Painted Orange Stripe Ikea Curtains

How's everyone's day going?

Last night I made it to spin class.  For some reason it was really tough.  The instructor did a lot of speed work and had us go in & out of the saddle for most songs.  But that's what I love about spin class - every class is different!!  It was a great work out - I did 15 miles and was covered in sweat by the end of class!

I painted curtains for the new apartment.  We are going with a lime green & orange color scheme.  I bought these curtains at Ikea for like $39 for the set.  They are incredibly long, about 118 inches.  Just buy curtains that will fit your project.  Here's the tutorial for Painted Orange Stripe Ikea Curtains:

My inspiration came from Classy Clutter. 

What you'll need:

Curtains - I used Ikea white curtains, 118 inches long

Painters Tape

Paint Roller

Foam Brush

Textile Medium (I used 4 oz. total)

1 quart of matte latex paint

Start by taping off your stripes.  I did 10.5 inches wide.  This process is a little time consuming, but you want it to be perfect so that you'll have straight lines.

Make sure that the tape adheres well to the curtains.  I ran a lent roller over the curtains before taping.

Next, set up a painting area.  I just covered my apartment in tarps ;-)  Now mix the textile medium and paint together. 

Use the foam brush to paint the edges next to the tape.  You want to brush in towards the white area so that you don't push paint under the tape.

Now use the paint roller to fill in the middle.

Keep going until you are done with all the stripes and lay out flat to dry.

Once the paint has completely dried (about 3 hours), slowly peel off the tape.

And there you go - stripe curtains!!

The lines turned out pretty clean, if you look really close you can see some un-evenness.  But once they are hanging no one will notice those tiny imperfections.  

Also, be careful about drips - I dripped orange paint onto part of the white stripe area.  Luckily it's at the very bottom, so once I hem the curtains to fit my window that little mess up should disappear ;-)



It took me 2 days to complete both curtains.  A good tip to save you time on cleaning your brushes: just wrap them in tin foil and put in the fridge.  You can unwrap them the next day and the paint will still be moist.

The new apartment is coming along - I still have pictures to hang.  I'll do an apartment reveal sometime next week, so stay tuned!

Have you worked on any DIY projects lately?

~Elizabeth