If you are looking for a fun new DIY project for your home, then consider making DIY laminated placemats. They provide a simple, easy way to dress up your dining room table. You can change them out weekly or seasonally to give your dining area a fresh, fun new look. Plus, since they are easy to make, DIY laminated placemats make a great project for the entire family to do together.
DIY Laminated Placemats: Materials
You only need a few things to make your DIY laminated placemats:
- Paper or card stock, sized correctly for your placemats
- Scissors
- Thermal laminating pouches
- Laminating machine or household iron
You might also want additional supplies to decorate your placemats, as described below.
Choosing the Paper
Basically, making DIY placemats boils down to taking a piece of paper, putting it inside a laminating pouch, and ironing it or sticking it through a laminating machine to complete the process.
However, choosing the right paper – and the ways to decorate that paper – are what make this project fun and unique. You can use any variety of different paper for placemats. You might want to choose an elegant decorative paper. For example, Love & Specs suggests wallpaper. Beautiful stationery, scrapbook paper, and thick wrapping paper are other options.
Alternatively, and especially if you’re making DIY laminated placemats with your kids, you might choose simpler paper options. Construction paper is a good option, for example.
What Size Paper Should I Use?
What size should your paper be? Any size that you want for your placemat! In the Meantime Mama suggests that 9″ x 12″ and 12″ x 12″ are good placemat sizes for kids while adults prefer placemats sized around 11″ x 17″ or 13″ x 17″. You can also make circular placemats; she suggests 14.5″ diameter. But play around with what works at your own table setting.
Decorating Your DIY Laminated Placemats
Once you’ve chosen the paper, you can set about decorating the placemats. This is how you personalize them. You can decorate them with just about anything that you want. In the Meantime Mama’s tutorial, linked above, shows how to use construction paper cutouts of a table setting to create a placemat for toddlers that shows them where their plate and cup should go.
Collaging together images and words from magazines, newspapers, and old books is another great option. You could even take coped pages of favorite old books for a literary theme to your placemats. Maps are another great theme.
Additional supplies that you might use to decorate your placemats include:
- Crayons, markers, and/or paint
- Fabric swatches
- Paint chip samples
- Photographs
- Ribbon
- Stickers
- Washi tape
Browse your craft closet, or the scrapbooking section of your local craft store, and see what you can come up with.
You can use a glue stick to secure all of the elements in place on the paper.
Laminating the Placemats
The final step is what makes the project a placemat and not just a piece of paper art. You have to laminate it. Put the finished placemat inside a laminating pouch sized to fit your paper. Alternatively, you can use a larger size and trim it down once it’s laminated.
If you have a laminating machine, run the whole thing through the machine following the instructions on the device. Otherwise, you might use a hot iron on an ironing board to secure your placemats. Another option is to go to a store like Kinko’s that offers a laminating service. Compare price options to determine what’s best for your project.
Design Your Own Placemats Online
If you love the idea of making your own placemats but think that this project sounds too “hands-on” then you might prefer a digital version. There are many websites where you can easily design your own laminated placemats. Zazzle is one popular example. This is more expensive than the true DIY project. However, it’s still affordable and can be a great gift idea as well.
Read More:
- 5 Things to DIY to Save Money
- Frugal Art: 7 Affordable Ways to Decorate Your Home
- Top City Slicker DIY Gardening Tips
- Choosing the Best Do-It-Yourself Bed Liner
Kathryn Vercillo is a professional writer who loves to live a balanced life. She appreciates a good work-life balance. She enjoys balance in her relationships and has worked hard to learn how to balance her finances to allow for a balanced life overall. Although she’s only blonde some of the time, she’s always striving for total balance. She’s excited to share what she’s learned with you and to discover more together along the way.