Tea Stain Pillow Covers, step by step

I got into one of my weird rebellious moods (rebellious is a relative term for me) and chose to tea stain two pillow covers that we already have (originally from this cute Etsy shop). Oh yeah, I am wild and ca-razy like that. I simply figured it was an 100% free project and it would (fingers crossed) be an straightforward way to take two extremely stark-white (as opposed to warm white) pillow covers to a slightly creamier and off-white tone that would assist them layer in more naturally with a slew of other off-white, cream, and even especially light metallic bronze pillows that are right now living it up on Big Karl (our dark slipcovered sectional from Ikea).

I am fairly keen on switching out pillows at the blink of an eye (so these folks could all end up in another room next month or even next week), but I figured it could not hurt to make them all “compatible” – no matter where they’d end up living someday.

See how they stick out like sore thumbs overly-white squares o’ stuffing? In person they truly made the others feel kinda dingy by comparison. Not a good look.

 

So I dipped them into a pleasant tea bath that I made thanks to three tea bags that I had on hand (one french vanilla and two regular old black tea bags) and some boiling hot water.

I simply soaked the pillow covers with cool water first (a pointer to keep the stain from absorbing unevenly) and then stirred them into my boiling hot tea cauldron. Bubble bubble toil & trouble, baby. I did not want them to get too yellowed and antique looking, so I simply left them in there for about five minutes.

Then I gave them a swift run through the washing machine (with cold water to seal in the color and get rid of any excess tea)…

… and dried ’em (tumble dry low) until they were nearly 100% done (leaving them a little damp is a wrinkle relieving trick, since I have heard that allowing cushion covers to dry on the pillow instead of sitting in the dryer getting wrinkled can keep them looking better).

They were not 100% wrinkle free when they came out, but ideal is so 2010 anyway. Here they are now with their new creamy not-too-white undertones thanks to some free tea. They certainly still read as white, simply not as blindingly white (think “normal person tooth colored” instead of “Ryan Seacrest tooth colored”). The whole shebang took me about ten minutes of actively paying attention and an hour or so to wash & dry them.

Now they “tuck” right in with the rest of their little pillow friends (they are still some of the lightest tones, but they do not make the other folks look dirty anymore). Hooray for tea.

Oh yeah, and see those two green zebra print pillow covers? The funny thing is that I have been sweating them (mom, that means crushing on them, which is the same thing as saying I truly like them) since before we moved. I even stuck them into this simply-dreaming mood board about our future living room last fall. So when they went on clearance for $19 (down from $34) with free shipping and an additional 15% off thanks to a coupon code (Take15) I could not resist. Got ’em both for half price ($17 a pop with tax). Not that I needed more pillow covers. Oops. Told you I have a pillow problem.

The irony of all of this pillow talk is that we spend 85% of our time on our cushy rug with the bean. Three cheers for something cozy underfoot. Or underbutt, as it were. But at night once Clara is asleep, we do sink into Karl, where we typically watch something weirdly morbid that we enjoy (like Dexter, True Blood, or The Walking Dead – what is wrong with us?) and all those pillows in fact come in handy for things like: back support, reclining, keeping our laptops from burning our legs, tossing at each other when someone falls asleep, and squeezing during suspenseful/scary parts. Ah pillows, such useful items. Perhaps I need more. Simply kidding.

What have you folks dyed with tea? Any other West Elm shopping going on (pillow covers or otherwise)? Do you remember making fake tea-stained pirate maps with burned edges as a kid? Simply me? Oh man, those were the days.

Psst- I am a dork for dye. Check out how I dyed my wedding dress here and how I dyed some low-cost-o slipcovers for our $25 craigslist chairs here.

Pssst- We announced this week’s random giveaway winner. Click here to see if it is you.