How to Style Tea Towels in Two Rooms

I live in a very old building in Brooklyn. My apartment definitely needs a little work, so I’m always on the lookout for fun ways to dress the place up. After hearing about a few ways to take tea tea towels above and beyond their dish-drying duties, I decided to give towels as home decòr a try.

Inspired by these suggestions, (but not feeling crafty enough to get stitching or framing), I picked out some of our newest towels to try a few ideas of my own.

Tea towels can be used a curtains, turned in to pillows (as several of our reviewers have suggested in the past), or framed (also suggested in a customer review).

I absolutely love coffee and tea, so for my first towel decòr experiment I chose Sara Selepouchin’s Tea and Coffee diagram towels.

I didn’t get too fancy with the tea tea towel, but I do love the idea of having a tea towel diagraming tea! I hung the towel on my oven, right near my tea pot, so this one might end up soaking up a spill or drying a dish at some point. But for now, it just looks really nice hanging in my kitchen.

The coffee towel is another story, though. I can’t bear the thought of this lovely piece of textile art– a tribute to one of my all time favorite things–cleaning up kitchen messes.

First, I ironed the towel, because it came out of the packaging a little creased. Then, I refolded it to fit the space I wanted it to cover–a weird, painted over door on my kitchen wall.

I used nails to hang a thick string across the space, then used clothespins to hang the towel, creating a clothesline look. For a more rustic feel, you could do this with twine or frayed rope.

Simply adding two towels to my kitchen was a big improvement. I’d much rather look at Sara’s delightful diagrams than my old oven or the thick paint over the mystery door.

The towels look great in the kitchen, so I wondered if the same trick would work in another room and chose the Typographic Tongue Twister Towel to add a nice pop of color to the living room.

My husband built a fancy oak cover for our radiator that also acts as an end table. It’s beautiful, but I worry about it getting scratched or ruined by someone not using a coaster. This towel solves that problem. It makes a great table runner, because it’s small enough that it doesn’t cover up all of the wood’s natural beauty. It’s fun, colorful, and really looks great with my giant paperclip print.

I love the design so much, that I might actually frame the towel and hang it someday. But for now, it’s keeping my end table/ radiator cover safe while adding color and style to the room.

Wooden Drawing Model Guy agrees and gives the Typographic Towel a thumbs-up. Or he would…if he had thumbs.