I mentioned a few of weeks ago that I was changing out the curtains in my dining rom for some more subdued textiles.

I love my floral, summer-y curtains. But, they are just that: summer-y. They don’t really look great as a backdrop for my rustic, glam Christmas tree. {I had several people ask me what I was going to do with my old curtains, because they loved them and didn’t want them to leave. But don’t worry, I plan to put them back up when Spring rolls around. :)}

I can rarely find curtains that I just love. So, I picked up two drop cloths at my local hardware store. They were right around $10 each, so $20 for two curtain panels is a great deal.

I knew I wanted to add a little something to the otherwise plain panels. I decided on painted navy stripes to ground them in the room. I used some leftover Hale Navy paint from painting my front door. Love it when I can use up some old paint!

Supplies:
2 drop cloths {found in the paint section in any hardware store}
Hem tape or a sewing machine
Cardstock or some other spacing guide
Roller paint brush
Painter’s tape
Paint

But first, I washed and dried my drop cloths, which really helped to soften them up. And then I ironed them and hemmed them. I would give a tutorial on how to hem, but it’s so basic and I honestly am a terrible seamstress. So it’s better that you just google it and learn from someone else.

The great thing about drop cloths is that they are already hemmed on all sides, so I just had to hem the bottom where I cut off the extra long fabric. Woohoo! And I imagine you could even use hem tape if you don’t have a sewing machine, or have an aversion to yours like I do. 🙂

Painting on the stripes was super simple, although it did take me a couple of tries to get the taped lines down without them looking terribly wonky. I tried at first to measure a certain point up the wall on both panels and go from there, but that didn’t work.

I finally figured that if I measured up from the bottom, which was semi straight, then I would end up with a pretty straight stripe.

I cut some spacing guides from cardstock, which made it pretty easy to lay down the tape in a straight line. I just moved the spacing guide down the cloth as I taped and it kept it all in a nice line! I grabbed the kneeling pad that came with Miss A’s baby bathtub. Definitely find something soft for your knees if you’re going to be painting curtains on the floor. Trust me!

Crucial step for straight lines: I used a Pampered Chef dish scraper tool to press down on the tape before I started painting.  It really worked to make sure the tape was sealed down. I’m sure you can use any kind of hard plastic item like a debit card.

When I was painting, I made sure to roll away from the tape, so as not to push paint under the tape. And it worked! I got really straight lines. Yay!! {I put cardboard underneath the curtains while I was painting, so that I didn’t paint my floors.}

I decided to make fairly wide stripes, although if I did it again, I think I would make thinner stripes. And I just used the width of the painter’s tape to make the line between the stripes. I was lazy and didn’t want to tape down wider spaces between them. 🙂

I think they turned out great! And I’m so glad that this little project only cost me about $25 including the cloths, brush and tape. As I mentioned, I used paint on hand, so it would have been a little more if I had to buy the paint.

 I think these will make the perfect backdrop for all of my seasonal and winter decorations. And I’m sure when the weather gets warm, I’ll be glad to pull out the floral curtains again!

Have you ever made anything with a drop cloth? They are super cheap and versatile, so I know there are so many creative ideas out there.

Have a great Monday!!

 

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