Stenciled Drapery Tutorial

Stenciled Drapery Tutorial by Heather

Hi Remodelaholic readers!!!  I am so glad to be guest posting today, from one remodelaholic to another!!!  I blog over at {twenty}something where I write about turning a builder beige turn-key into a home through lots of DIY projects and lots of great Pottery Barn and West Elm knock-off tutorials...all done on a teacher's budget!

My husband Rusty and I are both teachers at the same school, so we budget out our weekends and summers to cram in as much home remodeling as possible.  Here are some of my favorite projects:

My White Mantelscape with shutters and a coffee filter wreath.

Pottery Barn Jewelry Holder Knock Off made form a thrift store frame and some jewelery wire.  Cost totaled under $3.00 for me!

Pottery Barn Hundi Lantern Knock Off made from a thrift store light fixture and a glass hurricane from Michael's.  Cost totaled under $30.00!

Oversized Pottery Barn Clock made from plywood and a homemade stencil.  Project cost under $10.00!

Here is the project I am sharing today.  I took my breakfast nook from this:

To this:

Since Christmas, we have been redoing our breakfast nook.  Since curtains are the next most dramatic thing you change in a room besides paint color, I set out to make some curtains inspired by this West Elm photo:

Supplies:

• Curtain panels (Ikea Vivan in white)
• Acrylic Paint (Craft Smart, Yellow)
• Fabric Medium (Delta Ceramcoat)
• Stencil (Zagora Allover Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils)
• Foam Roller
• Brown Craft/Painter's Paper



Steps:
1.  Cover a large, flat working area with heavy paper to catch all paint that might bleed through.  I used my breakfast nook floor.

2.  Wash and dry curtains.  This will keep the curtains from drawing up later on when you go to wash them.


3.  The directions say to iron the curtains.  Mine were not wrinkled when they came out, so I just skipped this step and smoothed and tugged out the wrinkles.

4.  Mix your paint.  You can use fabric paint, but I found that it was too expensive.  I just bought acrylic paints and a product called Fabric Medium.  You just mix 2 parts paint to 1 part fabric medium, and you will have tons of fabric paint for next to nothing!  Play around with your shades by adding colors together until you get the color your want.  I took my yellow to a more muted yellow by adding some leftover wall paint from when I painted my kitchen.

5.  Place your stencil in the upper left hand corner (if you are right handed like me) and add a few pieces of blue painter's tape to hold it down.

6.  Prepare your brush by rolling into paint and removing excess on a dry paper towel.  You could also roll right on for a faster, thicker coverage.

7.  Stencil your first section. 

8.  Repeat last two steps until your are done!



Now, here are all of the little helpful tips I learned along the way that I hope can help you out:

It is very possible for the fabric to misbehave and ripple under the stencil or behave perfectly.  Both are fine because you can't tell when you are done!

When you are done stenciling a row, pull the whole curtain up and lay it back down to keep the paper from drying to the curtain.  I wouldn't pull your curtain down after each square because it actually helps keep your fabric tight and makes it easier to align.

When stenciling fabric (especially curtains), you will NOT get the stencil to line up perfectly because the fabric will pull all different ways and stretch.  Stop stressing about this since they will hang and flow anyway!  It's just like not shaving your legs in the winter...no one has to know!

Once you have lined it up as much as possible, carefully stencil the pattern beside it without going over the pattern in the overlapped areas.

In tight corners or edges, you can turn your foam roller sideways and use a tapping motion.  This works well in the parts of the stencil beside where you have lined up with the last area you stenciled and you don't want to roll over any parts that are not matched up.

And here they are in all of their glory!!

 

 

 

 

I really love how they turned out.  If this project really matches your style, come join me over at {twenty}something as I dive head first into my summer off with lots more cheap-o DYI projects and knock-offs!

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