Tablecloths

Why are cool tablecloths so hard to find? For the summer I used a white lace tablecloth in the dining room because I wanted to lighten the room up a little. With leaves on the trees outside the windows and dark-ish walls and furniture, things became a little gloomy. I like the look of the lace, but it's not very practical and not very cozy feeling for the winter.

A lot of people tend to leave the table bare when not in use and only put a tablecloth on when they use the table. I understand the logic behind this, you can show off the table most of the time and have a "cleaner" look, then protect it when you use it. My problem is that I have a tendency to not use things if they require too much effort and so far, our dining room hasn't gotten much use except for when we have people over. I'd really like to use it more.

While I don't like having to treat furniture as precious, I don't want to wreck a perfectly good mid century table that's held up pretty well to this point. What I'd like is a fun, modern tablecloth that I can leave on most of the time that I don't have to be afraid of staining (ie. dark color or busy pattern). Apparently these are not easy to come by. Those at the top of this post are from Crate and Barrel and Ikea. Apparently CB@ and West Elm don't believe in table cloths. The C&B ones are too expensive for something you can easily spill red wine on, and the Ikea one is a bit uninspiring.

Then I figured I'd just go ahead and make one. It's just a big sheet, right? Even my limited sewing skills can handle that, but most fabric is 54-55" wide which would make for a somewhat narrow tablecloth. I was hoping to not have to do anything as fussy as attaching a border around the edge to lengthen it, though I may have to. I measured the one that is there now and it is 60" wide. I recently discovered that Ikea fabrics are wider than standard American fabrics due to the good ole metric system. Their fabrics are 59" wide, which after hemming the edges would produce roughly a 57 1/2" wide table cloth. I could be okay with that. I browsed through their various options online and narrowed it down a bit. First there is the Kajastina fabric in gray. I like it, but it may be a bit too "high style" for our house.Then there is the Cecilia fabrics, but I'm afraid the light color may get stained too easily.I like the food-like pattern of the Majken fabric,My favorite (for the moment) is the Gunilla prints. I like the bold, woodland-esque pattern. The black may be a bit dark, bit it will be forgiving. This last Gunilla print I think can work the best, the pattern is smaller and less likely to overwhelm the room, plus with the busier pattern and less black, it will hide stains without being too dark.None of them have colors that match our dining room really well. Do you think they can work anyway? Or will they clash too much? Is there somewhere else I could just buy a cool tablecloth that doesn't cost too much? If I could save myself the effort of making one I'd be happy, there is no shortage of projects around here.