I bought a few yards of burlap a little over a year ago. It remained rolled it into a bundle and moved from room to room never exactly finding my vision for it, but on the fringe of the holiday season and knowing sticky fingers would soon head toward my glass table I finally gave it a home.
It cost me all of something like $2.25 a yard. It was not quite wide enough to reach the edges of my table so it almost looks like a really wide runner, which is fine, it still works. I left about eight to ten inches draped off either side. Since it was going on the table...with food...I cleaned it first. Also, it was pretty wrinkled after the dryer so I did need to iron it. For a less than $6.00 runner/table cloth that complements the pops of orange very nicely, I think the burlap was well worth the purchase in the end.
If you want to give burlap a try in place of a traditional table cloth for your Thanksgiving meal this year consider a couple things:
First, if you buy a few yards of the burlap and your holiday party becomes a bit more wild than expected instead of trying to scrub red wine out of an inexpensive couple yards of burlap try reusing it in your garden to hold in the soil moisture and control wash away or protect your plants form freezes, snow, ice and windburn. Second, use some shiny repeating pops of colors like the orange chargers and the orange bow on the vase. The heavy contrast of the black to the light colored burlap gives the whole table a sharper, more modern look. Just be careful not to add too many rugged touches in addition to the burlap because it could become too severely rustic.
Happy Thanksgiving!