Vintage linens should be seen, not stored

A window framed with clean, white curtains blowing gently in the breeze -- you can almost feel the sun’s warmth and smell the fresh air.

A growing number of homeowners are capturing that feeling through antique and vintage linens, used in new ways (old sheets as curtains, for example). Whether inspired by thrift, nostalgia or design, creative linen lovers are turning tea towels into valances, bedcovers into draperies, lace curtains into table runners and dinner napkins into throw pillows. These white or cheery florals brighten up the house to greet warmer weather.

Finding an unexpected use for these linens gives a home a fresh new look and gets guests talking, says Cynthia Cooper, who runs an international antique-linens business from her Farmington, Conn., home.

Crisp white linens dressing windows, draping tables or scattered onto couches can lighten and brighten a room in the warmer months.

“It brings old-fashioned warmth to a room, particularly new rooms,” says Cooper, who has been featured in Yankee, Victoria and Good Housekeeping.

She believes people should enjoy their linens. In her home, for example, she hung a pristine embroidered pram cover over an interior door window.

If you’ve found yourself with a beautiful old tablecloth, bedspread or quilt that’s stained, worn or sun-bleached, make something smaller, such as pillows, window treatments, table runners or even stool covers.

Gloria Lombard of Charleston, S.C., salvages damaged linens and makes lampshades and pillows.

As the price of old textiles has risen, many homeowners aren’t content to leave their beautiful linens in a drawer.

“There’s a lot of decorators who are using linen toweling -- instead of for towels -- for table runners or curtains or draperies,” says Sheila Gediman, a Tiverton, R.I., antique-linens dealer. Like others who love the fine workmanship of old linens, she finds everyday uses for her textiles.

“I have some that have patches from the late 1800s,” Gediman said. “These nice old pieces -- you can tell the history; you can feel people using it and cherishing it and passing it along.”

Need more ideas? Here are some suggestions:

Imperfect sheets: Cut and sew into pillowcases, tablecloths, window valances, window panels, shower curtains or napkins.

Tea towels: Use as napkins or valances, or layered over larger textiles as table covers.

Too-small tablecloths: Cover the table at an angle and layer multiple tablecloths.

Florals: Cover an artist’s canvas with fabric for a wall hanging; isolate a beautiful bouquet and frame it.

Hankies: Sew into christening caps, boudoir pillows or sachets, or adorn them on throw pillows.

Cutwork tablecloth: Cover a dark-colored duvet, and use as a bedcover.

Heavy damask tablecloths: Headboard cover, bedcover or mounted as a wall covering.

White tablecloth: Wedding

canopy.

Curtain panels: Sew together to create a tablecloth.

Bedspreads: Wall hanging, room divider or drapes.