I got into one of my weird rebellious moods (rebellious is a relative term for me) and decided to tea stain two pillow covers that we already have (originally from this cute Etsy shop). Oh yeah, I’m wild and ca-razy like that. I just figured it was an 100% free project and it would (fingers crossed) be an easy way to take two extremely stark-white (as opposed to warm white) pillow covers to a slightly creamier and off-white tone that would help them layer in more naturally with a slew of other off-white, cream, and even super light metallic bronze pillows that are currently living it up on Big Karl (our dark slipcovered sectional from Ikea).
I’m pretty keen on switching out pillows at the blink of an eye (so these guys could all end up in another room next month or even next week), but I figured it couldn’t hurt to make them all “compatible” – no matter where they’d end up living someday.
See how they stick out like sore thumbs overly-white squares o’ stuffing? In person they really made the others feel kinda dingy by comparison. Not a good look.
So I dipped them into a nice tea bath that I made thanks to three tea bags that I had on hand (one french vanilla and two regular old black tea bags) and some boiling hot water.
I just soaked the pillow covers with cool water first (a tip to keep the stain from absorbing unevenly) and then stirred them into my boiling hot tea cauldron. Bubble bubble toil & trouble, baby. I didn’t want them to get too yellowed and antique looking, so I just left them in there for about five minutes.
Then I gave them a quick run through the washing machine (with cold water to seal in the color and get rid of any excess tea)…
… and dried ’em (tumble dry low) until they were almost 100% done (leaving them a little damp is a wrinkle relieving trick, since I’ve heard that allowing cushion covers to dry on the pillow instead of sitting in the dryer getting wrinkled can keep them looking better).
They weren’t 100% wrinkle free when they came out, but perfect is so 2010 anyway. Here they are now with their new creamy not-too-white undertones thanks to some free tea. They definitely still read as white, just not as blindingly white (think “normal person tooth colored” instead of “Ryan Seacrest tooth colored”). The whole shebang took me about ten minutes of actively paying attention and an hour or so to wash & dry them.
Now they “tuck” right in with the rest of their little pillow friends (they’re still some of the lightest tones, but they don’t make the other guys look dirty anymore). Hooray for tea.
Oh yeah, and see those two green zebra print pillow covers? The funny thing is that I’ve been sweating them (mom, that means crushing on them, which is the same thing as saying I really like them) since before we moved. I even stuck them into this just-dreaming mood board about our future living room last fall. So when they went on clearance for $19 (down from $34) with free shipping and an additional 15% off thanks to a coupon code (Take15) I couldn’t resist. Got ’em both for half price ($17 a pop with tax). Not that I needed more pillow covers. Oops. Told you I have a pillow problem.
The irony of all of this pillow talk is that we spend 85% of our time on our cushy rug with the bean. Three cheers for something cozy underfoot. Or underbutt, as it were. But at night once Clara is asleep, we do sink into Karl, where we usually watch something weirdly morbid that we love (like Dexter, True Blood, or The Walking Dead – what’s wrong with us?) and all those pillows actually come in handy for things like: back support, reclining, keeping our laptops from burning our legs, tossing at each other when someone falls asleep, and squeezing during suspenseful/scary parts. Ah pillows, such useful items. Maybe I need more. Just kidding.
What have you guys dyed with tea? Any other West Elm shopping going on (pillow covers or otherwise)? Do you remember making fake tea-stained pirate maps with burned edges as a kid? Just me? Oh man, those were the days.
Psst- I’m a dork for dye. Check out how I dyed my wedding dress here and how I dyed some cheap-o slipcovers for our $25 craigslist chairs here.
Pssst- We announced this week’s random giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
What a clever solution! I love the idea of using tea to dye the pillow covers! Oh, and I’m addicted to True Blood. I’m so excited it’s finally back (although I would prefer to watch all of the episodes at once)!
Rebecca @This Nest is Best says
I’m crushing some West Elm ceramic owls right now!
Amanda T says
OMG! Thank you so much for posting about this. We’re doing our nursery in a nature/owl theme and I hadn’t seen these yet. So cute!
