13 Ways to Upcycle Fabric for Home Decor

One section I NEVER skip when thrift store shopping for home decor is the textile section.

It can be iffy to sift through secondhand tablecloths, curtains, and rugs… I mean, some fabrics are just plain gross. And I will never ever bring home a thrifted pillow at the risk of bed bugs (literally my worst nightmare).

But if you have some fabrics hanging around your home or a pretty fabric at the thrift store passes the inspection test, there are so many creative ways you can repurpose them for decor with or without a sewing machine!

Without realizing it until recently, I’ve repurposed fabrics a lot of different ways in our home over the years. So I thought it would help to show you a few ways you can get a little creative with fabrics in your home too.

The best part is there are no sewing skills required!

I cannot sew if my life depends on it, so thankfully all of the tutorials linked in this post to repurpose fabrics have no-sew solutions. It’s amazing what an iron and a roll of hemming tape can do.

1. Make Textile Art from Rug Remnants

This DIY textile art trick is so easy to do! I had a kitchen rug that was still in decent shape, just with a few stains in places. So I cut out an unstained section of the rug and pinned it into a shadow box to hang in our living room as textile art. Love!

There are so many great vintage rugs out there that look a little too rough to use on a floor, but you can still celebrate their beautiful pattern and texture in a frame.

2. Use a Scarf as a Table Runner

Scarves make excellent table runners, especially colorful plaid scarves for fall. I used this one to make a Thanksgiving centerpiece using common thrift store finds.

3. Make Throw Pillow Covers Out of Cloth Napkins

I can’t sew at all, but thankfully Heat n Bond tape exists to make these easy DIY throw pillow covers.

Keep an eye out for cloth napkins at thrift stores or in the clearance aisles of HomeGoods. There are so many fun ones out there to make great pillows!

4. Use a Shower Curtain to Make Wall Decor

Extra large wall art is usually crazy expensive! But this DIY shower curtain art was a way cheaper option to make a big statement in my office.

(Oversized art is a great way to make a small room look bigger.)

5. Utilize Window Treatments or Tablecloths as Shower Curtains

As long as you have a waterproof shower curtain liner in place, you can use pretty much any kind of fabric to make a decorative shower curtain.

I used curtain panels with some ring clips to make a double extra long shower curtain in just minutes for our girls’ pink bathroom.

6. Make Cafe Curtains With Kitchen Towels

Ring clips came to the rescue again for our kitchen window!

If you ever find some pretty kitchen towels and want to add a little bit of vintage charm to your windows, DIY no sew cafe curtains are the perfect solution.

7. Add Fringe to Upholstered Furniture

Okay, I don’t know if this really qualifies as repurposing fabric, but it’s too good not to pass along.

If you ever have a modern sofa or chair that you want to give a little vintage flair, just pin some fringe along the bottom. I love how this DIY fringed sofa in my office turned out!

8. Embellish Curtain Panels With Ribbon Trim

Without a doubt the easiest way to add grandmillennial style to plain curtains!

I almost got rid of these plain curtains that I took out of Olivia’s room. But they got a whole new life in Regan’s room after I added this new sew curtain trim using ribbon.

9. Utilize a Tea Towel for Art

Tea towels always seem to have the cutest graphics printed on them. So why not stick a cute towel in a frame to use it as art?

I found this towel for $5 at H&M years ago, and I’m pretty sure buying an art print in this large size would have cost a good bit more.

10. Add Interest to a Sofa Back With a Throw Blanket

If you have a plain sofa back, toss a patterned blanket or flat-weave rug on it! It’s definitely not a new trick by any means, but it’s a great way to add something interesting to an often underutilized area.

11. Use a Throw Blanket as a Tablecloth

This idea to repurpose a blanket as a tablecloth is an inexpensive trick you can use to make outdoor picnic tables feel cozy during a gathering. It’s a small detail but it makes a casual backyard dinner seem a little extra special.

12. Repurpose a Rug as a Pillow Cover

I see all kinds of inexpensive accent rugs in clearance aisles. To me, 2×3 rugs aren’t big enough to use in very many spaces without feeling kind of dinky. But they make great oblong throw pillows!

13. Upholster a Chair Seat With a Kitchen Towel

I found this vintage chair at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore to use at my daughter’s bedroom desk, but the existing upholstery fabric was in rough shape.

Thankfully, it was nothing a kitchen towel stapled around the chair seat couldn’t fix! It’s a quick and easy way to use up leftover fabric scraps.

I tend to forget about all of these fabric repurposing tricks, but now that I’ve rounded them up, I definitely need to keep them in mind more often when I’m in the mood for a change.

One of these days, I’m determined to make a pretty DIY patterned lamp shade using tablecloth scraps, but I haven’t tackled that one just yet.

Have you ever tried any of these? Any you would add?

More Cheap Decorating Ideas

• 14 Natural Decor Ideas to Bring Nature Indoors
• 24 Free Home Makeover Ideas Using What You Already Have
• The Secret to Find Free Printable Wall Art Online
• 30 Best Home Decor Items to Buy at Thrift Stores
• 40 Cheap Decor Ideas to Improve Your Home for Under $100