Category Archives: painted curtains

Kalah Blue – Painted Curtain DIY

Posted on by
2

Who doesn’t love royal blue and white paired together??

No one.  That’s who.

I realize how confusing that double negative sounds… read it again… it makes sense… promise

Blue and white is a classic combination for a reason, and one of my all time favorite patterns is the Kalah Blue pattern by Duralee.  You see it everywhere.  Remember this AMAZING bedroom from House Beautiful last year??

Target also has a darn good knockoff of this pattern in a chair that I can no longer find online… if we had somewhere to put it, you can bet your buttons it would be in our house – it’s SOOOO good.

The throw pillows may make an appearance in our house in the next year… perhaps when I’m in my post-Christmas “simplifying phase” in January…

And these curtains??  LOVE.  (Maybe that’s what inspired them to hang that print right next to them… just saying!)

And another pair of curtains… they just bring a little magic to an all white space…

And surprise surprise… more curtains…

Well this post is for a DIY curtain tutorial after all…

Ok, so getting on with it…

Carmel of Our Fifth House is one of the most talented and successful home bloggers out there.  Her house is TO DIE FOR, and her taste is crazy good.  She makes brave choices mixing deep reds, blues, and experimenting with dark paint (check out the color of her bedroom walls… it’s LOVE).  I love bloggers who take risks, and stay true to their taste – it makes their spaces so unique and fun to read about…

Her blog is one of my daily go-to’s for sure, and after going through the archives for ideas in our own place, I ended up stumbling across her tutorial for painted curtains.  You know I have a bit of a thing for experimenting with painted curtains since it’s a) easy and b) cheap

Past posts about painting curtains can be found here and here

Anyway, I’ll let a few of her pictures speak for themselves…

Ok tell me that those curtains aren’t a CLOSE SECOND to the Kalah Blue, which is PRICEY as anything. The cheapest I was able to find the fabric online was for $20 a yard (not including tax or shipping) at Fabric.com.  For one single curtain panel, you’d need around 4 yards… and when you’re making multiple panels, that adds up REAL quick…

To the rescue is the concept of stenciling… I’ll leave you to Carmel’s tutorial at Our Fifth House for the play by play, but she essentially used a stencil from Olive Leaf Stencils (I believe it was the Ikat Pattern #2) and painted away…

Genius right??  I’m dying to try this myself, but we’re all out of windows in this apartment to adorn… perhaps a sweet friend would be willing to volunteer their windows for a little experiment…

Any takers???

Painted Curtains – Part Deux

Posted on by
3

Happy Friday friends!!  Are you as ready for the weekend as I am??

I’ll  be heading down to Orange County this weekend for my beautiful friend’s bridal shower, but before I hop on my flight, I wanted to share with you an idea I had for painted curtains…  I’m not sure if you remember the chevron painted curtains I made and posted about here, but after seeing the below image on Pinterest (unfortunately no source folks) I had a brilliant idea for another take on painted curtains.

Something about these curtains spoke to me – I have no idea if the curtain panels in this bedroom involved a DIY, or if the fabric just has a print with a “painted on” look… but either way, that’s not really the point!  I think that an abstract painted curtain would be a fabulous, simple DIY!
Curtains can get really pricey – especially if you are looking for a longer length – but using the simple, white Merete curtain panels from Ikea (only $25 for two 98″ panels) would save you A LOT of money, and I think it would be really fun to tap into your inner Pollock.  Right?? If I were to attempt this, I’d be sure to measure things out beforehand to ensure that each swirly row was roughly the same width, and that they went down the panel in straight rows, but to replicate something like these curtains would require hardly any artistic capabilities!  Right up my alley!
Now that I’m really looking at this photo, those coral striped pillows actually look as though a paintbrush was taken to them as well!  I can’t imagine they would feel very good to lean against, but if you were going for pure aesthetics, these would be another fun DIY to test out with a bit of paint!
If you wanted to try out the pillow version, Ikea also sells two-packs of plain white 20×20 Pillow Covers for $6 – that is a price you cannot beat – and if you mess it all up… it was just $6 down the drain.  I’ve spent more at Starbucks before!
If you need a little inspiration to get the creative juices flowing, check out the walls around Kelly Wearstler’s staircase and entryway!  Phenomenal!
Source
Jenny Komenda of the Little Green Notebook used a paint brush and mint green paint to overhaul the itty bitty powder bath in her Brooklyn apartment…
Source
Or if the chain link swirls are too girly for you, take a more abstract route, and go to town – curtain panels with a large scale black and white abstract would be super edgy and bold, and would really compliment either very simple, or very feminine furnishings.  Best yet??  You wouldn’t need (or probably want) a lot of art to compete!
Source

