Naturally, I see the whole house as a huge craft project. So far I've tried not to go too crazy...I'd still like it to look nice when I'm done. On the list of things "I think I can do cheaper than buy" included curtains. And I'll admit, I started off rather ambitiously. Downstairs we have 4 sets of BIG bay windows - lots of light, and lots of need for curtains! I purchased blank curtains for two sets of bay windows without hesitation and seriously thought I'd get them all done and hung that first weekend.
The first set went up pretty quickly, but the second set has now been painted and laying in wait in my basement for a few weeks. Never fear, they WILL be up before the weekend!
Luckily I've been BFF with Pinterest lately and I found this amazing curtain making tutorial and this awesome bay window curtain rod tutorial.
Of course I only half followed the instructions, but ended up with some simply AWESOME curtains that totally pull the whole piano/sitting room together.
In a few brief steps, here's how I made my curtains. A curtain rod tutorial is coming up soon!
First, you need to go shopping....here's the list I used:
- curtain panels - I bought 4 sets of the $10 variety from IKEA. 4 sets will dress 2 sets of bay windows
- paint! I picked out a pretty, flat, latex paint at home depot. Because I had so many stripes and curtains, I used 2 pints. If you have a smaller design, or less panels you can potentially use the samples
Here's what I already had:
- plastic drop cloths (invest in better ones, more on this later)
- mini foam roller
- paint tray
- painter's tape (thicker may be better)
Getting started
1. I bought the cheapest IKEA curtains (sheer panels). This way if I totally destroyed them I wasn't out an incredible amount of money.
2. Wash and dry the curtains.
3. Lay out a TON of drop cloths on a flat surface. I'm going to be honest here...I used some of those cheap plastic drop cloths that I already had at the house - HUGE mistake!! They keep moving around and were nearly impossible to get flat against the ground! When I painted my second set of curtains, I invested in the slightly more durable plasti-cloth drop cloths from the Home Depot, and they were AMAZING!! They lay flat and everything!
4. Grab your painter's tape and start measuring out the distance between your lines. To figure out how far that should be, decide how many stripes you want, and divide the total height of the curtain panel by 2*the number of stripes you want. (remember you're alternating white stripe with painted stripe).
NOTE: When actually applying the tape, you want the tape to go on the OUTSIDE of the line where the color is going. So, when you're done striping your curtain panels the white stripes will LOOK thinner than the painted stripes while the tape is on, but when you take off the tape, everything is equal. Also, to make sure I didn't accidentally paint the wrong stripe, i put a piece of tap inside the white stripes as a visually cue to NOT PAINT!
5. Grab your paint, mini foam roller, some good light, and a sense of excitement. THIS IS THE FUN PART! Start on the FAR SIDE of the stripe and work your way towards yourself. I tried to stay off the curtains as much as possible to avoid any accidental spills :)
6. When you've painted ALL the stripes, you can go ahead and remove the tape. Other blogs say this ensures a more crisp line. It's tricky, but it can be done! If you have a helper, even better!
7. LET THEM DRY OVERNIGHT!
8. Steam your curtains to take out any wrinkles and make them look presentable :)
9. HANG! (more on this in a future post)
End result? Success!!
