. That’s P150 per design.
The stalls that sell them can be found on Pasilio X and Pasilio R (those are where I go) on Ylaya St. in Divisoria. When the weather changes to rainy I might go make some tablecloths again and go for a pale baby blue or light grey checkered design. I think the red checkered design is best for outdoors, picnics and Italian restaurants 🙂
We go through table cloths very quickly, sometimes it’s only been used for one day and it’s already dirty / something got spilled on it. If they get destroyed by constant washing, it’s no big because it’s just P150. But so far, the ones I made last 2016 are holding up very well until now!
The advantage of buying striped / checkered designs is that I can just follow the lines! 😀 If I don’t have straight lines to follow, things get slanted very quickly. 😀 Now all I have to do is iron the edges into double fold. Just fold the edges about half an inch to 1 inch, iron it so the fold stays. And then fold again to hide the edge of the cloth inside (para di matastas agad). Yes, it’s best to make the effort to plantsa the folds first before sewing. I asked our maids to help with this. Next, all I had to do was sew! Sewing is easy if the cloth has already been folded and ironed and pinned. All I had to do is sew straight lines! I didn’t do any of the fancy things like mitering the edges anymore. I just did ordinary sewing.
I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures while sewing. I didn’t plan on blogging this and showing my bad sewing, haha 😀
Here’s the other design used for breakfast today:
We are currently renovating the kitchen so everything’s a mess and we can’t use the kitchen counters at all.
So that’s for the table.
AFFORDABLE CHAIR COVERS
I first saw elastic chair covers a few months ago at The Landmark in Makati but the designs were limited.
For the chairs, I bought these stretchable chair covers. I found them as low as P99 on Shopee (different designs) but I wanted a plain, light, neutral color and the cheapest one I found was selling for P123 each, it was a plain beige color.
They were easy to put on the chairs. Our chairs’ backs are too tall so the seat of the cover doesn’t lay flat on the chair but I can live with it. The covers are cloth and washable. The material is thin and soft.
Took this photo when the covers first arrived and we put it on right away. We were in the middle of setting the table for lunch but I was too excited to put them on, so please excuse the messy table setting. #RealLife
The tablecloth is actually cream-colored and the chair covers are beige, they just show up as white on the photo.
For P100+ each, I don’t expect them to be super matibay, but they should last a year at least. We’ve had them a week now and so far they do the job. They do make the chairs look a bit more formal than I’d like but that’s better than the clawed upholstery.
The covers are also cheap enough that I can replace them any time I am “sawa” and want a new design.
I’m so glad these elastic chair covers are available now! Reupholstering furniture can get expensive! Hmm… should I do the sofas next? Slipcovers, chair covers and table cloths are an easy way to change the look of your furniture without spending a large amount.
I hope this helps those of you are are thinking of revamping their dining set!
