With Love from Sugar.

I have a fabu SIL and what's even more fabulous about her- she trusts me.

On our last trip to LA LA Land, we talked for a good hour about all the redecorating that she wants to do, but she admitted that she had NO idea how to do it. Ummm, HELLO- I think I might have raised my hand, jumped up and down and begged her to let me help. Here's the problem: two years ago she moved into her Husband's bachelor pad and she's been working really hard to take the house from country world eclectic to warm and modern.

And since she loves to throw dinner parties, my first assignment- or test if you will- was sewing up runner for their awesome dark wood dinning table.* So I had to take her current 'runner' aka a place mat from Pier One:


And make it into something better- or should I say an actual 80-inch runner. She loves reds and their house has light wood beams everywhere with tons of sky lights. So I stepped out of my modern/mid-century modern style and switched it up to be a bit more Country Modern.

So here's what I came up with:

I took a chance with the more 'country' fabric on the other side, but I tried to keep it more modern with the beads from the original place mat she gave me.


What do you think? It's no master piece but is it Modern Country, or what? Do you think she'll let me do more? It's in the mail as we speak, I am crossing my fingers that she likes it.

*No, the table that is shown is our kitchen table not hers.