Amy says
I totally picked the big guy up on Monday!! He now lives next to my fireplace. (http://www.westelm.com/products/ceramic-owls-a931/?pkey=e|owl|9|best|0|1|24||6&cm_src=NLASEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-Common%20Rule%20Top%20Wide%20Kitchen-_-)
I also have a throw arriving today that I am uber excited about – snagged it on sale and it is super cuddly! (http://www.westelm.com/products/rouched-throw-r950/?pkey=e|throws|7|best|0|1|24||5&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-Common%20Rule%20Top%20Wide%20Kitchen-_-)
YoungHouseLove says
Love it!
xo,
s
Jennifer G. says
I just got mine in the mail. They’re just as cute in person!
Carrie says
I have both the owls and I love love love them! But the little one is cuter. :)
Lanie says
Your living room is really coming together, so much softness, but at the same time loads of eye candy. Cant wait to see what you decide to do for the TV console.
Laura says
No, Sherry, it’s not just you who dyed pirate maps! Just recently, I came home from work to find my boyfriend in the kitchen, dipping a whole canvas for a painting in a giant pot of tea and boiling water…looked pretty rockin’ after he made it into – you guessed it – a giant treasure map.
In other news, I lovelovelove your blog. It’s one of the ones I read every day with my coffee. It’s also one of the ones that makes me want to do lots and lots of things to our apartment, but since we rent, all I end up doing is bothering my boyfriend about buying a fixer-upper or painting something. ;)
Erin says
the pillows look great, and I have to say i love love love french vanilla tea! it is impossible for me to find but it is my total favorite!
Brianne Franklin says
What happened to your Sue the Napkin pillows?
YoungHouseLove says
Those are in the adjoined sunroom on the daybed (to bring the tones of the living room in there). I’m sure I’ll switch things up again soon though!
xo,
s
Laura says
Oh, and P.S….
Try Game of Thrones. It’s also morbid, but deliciously awesome!
Chrissie says
The books are fantastic too, I’m about halfway through the second one at the moment.
Britta says
How is your wool rug holding up, out of curiosity? Is it shedding like a mad man? Or is it fine and dandy :)
And yes, I did make burned/tea-dunked pirate maps (and plan on making some this summer for the nephews) :)
YoungHouseLove says
Fine and dandy! It sheds less than our other wool rugs that aren’t shag. So funny. We just vacuum it once a week. John’s sister just got one (in orange) and loves it too.
xo,
s
Brandy @ midcenturymodernlove says
on that note…how is karl holding up? he looks great, but i wonder about the support. you still loving him?
YoungHouseLove says
Still very much in love. No complaints so far!
xo,
s
Gavin S. says
Oh yeah, love me some tea-stained/burned-edge treasure maps. Just wait until Clara discovers you have skills like that. Your stock is going to soar even higher!!!
Robin @ our semi organic life says
Very cool! I love the slightly less blinding white of these. I’m a sucker for disturbingly morbid media too – I seem to be into [audio]books on terminally ill children and such. No clue how I find them, I just always seem to pick them up.
Katy says
When I got married, my mother-in-law had a beautiful stark white veil on hand that she’d purchased for a possible veil for my sister-in-law’s wedding. The veil cost $10 because it had a snag in it…and veils are normally at least $150 or so. It was too long, so I folded it up and sewed the torn section at the comb to make it a fingertip length instead of a train. Of course, this didn’t solve the stark white problem. It wouldn’t go with my ivory dress, so we tea stained it…for all of two minutes in the sink…then hung it up to dry. It was PERFECT! My sister’s dress also was ivory, so she used it later in her wedding, too. SO, two veils for $10 plus a couple tea bags! So great!
braelin says
I love this– what a cool wedding story!
YoungHouseLove says
So sweet!
xo,
s
Debbie says
I’ve heard of people dyeing wedding veils with tea to make them ivory instead of bright white. Never done it myself, though.
Rachel Tatem says
That’s awesome! I don’t think I would have thought of that. Whenever I have something white I am so desperate to keep it white that it wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Love it!
