Painted Curtains

I had these curtains since 2006, at different times and in different homes, they have been my living room curtains and my bedroom curtains.  Seven years and three apartments later, they were faded, and dingy.

• Curtains
• Dye
• Acrylic Paint
• Brushes
• Painter’s tape
• Old table cloth or painting mat

I decided to upcycle my curtains. I hated the color of them. I’m one of those people who has a winter bedding set and a summer bedding set, both are in a neutral pallet, I wanted curtains that would work with either set.. My winter set is a masculine brown, tan and blueish-greenish-grey (I really can’t decide), while my summer set is cream with grey and black stitched scroll designs.

I found a few tutorials on how to paint them, and thought that it was a much more inexpensive way to accomplish what I was looking for.  So  first I dyed them with Rit Dye.  The color I chose was called Titanium #599.  To get the color I used 1 package each of Kelly Green, and Black and 4 cups water.  I followed the instructions for dying in a washing machine.  The directions were pretty easy to follow, even for someone like me, whose first attemp at dying turned out badly!  The results were a medium grey, which I’m really digging now.  I didn’t use the pretreatment soloution, maybe If I did the color may have been a little more even, because in some places you can see the fading more than in others.  But it works for me.