Ah yes, my curtains. It is now referred to our in our house as "the project". To tell this story I have to start in the beginning.
It all started with my walls. We rent our house and therefore my husband was opposed, I mean opposed to painting and the cost of it. But I pushed because we had been there for 4 years and the walls needed SOMETHING!. Since his biggest gripe was the cost of paint I had the brilliant idea, yes, all me, to contact our landlord and simply ask, "hey nice landlord, if we paint the walls in the house all one neutral color will you pay for the paint?". What was that nice landlord? You will! Oh what joy you have brought to me and my plain white walls!! You are marvelous. (OK, so I embellished the story a bit)
We were off, set the day husband, get rid of the toddler, we are painting!!! And all I have to say about that experience, was Ouch, my body aches. But its done, all except for the mess ups on the ceiling and the baseboards, and now the door that leads to the garage because apparently it needed a pen design on it. Thanks toddler.
And now since my walls were not a plain white I can now change my furniture color. Insert inspiration here.
Oh sooo pretty. So I was off. First step was to find those curtains. That was my first heartbreak. If you are just tuning in and didn't really read the title of my blog spot it has the word "poor" in it. Yes, poor. Not a play on words, truly we do not have the money for $100 panels, especially when I have 2 windows in my living area. So ok, I said, I will make them. Yeah, did I mention I don't sew and would have to enlist the help of my already loaded down pinterest pinner friends? Well...yep. I even went as to look into the material to see how much it would cost. I found this beautiful work of art.
But sadly, It was still $10 a yard on sale. And keep in mind, 2 windows = 4 panels, = alot of yards. Equals out of our budget. SO! Don't loose heart blog buddies, I had another idea! Insert another reason why I love pinterest! I thought, "hmmm...wonder if you can paint material, like paint your own curtains?" I typed in "DIY curtains" and to my lovely surprise my pinterest buddies had made a tutorial just for me as if they knew I would one day need or want to in fact, paint my own curtains. Oh they made it look so easy. I did my research and found a 2 panel pack at Walmart for $9. each = to $18.00. They were 84' long but not as wide as the normal curtains ( i do not have the measurements) but it didn't matter too much for me because my windows were not wide and these would fit perfectly. I did look online for quite a while and never once found these until I actually went to the store. It was walmart brand, I think Mainstays.
Here are my supplies, minus the brush I used, which is actually kind of important, so I will add that later. I found the orange paint at walmart, I had to buy 4 bottles at 3.27 each and the fabric medium at Michaels for $6. The black paint, painters tape, tape measure and pencil I already had. So I am not about to begin to write a how to paint your curtains, my buddies at pinterest have already done that, but I wanted to share my mistakes and what NOT to do. My first to tries were a bust. I was ready to give up the project all together until something in me said "NO, you can do this!" So I did more research.
My first panel. I did only one to see what it was about, how hard, etc. Not too hard to tape the curtains, I used the ironing board so I could stand. I then laid down some paper in the playroom over a sheet for the bleed through, because there will be bleed through. Which proves to I think be your biggest challenge. I mixed the paint to my desired color and added the medium. I later discovered that I did not add enough medium so be sure if you want to do this, that you follow those direction and measure.
So here is my first panel
Yeah, those marks are from where the panel stuck to the paper and I had to rip it free. You need to let the curtains dry overnight so i DID, not thinking that it would stick to the paper and rip! Probably usually goes without saying with most people, but I am slow. So don't do this!
So I researched again and found someone used a tarp. I thought, I have a tarp, I will try that. Here is my second panel.
Yeah, the crinkle in my tarp made the bleed through dry with a weird gunky pattern. Once again, I don't think I used enough medium, so maybe if I had this wouldn't have happened, but I still wanted to cry. This project that was suppose to save me money was failing and fast. My husband still told me they looked good, but lets face it, he was lying. lol. This is when I told myself I can do this, this project will NOT get the best of me.
Insert my last 2 panels.
Oh so pretty!!! HOW? Well, it takes work. Be ready for your knees to hurt and to give alot of patience. Because you have to watch those white stripes and your orange fingers. Sometimes you want to lean in or move your brush over them, YOU CAN'T! If you are ready, read on.
I used the same supplies listed above, with correct medium this time. Laid a sheet down on the floor. I then took Freezer paper, yes I had it on hand for another project. It can be bought at Walmart on the foil and plastic wrap isle. The box is huge and usually overlooked, it was by me. It has only one shiny side so I laid that shiny side down across my floor , about 5 panels. and ducked taped the together. Then turned the whole thing over onto my sheet. and that was my working area. I took the last two panels and laid them side to side and went to work. I tried several different brushes but only one small paint brushed gave me the right stroke consistency. I will try to take a picture of it and post later. I let them dry overnight and they stuck to the paper but it was easily removed, with no streaks!!! Here is the semi finished product. (I feel like my son always manages to get into the pic.) I just wished he had on pants!!