Jen @ BeantownBaker.com says
I used tea to dye some tshirts for me and my Hubby. We then used fabric markers to make them into hidden treasure maps for a pirate party we went to. Hubby even used my kitchen torch to burn the edges of our shirts. It was a lot of fun. There’s a picture on my blog of the finished product: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2009/10/marshmallow-fondant-pirate-party.html
YoungHouseLove says
So much fun!
xo,
s
Liz R. says
I feel more things in life should only require 10 minutes of actively paying attention. We just got our new sectional (couchless for six weeks, I swear sitting down to watch True Blood this week brought tears of joy to my eyes) and I need to pillow it out. I’ll have to remember to keep this trick in mind.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love “pillow it out.” That goes on a lot around here. Lots of pillowing things out. Haha.
xo,
s
Hilary says
i never made pirate maps BUT i did have to do a ‘diary’ in the first person pretending i was on the oregon trail… so i cut apart paper grocery bags, dyed them in tea, and then rubbed them back and forth on the carpet and roughed them up with some sand paper etc. and, of course, burned the edges. that was in fourth grade. i guess i’m due for some tea dyeing!
YoungHouseLove says
Hilarious. We could have been 4th grade BFFs.
xo,
s
Kiley says
Sherry, This is great! I love your tone on tone pillows!
I have a question about dyeing curtains. I have four panels from World Market that are currently a golden yellow, and I’m over the color. They are nice grommet curtains, so I hate to get rid of them and thought maybe I could dye them. I would like a neutral off white color. Any suggestions for doing this?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, that sounds like you’d need to take color away (aka: bleach them) and then maybe add color back in (off white dye). Maybe try googling how to bleach fabric and go from there? Good luck!
xo,
s
Ruth says
You probably don’t want to actually use bleach – check out color remover. Rit brand sells some that seems to work pretty well. Bleach damages the fabric so it is not recommended unless the color remover doesn’t work.
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip!
xo,
s
Paola says
You guys are so amazing that I often forget how old you are. Until you say things like “I’ve been sweating them” and then it’s like “Oh right, she’s my age.” Wise beyond your years I tell ya.
chrissa says
I needed this! I always forget the easiest, most simple things.
Besides True Blood and Big Brother, just painting my food head off.
Blair says
The Take15 coupon code is exired :( I got super excited!
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry- I think it ran through last weekend. Boo! All their rugs are 20% off now though!
xo,
s
Melissa Breau says
I LOVE those green zebra stripped pillows, just the right punch of color to tie into the green rug and the wall art. And I firmly believe you can never have too many pillows….
bridget b. says
neat. i’d never heard of tea dyeing before. i’m totally gonna have to find something to dye now. i picked up one of the green pillow covers for my guest room after seeing your old post. gives a nice pop of color and i like the texture on it as well.
west elm was having a pretty huge bedding sale two weekends ago and i picked out a duvet cover, two decorative pillows for the bed and two pillow covers for our bedroom settee at half of the regular prices. love.that.place!
what material are the dyed pillow covers made of?
YoungHouseLove says
Just regular old cotton covers. I think natural fibers take to dye better (silk, wool, cotton, etc). But I dyed my wedding dress which had some questionable materials and it worked out. Thank goodness.
xo,
s
NettyC says
TGIF! I’ve dyed a white runner with tea and I always use tea to dye easter eggs. fun.
Nicole says
I love how the living room is coming together. Looks great! I just started watching True Blood from season 1 and I am beyond addicted. Such a great show! Now I just have to add HBO to my cable programming so I can watch the newest episodes! :)
Sarah says
I love the tree pillow, where did you get it?
YoungHouseLove says
That was an oldie from Ikea a while back. Maybe try ebay?
xo,
s
Kristin @ Ogo's Love Nest says
I never knew you could dye with tea! Great idea!
& Those green zebra pillows are perfect.
Sarah says
I wanted to know about the art you have… did you just put solid pieces of paper in a Ikea frames? Do you have a post about them :) Thanks! P.s. pillows look fab!
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, here it is for ya: https://www.younghouselove.com/five-dolla-art/
xo
s
Jackie says
I wore an eggshell colored wedding gown and didn’t want my veil to be Bride-of-Frankenstein-y, so I tea-dyed my veil about 2 weeks before my wedding. It turned out great!
