This window blind inspired me to make placemats and when we decided to renovate the spare bedroom, I just couldn’t trow it away. I have that problem for many many things and I accumulate lots of useful bits (my husband would call them by another name…), which sadly seem to fill up our storage cupboard too quickly. But isn’t it worthy!

To make these placemats you’ll need:

• a woody window blind like mine (see picture above)
• a pair of scissors
• a pair of secateurs
• a lighter and a candle
• Optional: a little cat helper (Vegas, our kitten, poses for the photo and helps, a bit)

I cut away the top and bottom of the blind and removed any damaged area. Cut a rectangle MUCH TALLER than the one you’ll use for your place mats because you need to remove quite a few woody sticks to have the string long enough to tie a knot. See pictures on the left, I removed about 6 sticks to have a comfortable length of string to work with, but it obviously depends on the kind of blind you have. Then make a double knot using 1 string from the top and the one opposite to secure the last woody stick to the rest. To seal the knot and make sure your place mats doesn’t fall to pieces light a candle and place the knots on the flame to melt the knots together.

To adjust the width of the placemats I use a pair of secateurs to give a nice edge to the woody sticks! And check out how good they look with our tropical meal! I can’t wait to use them this summer on the garden table for a BBQ night! I have some left overs that I might use to do some glass mats….