DIY Painted Curtains with CeCe Caldwell Paints {tutorial}

Hey Refunkers!  I have taken this last week off from blogging for Labor Day travels, but I am back in the saddle, and ready to get back to refunking!  I am kicking this week off with my painted striped curtains that I made for my hoarding room redo. 

I have been swooning over modern, striped curtains lately. I knew I wanted dark gray stripes so I looked on the web for premade curtains.  No luck.  I then looked for gray, wide-striped, fabric.  No again.  Nuthin. So I took matters into my own hands and decided to paint some myself.  If I can paint furniture and walls, surely I can paint some curtains, right? 

I started out with this curtain from Target for $9.99.  I just purchased one because it’s a small window.

I first took the curtain out of the package and ironed it.  Since being self-employed I realized I couldn’t find my iron anywhere.  Clearly I don’t work in finance anymore.

I then laid out the curtain and measured the width of the stripes and marked them with a gray piece of chalk. And since I am painting with CeCe Caldwell’s Pittsburgh Gray, you would never see my chalk marks every 12 inches.

The curtain was 84” long so had 7 even stripes that were 12” wide.

I taped off the stripes using my favorite painter’s tape, Frogtape.  It never fails to provide a clean, crisp line.

I also marked an “X” on the stripes where I wanted to leave the curtain white.  This kept me on track and helps me not get carried away painting the wrong stripe. (You can’t really tell I ironed the curtain in this picture, huh?  I guess my ironing skills are a little rusty!)

I used two samples of Pittsburgh Gray, the darkest gray in the CeCe Caldwell line of paints.  I simply poured the paint onto a foam plate (paper plates soak up paint so I prefer the styrofoam plates for painting.  Hey, I am using Eco-Friendly paints so it balances out, right?)

I also used cheap foam rollers from Harbor Freight.  I think they cost me $1.99.

I put an old sheet down under the curtain to prevent bleed-thru and I got to painting!

I let the paint dry for about 30 minutes and then I had to run to the grocery store, so I draped the curtains over my dining room chairs while I ran my errand.  Mainly because my dog ran across the curtain and left some paw marks on the tile.  I was sure she would have a painting party while I was out.

Dude, my dining room is a pigsty. 

When I got home I had to pull the Frogtape off, just to see it’s clean, crisp, perfection of a line.  Ahhh!  There is something so rewarding about a perfect line!

And here are the curtains all hung, ready for guests to enjoy in the new guest bedroom.

There are a few tiny spots where I didn’t apply the paint thick enough, but I’m okay with it. It was my first try at painted curtains and I will know to paint two coats the next time around. It’s just my guest bedroom so at least I won’t have to look at it and be annoyed everyday. If it bothers my houseguests, then they can just go home! Ha! Just kidding! (unless you are my in-laws… Again, to my sister-in-laws, Shirley and Judy, if you are reading this that was a joke too. )

Now I want to use the same technique and paint some curtains for my formal dining room.  I just have to find curtains that are 99” long.  Or bust out my sewing machine (that is still in the box from Christmas, by the way…) and make some myself. 

I am not quite ready to reveal the full guest bedroom redo just yet.  But what do you think about the sneak peek at the curtains?