DIY Painted Striped Curtains

So, I know many of you have seen the striped curtain trend, and even the painted striped curtain trend.

I’ve been on the hunt for new drapes for my living room since we got our new sofa. I think the two kind of clash and I want some sort of print to liven it up a little.

I found these on Pottery Barn’s website and had my heart set on them.

BUT, I didn’t like the price tag, and they really weren’t the true color I was going for.  It was going to cost around $450.00 to get all the panels I needed. I had seen everyone in blog-land painting stripes on curtains and I thought “haha, yeah, like that would really work”.  But the more I wanted the striped drapes, the more I considered it, and finally told the idea to Hubby. He thought it was a crazy idea, but agreed to go along with it (because he’s cool like that) since it would save him us a lot of money.  🙂

We bought some inexpensive white drapes at Ikea and paint from Lowe’s, along with frog tape (a must) and decided to try it. (excuse the iPhone pics)

And guess what? It worked! Even Hubby was impressed!

But when we went to hang a pair, either the measurements had been incorrect on the packaging, or the panels shrunk when I threw them in the dryer to get some of the wrinkles out. I’m kind of leaning toward the first thought, but either way, they were too short. We already had the rods up from the curtains that are there now and I didn’t want to lower them because I think it would look funny to hang the drapes any lower in the living room, and I wanted the drapes to brush the floor. They were about 3 inches above the floor! I was SO upset! All of that work in vain. We knew from the beginning it might not work, but not for this reason! But we had agreed, if it didn’t work, we weren’t out a lot of money. But then Hubby had a great idea: just hang them in the nursery for the twins. I had wanted drapes in their room to begin with, but we’d never gotten any.

So, we went with my original idea from way back when and bought a galvanized pipe, spray painted it red, and hung the drapes in the twins room. And we LOVE it. I think they look so much better in here than they could have ever looked in the living room.

 You can’t even tell they’re painted, can you?

Now, back to square one for the living room. Decisions, decisions. 🙂 OH – and I have 2 painted panels for sale just like these if any of you are interested, just email me for details!

I’ll be back soon with some new stuff we’ve done in the kitchen! Y’all, seriously, after 3 years in this house, it’s ALMOST finished. GAHHH!

til the next time,

kassie