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11 Magnolia Lane

Sharing our easy DIYs, decorating, entertaining and more!

Dining Room Update–Painted Curtains

February 6, 2013 By Christy 18 Comments

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I posted on my dining room back in October {read that post HERE}.  It’s the first room you see when you walk into my house, and it was my least favorite.  I couldn’t allow that to happen!  So, I sold the rug and window treatments on Craigslist, painted, hung open shelving, turned two art prints into chalkboards, recovered my piano bench with gray chevron fabric, painted an old metal stool metallic silver, and stuck shelf paper on the door panels of the serving buffet.  Phew!

The lady who bought my window treatments through Craigslist was super-nice.  She liked the way I had decorated my house, and wound up being my very first decorating client.  Hi, Tina!

As a random aside, the stuff I sold on Craigslist more than covered the cost of the paint and supplies I bought to redo the room.  This is a very important point, and I’m throwing it in here specifically for the benefit of my dear husband (who reads all of my posts) and who probably wonders why I have to redecorate rooms more than once.  See, honey, it didn’t cost a thing! 🙂

Here was what I started with:

Dining room “before” at 11 Magnolia Lane

And here is how it looked when I was done with it.  Harley is sorry he ripped the antique hooked wool rug.!

Dining Room “after” at 11 Magnolia Lane

The only thing that was left was window treatments, but as Christmas was coming at me like a speeding bullet train, I had to put them on the back burner for awhile.  Here was what we stared at for a couple of months:

Window area in dining room at 11 Magnolia Lane

Part of my goal for this room was to make it look more casual.  Dining rooms are rarely used anymore for very formal dinners–the way we eat and entertain has certainly changed over the last few years, hasn’t it?  I decided that the horizontally striped painted curtains that I’ve seen all over Pinterest would be a great, inexpensive way to add visual interest and tie the room together.

I bought the cheapest white panels at Target that I could find ($15 for two panels).  In hindsight, I should have spent $30 on the fabric that was a smooth cotton duck because it’s easier to maintain a line that doesn’t bleed, but that’s okay.  I was after quick and cheap here, not perfect!

Using painter’s tape and a level, I taped stripes that would be approximately 9″ thick.  I wanted a gray stripe at the top and the bottom, to ground the drapes, so I did the math accordingly.  I also put a big “X” in the middle of the stripes that I needed to paint so I wouldn’t get mixed up (this has been known to happen on rare occasion).   Note that the stripes don’t look even, because the tape goes inside the line on the stripes that stay white and makes those stripes look smaller.  Does that make sense?

Dining room drapes taped for painting

Then my daughter and I painted for awhile (!).  I used Fawn Brindle by Sherwin Williams–remember, I used half-strength Fawn Brindle on the dining room walls, so this was slightly darker.  A contrasting color stripe would have been cute, too, if I was using an accent color in this room.  Yellow, anyone?

Dining room curtains--painted in stripes

It took those suckers awhile to dry, and when they did the dried paint was stiff!  I used the wire drapery hangers (Hobby Lobby, $2) to hang them onto the curtain rings.  You’ll see that I kept my heavy black rods and rings when I sold the original drapes on Craigslist–oftentimes the drapery hardware is more expensive than the window treatments themselves!

Even though the stripes aren’t quite perfect and there’s some bleed-through, I love them.  A $30 fix was exactly what I was after.  Since we’ll be renting this house when we move this summer, I won’t feel bad leaving $30 window treatments behind if the tenants want to keep them.

Here are the after shots.  I actually really like the way the sun shines through the stripes.

Striped painted window treatments at 11 Magnolia Lane

Dining room at 11 Magnolia Lane

Dining room at 11 Magnolia Lane

If we were going to be here longer, I’d buy a new rug–maybe jute or seagrass–and paint the table and chairs, but for now I’ll wait until we’re in our next house.  The movers always mess up my furniture, anyway, and the dining table might not even survive the next move.

That’s it–what do you think?  I’m always amazed and you can really, truly, paint almost anything.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Filed Under: Dining Rooms, DIY/Projects/Tutorials, Room Makeovers, Window Treatments Tagged With: curtains, dining, drapes, painted, room, striped

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marty@A Stroll Thru Life says

    February 6, 2013 at 10:14 am

    Love the drapes, they totally make the room. Great job. Hugs, Marty

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:23 am

      Thanks, Marty!

