DIY Lace Seating Chart Display

We’re beaming with glee from the overwhelming response to the DIY Contest. There were so many great entries that we couldn’t just pick a few, so we extended the selection to 50 (and counting) DIY projects. We’re still going through submissions! To replenish your thirst for real wedding features, we will continue to share our favorite weddings and design shoots in between the DIY sessions. We will be sharing our selected entries in the order they were submitted. First up is a project sent by Rhiannon, who made a seating chart display made out of discarded wood and vintage lace.

What you’ll need:
– stained vintage wood scraps or pieces (I used pieces of wood from an old discarded skid)
– evenly cut pieces of starched lace (I used ivory colored lace with minimal stretch)
– a glue gun
– fabric scissors
– mini wood clothespins
– wood spray paint
– patterned paper punch
– mini shipping tags (from Staples)
– colored marker for writing names and table numbers

Instructions:
Step 1: Depending on the desired size of your structure, draw a sketch of how you would like it to look and ‘feel’ (I wanted something small and simple). Once you’ve visualized and drawn your structure on paper you can cut your wood pieces to your liking prior to assembling the pieces together. My handy neighbor cut my wood and then drilled the pieces of wood together for me.

Step 2: Glue gun one end of a piece of lace to the back top of one side of the structure. Pull it across to the other side and fasten the other end with more glue (you will want the piece of lace to be tightly pulled so that the clothes pegs won’t weight the tops of the lace down). The more starched your pieces of lace are, the better. I used a simple water and cornstarch mixture to stiffen up my lace.

Step 3: Continue gluing strips of lace across the entire structure until you have covered the width from top to bottom. You could also glue to pieces from bottom to top as opposed to left to right, which is the way I opted to make mine.

Woodland Bohemian Wedding With A Crazy Cool Beer Stein Seating Chart

Step 4: Place clothes pins on the edge of a shoe or cardboard box and place box over a newspaper-covered area. Spray the clothes pegs from all angles with spray paint in desired color. Let dry before removing from the box.

Step 5: White the clothes pins are drying, start punching the edges of the shipping tags with desired shape and design punch. I used an eyelet pattern cutter by Martha. Handwrite guest names and table numbers on each tag. Arrange tags along pieces of lace fastening with the spray painted clothes pins (which will be dry of course!)

Step 6: Set up the seating chart up at your reception venue next to some vintage birdcages and a dreamy floral concoction and watch guests oh and ah over the creative way of displaying their seats!