Painting My Curtains: Never Again!!

How I painted my curtains and ruined my carpet (not that that's a bad thing!)

So I am one who likes to throw my paint clothes on in the morning, grab my materials, crush the project in a few hours and be done with it so I can blog it that night.  I totally assumed that's how this was going to go.  Measure, tape, paint, and hang 'em!  Not so....  Let me tell you how this disastrous project went down (in more ways than one!).

So after measuring and taping off the stripes (I paid a few extra bucks for the super clean line tape), I mixed my fabric medium into my "Kammy's Concoction" coral paint.  Yes, I just dump whatever I have together until I like the shade.  It's great having 50 gallons of mistints on hand at all times.  Make a note of that.

I used a sponge roller to roll it on.  So far so good.  Oh, and don't forget the drop cloth!  Yup, I laid it right on my bedroom floor and set to work.  It's a large work space and would have been just FINE....  I thought.....  

It soon became apparent however that I was NOT going to have enough of my never-again-to-copy coral paint as the fabric was extremely porous and was soaking it in like none other.  I rounded up  another mistint, a neutral color, to put down for the base coat.   That worked much better.  Why don't I think of these brilliant ideas before I'm down to squishing every. last. drop. out of my sponge roller?

And then there was the moment my brain hanging out somewhere in Central America and I went and rolled the stripe that was supposed to be white.  Ahhhhhhhh.  Seriously, Kammy?  How on earth do you have a DIY blog? Huh?! Tell me how you can have one and be so DUMB at the same time!  Sheesh.  so you know what?  I have back to Wal Mart - where I got these panels for $10 a pair - and they are out of white.  Every time I go.  I've checked at least six different times in the last few months.  And they don't sell them online.  What's a girl to do?  So one window just has one panel.  Ah well, such is life.  

I was pretty happy with the clean lines.  Except for one that got a little blotchy, but unless you're really studying it, you probably wouldn't notice.  

 And then there was the epic moment....  After I hung my curtains and pulled up the drop cloth to reveal....

How was I do know fabric medium would make the paint seep through my drop cloth?  Huh?  HUH?!  Nobody warned me about such things!  Pretty sure that warning should bold and big on the bottle.  Do not use this on your carpet!!!!  But, I've been wanting to rip that ugly carpet up in exchange for some gorgeous laminate anyway....  I had to go tell my hubby with my tail between my legs what I had done and try to convince him that I did not ruin the carpet on purpose.  Hopefully this winter...  my mistake will be a distant memory and my feet will be landing on some drool worthy flooring.

But wait!  We're not done!  The curtains are much too short.  Rather, I want them hung way above the window so the windows appear bigger (good trick to keep in mind) so I used some white fabric from my stash and sewed tabs on them.  Problem solved.

 Would you like to see a before of this room?  Why of course you would.  That's what makes a great makeover - beholding the awful "befores"! :)

So the far right window in this photo is the one missing the panel.

Okay. Now for a little more discouragement.  The painted part of the fabric is SO stiff.  I used a large bobby pin at the bottom to shape them, but the desired shape only seems to stay for a week or so before slowly working it's way back out.  I did this the other day.... it seemed to hold okay. Would have been better if I would have done a consistent accordion fold.  Another time my brain must have been Central America.

Okay, one more thing, then I'll show you another pretty picture and let you be on your merry little way.  You've probably never hung out on the Korner this long in your life!  So Dollar General is my go-to for curtain rods.  Yup, they're like $6 I think, and I like them.  I think they look cool.  Yes, they're cheaply made, but who's going to climb up on a chair and feel if they're made out of cast iron or not?  So since I'm a get r' done type a gal, I ran into Dollar General to get my curtain rods and they only had two black ones and a gold one.  No problem, that's why they invented spray paint, right?  I think gold might have actually looked better than the black?  But I figured then I'd have to paint two and also, didn't think I had gold paint on hand.  So black curtain rods it is!  And now you can go on to a better blog - thanks for sticking with me this long!!!! :)  Ya'll ROCK!

Want to see the other posts connected with the redos in this room?

Cherry Finish Bed Gets Shabby

The Aqua Antique Dresser

Freebie End Tables

My dresser

Repurposed Silverware Box (jewelry/hair accessory storage on my dresser)

Goodwill Gaudy to Gorgeous

Hubby's Dresser

__________________________________________________________________________

Linking HERE and here: