Striped Curtains

I posted on Instagram not too long ago, an Ikea hack on white curtains inspired by Honey We're Home and Dear Lillie. Two of my favorite blogs! Previously, in our living room, we had plain white linen-ish curtains. I bought these because, if you couldn't tell, I love WHITE. I love the clean and fresh feel that white curtains, cabinets and furniture can bring to a room. I hate for things to feel dark when you walk into a space. Definitely a trait I have gotten from my mother. After a short time of having these curtains though, I grew bored with the plain sterility of these. There needed to be more interest. After researching (of course on Pinterest) I came across ways to add extra interest. I'm not going to lie, was very hesitant at first to take down my perfectly fine Ikea RITVA curtains and paint them. My biggest fear was that the paint would bleed and they would be ruined. But, after all, these are Ikea curtains. It wouldn't take that much to replace them and, if they paint did not bleed, I would have achieved the look I wanted for a fraction of the cost. Here are some higher end striped curtain looks that I was inspired by. These are from Pottery Barn.

So, I was sold. 1 gallon of satin paint from Sherwin Williams, 1 1/2 inch frog tape, a small roller, and drop cloth were all I needed. I liked the color that Dear Lillie had used on her curtains. I decided to copy her and use London Fog by Benjamin Moore. It's the perfect greige. Our wall color is Svelte Sage by Sherwin Williams from their Pottery Barn Collection. My mom used this color in their living room, and I love the coziness that it brings. I felt that London Fog also complimented this. Also, In the HWH blog, she used a textile medium to mix into her paint before painting the fabric curtains. I did not do this, since I was painting darker stripes onto white curtains. I was not concerned with the paint cracking because I did not anticipate having to do more than three coats. If you are painting dark curtains lighter, like she did, I would recommend using this.

Getting Started:
I took my curtains down, and washed them and had them pressed at the local dry cleaner before painting them. I wasn't sure on how I would clean them after paint being applied and wanted to make sure that they were clean beforehand. I did a total of 4 panels for the two windows we have in our living room. I laid out a drop cloth in the garage and made sure that each panel was as flat as possible before starting to tape.

With a measuring tape, I marked every 12 inches with a pencil on BOTH sides of each panel. After ALL of the marks were made on both sides, I taped from one end to the other making sure that the tape was straight. This was the most time consuming part. You definitely don't want uneven stripes. I recommend only using Frog Tape to do this. I have had so much success with this brand. From painting walls and everything in between, it can keep lines straight and prevent any bleeding. **Also, very important when painting stripes, the stripe that you are painting needs to be marked correctly with tape. When making your pencil marks, tape on the outside of that line for stripe you are painting and on the inside of mark for stripe being left white. That way, when you remove your tape, all stripes are the same size.**

Once all of my panels were marked, and taped, I began painting. It was hard to tell how many coats I would need at first, because the paint does soak into panels. I ended up only having to do two coats, initially. Once curtains were hung, I had to take a small paint brush and touch up areas that were not as saturated with paint.

I let these dry for a few hours, and intermittently, very carefully, tried to lift them up from the drop cloth below them to make sure they didn't stick. They definitely will adhere to the drop cloth if you don't try to lift them up once they're somewhat dry. After they were dry, I hung them back up and used a small paintbrush to touch up any spots that were missed. All in all, I think they turned out great! I'm not sure that these will stay in our living room, I am debating moving them to one of our guest rooms. But, regardless, they bring so much happy to any room they're in!

Feel free to pin + share! Thanks for visiting.