Painted Curtains DIY

Posted on by
5
This weekend was full of birthday celebrations, but between the party hopping, I managed to get in a little DIY project.
I’ve long admired the curtains that Kristin Jackson of The Hunted Interior made for her living room.  They are playful, and graphic, and best of all, they are DIRT CHEAP to make.
Kristen’s Curtains
If you’ve ever tried to buy curtains that are long enough to go from ceiling to floor, you know that the 84″ panels they sell everywhere are not nearly long enough, but luckily for me, Ikea sells A PAIR of 98″ panels for $24.99.  No I am not kidding.  For $25, you get not one, but TWO curtains.  For that, I felt that I literally had nothing to lose.  If you’re interested, you can buy them here.
Of course, because they are SO LONG, you’ll almost definitely have to hem them, but it’s easy enough, and the folks at Ikea are smart – they include some stitch witchery in with the curtains to iron them hem for us non-sewers.  Dear Ikea, you are amazing.
Ok so into the project – this is what you’ll need:
White curtains
REALLY good painters tape
At least one measuring tape (I found it was helpful to have two)
Fabric Chalk (or pencil worked fine too)
Paint (I just used some good old latex paint from the hardware store – nothing fancy)
Foam brush or roller

This project is easy… the hardest part was measuring these dang stripes.  I wanted two “peaks” for each of my navy chevron stripes, so I took the width of the curtain, divided by four, and measured that much in from each side of the curtain to determine where the top peaks would go.  Then I measured down – each stripe was 16″, and marked out where the bottom point of my chevron stripe would be, and connected the dots with painters tape.  
Sounds simple enough, but I’m no math whiz, so it took me about 2 hours to get this first stripe measured and taped.  So sad.  After that things moved more quickly though…

Once I had finished measuring and taping the first curtain, I laid the second curtain panel over the first, and was literally able to see the tape through the curtain, so no measuring required for the second one – just started taping over the lines of the first.  The first panel took me probably 3 hours total – the second took me 15 minutes or so.

Once everything was taped off (REALLLLLLY good – press down hard on the tape to ensure a good seal) you simply need to paint in between the lines.  I used a foam brush – a roller would work, but I didn’t trust myself near the edges with the roller since I used a thinner tape.  Take the tape off while it’s still wet (I read online that this helps to ensure the paint doesn’t seep under the edges). I’m not actually sure how true that is since some of my paint ended up seeping, but it’s worth a shot.
Once it’s dry (or dry enough not to smear as you carry it and hang it), get those babies up!

Yes, I realize the picture quality sucks, but I was so excited I couldn’t resist!

I actually need to take the curtains back down and touch up a few spots where the paint did end up seeping under the tape, and the lines aren’t perfectly crisp, but overall I am loving my new wide chevron curtains!  The navy brings a bit of color to the room since everything else is white, or creme colored in there.  And with the new bedding… oh, I can hardly wait!

I keep reading that chevron is sooo last year, but I still happen to like chevron, and I LOVE my new curtains.  In my opinion, the wide chevron makes the pattern more unique – you don’t see it often.  Not sure if you remember the curtains we’d had in here… since I NEVER post pictures of our disheveled bedroom, but they were creme colored silk panels, that have since made their way into the living room… updated pictures of that are coming too.

I took a panoramic photo of this wall on my iPhone, to give you an idea of what this wall looks like. Remember how I said the TV stand was too low??  Well, now you can see what I mean.  It is impossible to watch anything when laying down.  That TV stand is going on Craigslist very soon, along with the gold shelf.

Can’t wait for more updates!

What do you think?  Would you ever paint a pair of curtains, or am I crazy??  When I told my mom, she definitely thought “crazy” instead of “brilliant” but I kind of don’t care.  I love them.