At Home

Hotel-white linens are incredibly appealing in, well, hotel rooms, where sheets are washed and pressed daily and the beds are made just so; in a less maid-equipped situation, however, they can be a little uninspiring. If you've ever brought home brand-new white sheets, put them on the bed, and then thought, "Oh....Huh..." then you know what I'm talking about. The whole room has to work with them in order to not look college dorm-y or bachelor pad-esque. Still, they're perfectly good sheets (or pillow cases, or curtains, or napkins, or whatever), and there's no reason you shouldn't still use them. The one-hour-or-less solution: Dye them another color. It's not that hard, and with the expert-certified tips I'm about to give you, your chances for success are vastly improved.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to my sister's house—a fashion bigwig who is nevertheless very hands-on with the design process—on a weekend afternoon to find her rubber-gloved and elbows-deep in a pot of dye, tweaking a showroom sample to be just the right shade of marigold or indigo or coveralls-green. This is what she had to say about her strategy:

1. Natural fabrics (ie cotton, linen, etc.) are best, especially for beginners. "In fact, I've never had great luck home-dyeing a synthetic, but that's not to say it can't be done. The dye just doesn't saturate as well, so it's hard to get the deeper colors," she says. Related note: Many natural-fabric items have synthetic thread stitching, appliqués and zippers, so be prepared to see a contrast there after you've dyed something. If there is a loose thread you can trim off without damaging the item, do a dye test with that clipping first to see whether it will take dye.

2. Fill a large bucket (the larger the item, the larger the bucket) with very hot water, or use a big soup pot directly on the stove over low heat to maintain the water temperature. (You want to keep it hot, but not boiling.) Thoroughly dissolve the dye in the water, following the manufacturer's instructions, and add a cup of salt to the solution. For colors, use less dye than you think you'll need, and for black, use more.

3. In a separate bucket or sink, wet the item to be dyed thoroughly with regular tap water. (My sister used three thoroughlys when she was giving me these instructions, so I'd say wet it until you think it's wet enough and then keep wetting it three times as long. This keeps the dye job from being splotchy or streaky.

4. If you have scraps of material with the same fabric content, dye test strips of the fabric before you try your ultimate project. (Cheap white cotton undershirts make great testers for larger cotton items.) Experiment with the amount of time you leave the fabric in the dye to see what colors result.

5. Stir the item well and continuously while it's in the dye bath, making sure it isn't wadded or bunched up in any area. The amount of time you'll leave it in the bath depends on how deep you want the color to be, but it's usually between ten and thirty minutes.

6. Once you've got the color you want, remove the item from the bucket and rinse it thoroughly (again, times three), first in warm water, then cooler, until the water runs completely clear. Then wash the item with warm water and a mild detergent and let dry.

7. Finally, clean all counters, buckets, and sinks that had contact with the dye with a chlorine-based cleanser or a similar substitute.

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