Quirky and creative ways to upcycle old bed linen

You’ve just bought new bed linen. It looks and feels great on your bed, and is the perfect update to your bedroom. Now your attention turns to your old bed linen. Do you just stuff it away in the linen closet on the odd chance you want to use it again? Do you simply just bin it? Or, perhaps there’s a way you can give it a new lease on life?

Here are some quirky and creative ways to upcycle your old bed linen around your house (and even your yard). 

Bedroom – transform it into a quilt

Even if your old linen’s days of being on your mattress are over, it doesn’t mean it needs to leave the bedroom completely. Instead, it can be upcycled and have a new life on your bed as a quilt. Not only will you have an extra quilt for those cold winter nights, but it’s also relatively easy to make: 

1. Measure the size of your current quilt to find the size that your new, upcycled quilt needs to be. 
2. Cut your sheets to suit, with a half-inch border around the sides. 
3. Put the quilt batting on top of the first sheet. 
4. Put the second sheet on top of the batting and sew them together. 
5. Pin and then sew the binding around the edges, cutting any loose threads as you go. Voilà, you have a quilt!

Kitchen – downsize it into cleaning rags

Mess in the kitchen is inevitable – between all the cooking, baking and eating. Instead of reaching for a roll of paper towel, or tea towels, cut up your old linen into cleaning rags. This is a great way to clean up particularly bad messes without staining or ruining your tea towels. By turning your old linen into cleaning rags, you can also rewash them, making them a great sustainable option and saving you money on cleaning supplies. When they get to the stage where you can’t wash them, you can easily throw them away and still have plenty of others to use. 

Dining room – dress up the table with napkins or a tablecloth

Are you a fan of dressing up your dining table? Perhaps you regularly have dinner parties, or just love making an effort for meals with the family. Old linen can be a great way to spruce up your table by upcycling it into napkins or even a tablecloth. 

When it comes to napkins, all you have to do to make them is cut the linen to the size you want, fold them in half, and sew the edges. 

When it comes to a tablecloth, you need to measure the size of the table, decide on a drop length and hem size, sew the fabric pieces together (if your sheets aren’t big enough), and sew the hem. If you’re not up to sewing, you can always use a fitted sheet as a tablecloth, as the elastic holds it in place. If your linen has seen better days and isn’t quite up to dinner-party scratch, it can still make a great tablecloth for messy activities like painting! 

Living room – use it to make a teepee (for the kids)

We’re sure you all remember building a sheet fort as a kid. Take this one step further and use your old linen to make a teepee for your kids to hang out in. 

All you need is 4-6 wooden poles, your old sheets, rope, a drill, and a staple gun.

Measure and outline the space where the teepee will sit, drill one hole in the same place in each pole, thread the rope through the holes and tie up it to complete the teepee frame, spreading the poles out evenly. Then, measure the space between the poles so you know how much of your linen you’ll need to cut into panels.

Once you’ve cut the panels, sew them together, cutting the front panel down the middle to create a door. Drop the teepee cover on the frame from the back to the front, making sure that the seams line up with the poles. Once they do, staple the cover in place.

Once it’s done, you can place it in the corner of the living room so your kids have their own play area or reading nook.  

Yard – use it to protect your plants

Not only can old bed linen be useful inside the house, but it can also be useful on the outside too, especially in your yard. There’s nothing worse than spending hours in the garden only to have your plants damaged by frost or birds. You can place your old sheets  over your plants to protect them from the frost during the cooler months.  

By upcycling your old linen around the house and yard in these quirky and creative ways, you’ve got your money’s worth out of it, saving money elsewhere in your household, being environmentally friendly, and putting it to good use. You’ll also bring warmth and personality to your home for years to come.