Yellow Chevron Curtains 3: Paint and Hang

Painting Chevron Curtains:

Ok we are almost done (if you want to do the whole project see these two previous posts first: post 1, post 2). I can't wait to get to some other projects (they are almost done, so finishing this series might give me the push I need to get some other stuff completed).

Now that you have the curtains taped, paining them is super easy. I mixed fabric medium (found at craft stores) with my own paint. I used some indoor paint left over from my dining room. I really love the color. Just followed the directions, I think it was a 1:3 ratio for paint to paint medium. In my experience, a little paint medium goes a long way. Don't worry to much about the amount of paint medium. Even if the curtains come out a bit stiff, it is not a problem.

I then just rolled the paint right onto the curtains being careful not to paint in the areas I had marked with green tape.

Here is one more shot of one painted curtain and one not.

I then took the tape off before the paint had dried, which makes it less likely the paint will chip. Let the curtains dry.

Hanging Chevron Curtains

To hang my new curtains I decided to use rings and clips. I found some simply ones at Lowes (they were also a good price). By hanging the curtains with clips, I could clip the blackout fabric right to the back of the painted curtains. This provided my nursery with a nice dark space for my little one to sleep. It also kept the regular fabric and the blackout fabric from being permanently attached. Blackout fabric needs to be dry cleaned, whereas my cotton chevron fabric does not.

I measured the fabric from the floor up and folded over the top to the desired length. 

I then tucked the blackout fabric inside the fold. 

Next, I measured across the width of the fabrics and clipped the fabric together with my clips.

I was not very exact about all this. As long as it was roughly the right width I was happy. When clipping the fabric just be sure you get all three layers of fabric in the clip.

Finally I hung the clips on the rings (which were already threaded to the pole) and hung the curtains. Done!

This was truly a project of love, but oh so worth it.

Please feel free to pin this to Pinterest. I'm having technical difficulties adding a pin widget, but will figure it out eventually.

Yellow Chevron Curtains 2: Taping Off the Pattern

This post continues from the last. If you want to know how to mark your design see the last post.

4. Taping the Chevron Pattern:

If you thought the last post was confusing, wait until you have to tape. (I literally spent six hours taping my first curtain, only too see that my peeks and valleys were not lined up. I had to start again and was very unhappy. So unhappy, that I did not take one picture to record my epic fail.)

I have drawn out the process on graph paper to make it easier to understand. Essentially this is what you will do with your curtain.

What you want to do when taping is to remember that you will be painting between the tape on every other zig-zag. In the photo of the actual curtains above, you can see that the yellow chevron stripes are painted only every other gap between the tape. I used the green frog tape to mark the stripes I was not going to paint. 

First Tape Row:

I started at with the bottom row. I made each marks as described in the last post. I taped between these marks. Starting in the left bottom corner, I stretched my tape to the first point six inches up and over from the corner on a diagonal. Make sure that the bottom of your tape (the part that will later be a strong yellow edge) hits both the valley and the peek. In the drawing above you can see that the blue tape (a blue line) has the bottom edge of the "tape" touching the edge you want to be yellow later.

Be careful that the corners of your pattern are nice and clear.

In order to get the chevron stripes the same width I had to remember that only one edge of my tape would mark the edges of the yellow stripe.  You will only be painting over, one side of the tape to get the nice yellow stripe. If you look at the diagram above, or bellow. you can see that the tape goes on the inside of the stripes that will not be painted (the white stripes). I kept them straight by adding big green "x's" to remember not to paint there.

The tape has to be lined up so the bottom edge of the blue tape is along the top of the first and second rows of marks. Then the top of the blue tape has to along the third and fourth rows. This creates the negative space (where you paint the yellow) the same width as the positive space (white). Another way to think of it is that only one edge of the blue tape is actually the edge of the chevron pattern, where you will be painting. You will  only be painting over one side of the blue tape, so only that side has to be perfect.

I know this sounds very confusing. But just remember that you are, in essence, just taping from one point to the next on the grid of dots you created in the last post. Be sure to keep the bottom (or top) edge of your tape on each mark. This helps keep the lines straight and the valleys and peeks clear.

Continue to tape your design until the whole curtain is done. I taped two of my curtains off at the same time so that I could line up the chevron pattern across the two curtain panels. It took me about 3-4 hours to mark and tape each curtain. I was very pregnant at the time, so bathroom breaks, squatting, bending and crawling around on the floor took longer than usual (man I was so sore after each curtain).

Yay! Once you have these babies taped, you are good to go. The painting is so easy!!

Come back next week for what should be a very quick tutorial on how to paint and hang these lovelies.