Kathy says
I used to tea dye everytthingggg when I was younger! Pirate maps.. invitations… I even tea dyed posterboard once to make a cool looking “wanted” poster (for Carsen Daly – which btw got me on T.R.L. – probably the highlight of my life)
elaine says
HAHAHAHAHA…..oh, TRL.
Erin says
I too have a pillow obsession. I have to steer clear of the pillow aisles at Target and Homegoods otherwise i get myself in trouble.
I like the inspiration colors of Sue the Napkin but wasn’t such a big fan of them as pillows. I’m glad they are living (this month) in another area of the house. I love the tea dyed pillows – they have been on my “to buy” list for a while.
Leslie says
Love the dye jobs! My MawMaw dyed lace gloves with tea for me to wear as a flower girl once and they were great. (It was a crazy fancy 1980’s Gone With The Wind kind of wedding – all 4 of us carried parasols!) Also my boyfriend has used RIT dye to color plastic furniture (parts) for guns and it was great and cheap. It would probably work for most plastic? And I totally rocked the tea dyed, burned edge paper for a document for 7th grade history.
Melissa@Julia's Bookbag says
I love yo pillows. I have a pillow problem too. But what I really want to comment on is ‘The Walking Dead’ — my hubby roped me into watching and yeah it’s AWESOME but that show more so than any other show in my life GAVE ME AN ANXIETY ATTACK OF EPIC PROPORTIONS — and next season is supposedly going to be scarier and grosser!!! Say what? The first season practically made my hair fall out! I honestly don’t think I’m going to make it thru Season 2. I think I’ll only be able to listen, not watch!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- it’s totally freaky but addicting, right? We’re obsessed. But I definitely do my fair share of squeezing my eyes shut and just listening. Haha.
xo,
s
Ashley says
Reading your tea dying story was a encouragement for me since I had previously sworn off tea dying… Last year, my husband and I had the brilliant idea to tea a stain a map to make it look more weathered. I had read a lot about tea staining paper so I thought it would work. Unfortunately, we didn’t think to wait until the tea had cooled. We dropped the map in the hot tea (we’re brilliant like that) and the map immediately dissolved and all we had was a big ‘ol wad of paper. Maybe I’ll try tea dying again someday…
Madeline says
I ordered the ceramic egg crate from West Elm about two weeks ago when it was backordered, it came to $4.25 with the TAKE15 coupon code. YAY! I got an email this week…it is completely out of stock and West Elm cancelled my order. Tragic. :( Oh well I’m still on the hunt for one! Have a great weekend!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man that stinks. I feel your pain.
xo,
s
braelin says
Good news- I saw the same thing at Anthro. last week– but I think only in the blue (?). Granted, it is 3x the price of the WE on sale… but here’s hoping it is still in your budget: http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=973774&navAction=jump&navCount=
Alison says
The same thing happened to me! I ended up finding one on amazon for $11 and free 2 day shipping. It wasn’t as glorious as $4.25 but I’ve wanted one forever.
Nikki says
One time I wanted an item that was out of stock and by calling they transferred me to a store that had the item even though it was out of stock for catalogue orders…maybe worth a phone call!
Madeline says
Thanks so much!!! I will definitely look into all those options!!
Anna says
Brilliant!
Also, I love Dexter. But I can’t watch more than 2 episodes at a time. I get too freaked out. It’s so good though. And I have a bizarre crush on Dexter (but not Michael C. Hall himself). Does anyone else think Dexter is hot?
Tia says
Yes! Those abs…swoon!
YoungHouseLove says
I heart Eric from True Blood. Oh man, those abs. Haha.
xo,
s
Paige says
I’ve heard of this, but never seen anybody actually try. Good to know it works!
I’m also a pillow addict. I suppose I’m “in recovery” since I haven’t purchased one in a while, but it’s only a matter of time before I fall off the wagon.
Angela says
I tea-stained a white onesie I used to make my son’s Halloween costume (he was a circus strong man) last year, but my stain job wasn’t even. It sort of looked like the strong man had a skin condition, but it was okay.
Your bee pillow is cute! I was just considering this one on sale at Pottery Barn: http://www.potterybarn.com/products/bee-pillow-covers/?pkey=cbedding-sale-all
YoungHouseLove says
Cute!
xo,
s
Rachael says
May I ask…where do you store extra pillows that you might not be using? I’d love to get some more, but don’t want to part with what I have and am trying to figure out where to put them in the meantime.
