Saturday, June 4, 2011

The Big Secret Project Reveal!

Are you ready for this?! You know the drill, pee, drink of choice....

Here we go on another wild ride of the OCD decorator! Remember when I whined and cried over hanging the wood blinds? If not, you can revisit that tragic story here. I love the wood blinds, but they needed something. A little bling to set them off. I looked and looked for some bling. Something that would make my little pacemaker go buzz.

The Nester posted here that she now had twins! I had to go and see. Is the woman nuts to have twins??! Nope, they were her new chairs she just got. They are gorgeous too. There in the picture was the bling that I needed! I went nuts. Crazy I tell ya! Overboard crazy! I knew that I would drive myself nuts trying to find them. That would take too long though. I wanted cheap too! I am redoing this room on a budget! An extremely small budget! Like nonexistent budget. So....


....I made my own custom ones! When I say "custom" I mean out of sheets! That were 5.00! At Walmart! The same color stripe that is a shade darker than the walls! Actually it is leftover paint from the kitchen.


I know! Please hold your applause though! I am going to tell you how to make drapes from curtains with your very own design on them! Aren't I the best?!

I love, love, love the wall color that I chose for the living room. The problem with it is though that it's hard to match. You would think that all beiges are created equally. Well, not so. Some fabrics make it look really gold and some get a pinky color to them. All I didn't like. I didn't want anything flowery either. I thought of plain white drapes, but *yawn* boring. I wanted the blinds to be noticed! Right now, they just faded into the room. You didn't notice them.


I went to Walmart and got 4 twin flat sheets. 5.00 each! Woo hoo! Sheets are the easiest thing to use. The top edge of the sheet makes a nice hem, the sides are finished and the end can be folded over to make a casing for the top of your curtain. Twin sheets are 96" long and I wanted my curtains to be 91" long. Perfect!


I washed and dried the sheets to get out the sizing. The sizing can mess with your painting so you do want to remove it. That left them a wrinkled mess because of course I immediately removed them from the dryer! *snickersnicker*


Once I was done ironing them, btw on the hottest muggiest day of the year, I measured down 5". Folded at that mark and pressed.


Unfold after ironing and fold to the ironed line. Press just along the edge. Fold back along your first creased fold line and pin.


Now sew as close to the edge and voila! You have your casing at the top!


I got a couple of those plastic drop cloths from the dollar store and laid one out on the floor. Lay your sheet out flat on top of that.


Now here is where the fun begins! I tried to take the orange out of these pics. I did this in the snake den of dispair and there is no natural light down there. You'll get the idea though. I wanted 11 stripes so with a little bit of math I calculated that my stripes would be 8-1/4". I started at the top and measured down, drawing a line with a fading pen. Then laid down tape against the line.


I did each stripe individually. The stripes that are being painted, you want to tape on the outside. Does that make sense? I brought my tape a little past the edge to help hold it on the drop cloth.


Once all the stripes were taped off, I ran over the tape with an old credit card. I wanted to make sure all the edges were down good and no paint would get under it.


Now, for the painting! I used this product. It turns any acrylic paint into a fabric paint! How ingenious is that?! You mix it 2 to 1. It took half a bottle for each sheet.


It took 2 coats to paint the stripes and I let it dry overnight. This made it dry enough to work with. The bottle says to let dry for 7 days. Then you need to heat set the colors. I only have one window done right now, but next weekend I plan on taking them down and heat setting the paint.


The moment of truth! Carefully peel off all the tape! I know, it looks really pretty, but do it anyways.


Fold in half and cut along the fold line. Fold over the cut edge twice and sew. Now you are ready to hang your creation and stand back to revel in your cleverness!


Total cost: $30.00!

Damn, I am good!

Posted @ SNS #84!

21 comments:

the old white house said...

DAMN YOU'RE GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They look great, love.love.love your geniusness!!! t. xoxoxoxoxo

Lynn said...

Love it! If you can't match the paint, use the paint! Good idea and they look great:@)

Yvonne @ StoneGable said...

Maggie, YOu drapes are really fabulous! I love the big bold stripe. And you are right, they show off your wood blinds.

How clever of you to come up with this creative and very chic idea. I'm thinking about doing this in my daughter's room! I just don't want to spend a whole lot on drapes.

Great tutorial too!
Give me a call sometime!
Yvonne

Grandma Yellow Hair said...

Yes you ARE! These are wonderful...thanks for sharing
Love
Maggie

Cher' Shots said...

You are amazing!! Good job!
'hugs from afar'

Unknown said...

have i told you how much your rock lately, love? i'll send you my colors for the living room when i pick them out.
cheers!

Lori said...

Holy freaking wow ~ wow ~ wow Maggie! You are an absolute genius and a frugal one too! They turned out so nice and I never knew they had that paint out there ~ I have been living in a cave apparently! xo

Anonymous said...

Oh now you are just showing off. (Yes, I am smiling!)

These are fantastic! Who knew you could get custom made drapes for $30? Thank you for including the tutorial I will be referring to it in the near future.

You are damn good!

Your Friend,
Deborah

Pam said...

AWESOME! :-)

Jacqueline @ HOME said...

Hey Maggie,
You really are good !!
They look stunning and,hardly cost a thing. You could fill a book with the projects that you do.
What's next ? XXXX

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style said...

Those look great. I would not have the patience to paint stripes, but they are fab.

Roeshel said...

Wow! I've used sheets as curtains before but I love that yours are custom - matching perfectly. I love the stripes. You did a fantastic job! Thanks so much for sharing your creativity in the DIY project parade! ;)

Have a great week!

Roeshel

Katie said...

You are good! That is amazing! I'm so in love with these. I'll be featuring this project on my blog @ littlekatieontheprairie.blogspot.com on Thursday as one of my favourite things!
Thanks for sharing, Katie

Life in Rehab said...

Seriously, you ARE good! That looks so high end designer, and you know I love the price tag.

To answer the questions you posed on my blog, hornworms need to be manually removed and killed. We use a touch of Sevin dust and drop them in a jar. I know, it's gross, but they're your tomatoes, be vengeful! As for the vinegar trick, it kills whatever it's concentrated on, so be VERY careful. If it wafts over toward a flower, you're fine, but if your flower's roots have spread and it sinks into the ground, you're going to have a brown flower.

Your email comes up as no-reply in the comments. There's a fix for that in a link right under my banner. That way, we can get to know each other better!

trashtopleasure said...

They look incredible. I would never have thought to use sheets. Where did you get the textile medium? I have looked everywhere and can't find it. By the way, I'm your newest follower. Big Blog hugs!!

Julie Johnson said...

You are good! Wow!!! LOVE the look Maggie!!!

Kristen said...

These are beautiful! I've been searching for the perfect striped fabric to make some bedroom curtains but after looking for a few months I'm ready to give up. Perhaps painting drop cloths is the answer - thanks for the inspiration!!

I'd love if you'd stop by and say hi at www.decoratingdiy.blogspot.com

Kristen
Turning a House into a Home

Anonymous said...

Love them! Amazing job, I can't wait to attempted my own. I also shared your post with a friend that was looking for curtain ideas. Thanks!

Red Couch Recipes said...

You are one clever and creative women! They really look fabulous in your room and provide the right blign. Joni

Pinky at Designs by Pinky said...

This is AWESOME!!!!!!! I would never have the patience to do this! Love it! XO, Pinky

Sixty-Fifth Avenue said...

You're not good...you are Awesome!! They are beautiful! I love the way the unpainted stripe lets in a bit of light. Will you come over and help me when I get to our bedroom? Our redo budget is really small. I will be emailing you for support, I have a few questions.