Unless I’m mistaken, tea towel is just a fancy way to say dish towel, but it sounds vaguely better, and items that refer to themselves as tea towels tend to be that much cooler than items that refer to themselves as dish towels. For instance, excellent prints abound; the kaleidoscope effect here is cool.
And I dig the shibori situation here (and I know I need to come up with an alternative to dig, which I wildly overuse; give me a little bit to come up with another option).
This set of three is bright and fun and retroish, and they have a little matchy-clashy thing going on that I like.
This one is made of Japanese linen, and it’s almost too pretty for the kitchen; I sort of wish it came in a throw.
These have an appealingly boho feel.
What can I say? Occasionally I am a sucker for Orla Kiely.
This is just so damned cheery, and kind of reminds me of old Vera Neumann prints.
And I love the fadeout effect here.
This striped number would work in just about any kitchen.
Coral & Tusk has so many excellent embroidered tea towels (not so cheap, but so, so good) and I think my favorite is this one with two tigers and a palm tree.
This looks like it could have been unearthed at a Mexican street market.
As far as I am concerned, you may “dig” things to your heart’s content. I am not even close to even thinking about getting annoyed by it. Plus, again, who else will tell me about there being a … what was it? corduroy? “chore” jackets? … some new thing that is having a moment, of which I was not aware. Shoot, I can’t remember now, but it was this week I think. Hmm. More caffeine.
No, it was the lumberjack thing. Had nooooo idea. And it’s still too hot here, but, nice to know.
Love this selection, especially the boho ones are so pretty!
The kaleidoscope ones are fabulous – and linen, which for me, all tea towels must be. But I couldn’t resist a couple of the Coral and Tusk ones, which I will make into cushion covers. I lust after one of their table runners but the cost is beyond what I can justify so I will save the link and keep an eye on their sale category. The site has 20% off everything (including sale items) for the long weekend, so that covered my shipping cost to Canada.
My drawer is filled with French jacquard dishtowels and a couple very special ones that have been handwoven by friends. Too pretty to use but I do it anyway.
I’d love to spend more on beautiful little things, but I live in a house with my husband, who, when he’s not using his jeans as a napkin, is using my pretty tea towels to wipe off excess brownie batter. (Luckily, he makes up for it in other ways.)
I have a bit of this issue too. Now I just buy as many dish towels as I like at Ikea whenever they have cute ones and also feel free to wipe up coffee and red wine etc. with them. It’s kind of a win win!
You use “dig” all you want, girl. I went right out to anthropolgie for those tea towels Friday.
Tea Towels! Now we’re talking about something very near and dear to my heart!!! I want them all, especially the kaleidoscope ones. I don’t have much in the way of clothes, shoes, jewelry or bags, but tea towels? oh yes.
The kaleidoscope ones and the Anthro Quinn set are beautiful. I’m picky about tea towels because I want them to be as absorbent as well as pretty. I really like the ones from Comet Cloth, from Wash. DC food photographer Renee Comet, which have beautiful fruit and vegetable images and stand up well to washing and drying.
https://www.cometcloth.com/shop-online/
The Shibori towel link takes me to a clock 🙁
ditto
They’re on the Food52 site.
https://food52.com/shop/products/3459-shibori-flour-sack-tea-towels-set-of-2?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzIiph8aX3QIVRkwNCh1cyg7gEAQYASABEgKZZvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thanks, Candy.
All things Vera remind me of the 70s in the best possible way. Have you ever looked through eBay for Vera scarves? It is quite the rabbit hole.
Have to rennovate my entire kitchen (pipe broke 4 days after we moved in – it functions, but is stripped pretty bare) so its a waste to buy most pretty kitchen anythings but I’m buying the Anthro (“boho”) ones for color/design inspiration purposes!
Oh, Eloise! That sounds a lot less than fun. I hope it’s covered! 🙁
Mamavalveeta03, Some of it (aka, very little) is covered because it was old. The house is also old, and we knew the pipes needed to be replaced, but didn’t realize it couldn’t wait a month or two. But, we’ve got a roof – and new pipes! – the kitchen functions, and the people on are block are the best – by far!! We’ll get there.
I have a problem with tea towels: I find them utterly irresistible, and therefore have several dozen in rotation ( a problem in a 600 square foot condo). I also frequently give them as gifts which means that people think that I obviously love tea towels, and give them to me! I have had to put myself on a strict tea towel diet… we’ll see how long it lasts.