YoungHouseLove says
Thankfully a lot of them are just covers (since I switch them out and don’t have to store a bunch of big pillows) but right now our playroom/future kid room is full of stuff like that. Gotta get it under control someday. Then maybe I’ll use a closet or an under-bed storage bin?
xo,
s
threadbndr says
space bags! They ‘squish’ the pillows down (especially the fluffy ones) for flat storage.
MandyP says
Oh my gosh…NOTHING wrong with watching a lovable serial killer like Dexter. My husband and I JUST got hooked on the series and we are racing through seasons 1-5 in record time!
Allison says
I know this is impossible, but try to space it out. My husband and I did the same thing and it’s killing us to wait for September or whenever the new season begins. Love that Dexter!
Rachel says
Normal person tooth color. Hilarious.
Emily says
So I don’t actually have any regular teabags, just fruity ones. I bet my raspberry ones would make such a pretty dye though! Think tea-stain with dark pink…at least that’s what it looks like in the cup :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah- try it on an old sock or something. Haha.
xo,
s
Jennifer says
For a school project on Emily Dickinson, I printed her poems out, ripped off the neat edges and tea dyed em. It came out pretty good! For a seventh grader anyway.
Speaking of pillows. Can you pillow out a semi puffy dark leather couch? Or is that a decorating no-no? Maybe some nice textured canvas or burlap?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah I’d pillow it out to break up all the leather and lighten it up!
xo,
s
Emily says
Lol, “pillow it out.” I’m going to find an excuse to say that today :)
Kitty says
Thanks for asking this. I just purchased a brown leather couch for the family room to go with the leather…yikes as I type this…recliners. There, I said it. I have two recliners in my family room. I need to “pillow it out” to cut down on the testosterone air. Sherry said I could!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- do it girl! Make me proud! Pillow your little heart out!
xo,
s
Jackie says
Love your living room! One question for you – where did you get your couch? We’ve been searching for one that fits our oddly shaped living room.
Keep up the great work! I love reading about your adventures. :)
kathy says
I think it’s an Ikea sofa–if I remember correctly.
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, Karlstad from Ikea (we got the corner sofa and the add on chaise).
xo,
s
Jackie says
HA! I re-read your blog. No need to waste time answering my stupid question.
(I hate to admit that I’m a teacher and I yell at my students for doing that kind of stuff…)
YoungHouseLove says
No worries! Our blog is like a big maze and we ramble a lot, so we know it’s hard to find stuff. Haha.
xo,
s
Chelsea in Richmond says
Ooohhh, love this idea! We have 2 white pillows on our couch that don’t go with the room at all. I bought them because they are a different size then most pillows and they fit perfectly with our couch. I was going to try to make new covers for them but dying them would be sooooo much easier! YHL to the rescue again! Now I’m off to pin this on pinterest ;-)
Krysta @ Domestic for Dummies says
I am obsessed with Dexter!! I cannot wait until season five is available through Netflix! Your living room is coming together beautifully BTW.
Ethan@OPC says
I think we just reupholstered our dining room chairs with that same green zebra fabric. My wife loves it.. small world.
Ciera @ Rose and Thistle says
West Elm always have the cutest pillows, their colours at the moment aren’t right for my apartment but I love scoping out their sales!
Good dye job too :)
Julia @ Chris loves Julia says
It’s one of those things you (meaning we as readers, or maybe just me) don’t really see as off or a problem. Until you do this and then it’s like “Oh, wow, okay. Much better!” I love that even the Ikea frames and mats feel blended.
Chris Loves Julia
Molly says
Ok. Now it’s just getting CREEPY. Sherry–first Homegoods, then thrifting, and my post this morning featured…NEW PILLOWS. (Chevrons!)
http://thenestinggame.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/experimental-art/
I mean, I know I read your blog a lot (ok, obsessively) but now I feel I’ve linked in a little TOO much!
I am really impressed with the tea staining. Such a subtle change, but it really makes a big difference. Great job!
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh those are awesome.
xo,
s