Nursery Update: Painted Curtains

I knew I would need curtains on our side window in the nursery, and we needed something that had blackout backing. I decided that I wanted a geometric print in navy but do you know how hard that is to find that will not cost you an arm and a leg?!?! I finally came to the conclusion that I was going to have to make them.

My first plan was to pay $30 and get a pair of plain curtains from Ikea, hem them to the right length, paint them, and then sew on black out backing. I started looking at the curtains from Ikea and something with the dimensions was just not right for our window. What if I just buy white blackout curtains and paint them? The answer, I cold not find any for the price I was looking to pay. Now I was back to square one.

That was until on a trip to Walmart, I discovered a white blackout liner. It is supposed to go behind regular curtains but I figured that if I painted it, why couldn't it be the main curtains.

I washed and ironed them first, based on the packages instructions. I laid them out on a shower curtain liner from Dollartree so that if paint seeped through, it would not get on anything.

I bought plain acrylic paint in the color that I wanted and textile medium. I mixed them up per the instructions on the back of the textile medium. I had seen other recipes on blogs but I decided to trust the manufacturer and it was just fine for this.

I put a strip of frog tape on the piece of velcro that was on the curtains. I laid down my Moroccan template, aligning it with the corner. I used a small sponge brush to tap on the paint over the whole template.

I would let it dry for a few minutes, before lining up the template and doing another section. Between drying time and painting, I would say each panel was done over 7 hours. That probably added up to an hour of time that I was actually painting for each panel. Not bad.

I am going to say it, with the valance up there, this corner is a bit busy. I do have a degree in Interior Design and I am not blind to this. My predicament is that I ordered that fabric specifically for the box valance and those curtains definitely took some time to make. I do not want to sacrifice either one. Right now, despite their faults, they are both staying.