      Reply
  2. Carolyn says

    February 6, 2013 at 10:14 am

    Looks great, Christy! We expect no less, ya know. ;). Xoxo

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:23 am

      Way to keep the pressure on, Carolyn!

      Reply
  3. Lisa Fowler says

    February 6, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    They look great…did you spray paint or with a brush??

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:24 am

      I used a brush, Lisa. Spray paint would probably have been much faster, and I’ll give that a try if I ever paint fabric again.

      Reply
  4. Danelle says

    February 6, 2013 at 7:03 pm

    I LOVE it…. Your whole room with all of the changes look great!

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:25 am

      Thank so much, Danelle!

      Reply
  5. Debbie Nelson says

    February 6, 2013 at 8:45 pm

    So dramatic, and yes, casual, too! Just perfect, Christy! I think the seagrass rug and a couple of elephant-ear plant leaves in a clear vase on the table and you’re a magazine spread!

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:27 am

      Thanks, Debbie. And good idea on the elephant ears–I love those leaves!

      Reply
  6. Beth Morrow says

    February 7, 2013 at 8:32 am

    Looks great! Beautiful room…just wondering though, where did the rug go???

    Reply
    • Christy says

      February 9, 2013 at 9:29 am

      Oh, Beth, one of our dogs was chasing the cat and skidded around the corner and into the rug. The rug ripped (it’s so old) and I decided to sell it on Craigslist for a few dollars and buy something more durable. With two kids, two dogs, a cat, and a hamster, I should probably wait a few more years to invest in furniture!

      Reply
  7. Kelly says

    August 13, 2014 at 5:24 pm

    I love these and I’m about to do the same in black stripes for my living room. I am just wondering if I should use fabric paint, spray paint or just regular paint. I have all three on hand.

    Reply
    • Christy says

      August 14, 2014 at 9:57 am

      I think they’d all work, but I’d be inclined to try the fabric paint. That way they won’t dry stiff and will hang more naturally. Good luck, and let me know how they turn out!

      Reply
  8. Mandy says

    May 6, 2015 at 1:45 pm

    Hi. I love your dining room, painted table, curtains, whole bit!! Did you paint the fabric with regular paint? You wrote that they are stiff, but they look great. Did you have to work with them in order to have them lay so nice? I seriously love them. And, have the exact curtains from IKEA right now in my dining room but plain cream. Would love to paint stripes on them. How clever!!

    Reply
    • Christy says

      May 8, 2015 at 11:35 am

      Thanks so much, Mandy. Yes, I just used regular paint. If I did it again I might try to mix the paint with fabric medium, like I did in this post: https://www.11magnolialane.com/2013/09/09/tutorial-how-to-paint-upholstery-fabric-and-completely-transform-a-chair/ I think that might keep it from being so stiff when the paint dries. Good luck with your curtains!
      Christy

      Reply
  9. Morlen says

    July 13, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    Hi,
    Your curtains are very nice. I have the same ones ready with stripes from the store. For a tip buy them at walmart 2 panels in a pack for 14.99 white and grey striped same as pictured here just without all the work and hassle if anybody else is interested!!! 😉

    Reply
    • Christy says

      July 14, 2018 at 11:21 am

      Yes, that’s a great call–you probably saw how many years ago I published this project. It was well before you could buy them in the stores–guess I started a trend! 😉

      Reply

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  • MEET CHRISTY & AMY
    • IF YOU’RE NEW HERE…
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    • TOUR OUR HOMES
    • CHRISTY’S MAGNOLIA COTTAGE
    • CHRISTY’S MCC HOUSE
    • AMY’S NEW HOME BUILD
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    • SPRING HOME TOUR SERIES
    • Back
  • CELEBRATIONS
    • EVENTS + ENTERTAINING
    • GIFTS
    • HOLIDAYS
    • RECIPES
    • Back
  • HOME
    • CLEANING
    • DECORATING
    • ORGANIZING
    • ROOM BY ROOM
      • BATHROOMS
      • BEDROOMS
      • CLOSETS
      • CRAFT ROOMS + OFFICES
      • DINING ROOMS
      • KIDS’ ROOMS
      • KITCHENS
      • LAUNDRY ROOMS
      • LIVING + GREAT ROOMS
      • OTHER SPACES
      • PANTRIES
      • PLAYROOMS + BONUS ROOMS
      • PORCHES + OUTDOOR SPACES
      • Back
    • TIPS
    • Back
  • SHOP
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    • Back
  • PROJECTS
    • CRAFTS
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1790 shares
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