I found these Ballard Design striped drapes on Pinterest that would work perfectly for my client’s living room makeover. They are no longer available through Ballard but the look was just the inspiration I needed.
(Source: Ballard Designs via Remodelaholic)
Remodelaholic knocked off these drapes using ribbon, but painting is easier for me so I decided to give it a try.
I started with two cream-colored painter’s drop cloths sized 6′x9′ from Lowe’s ($14.00 apiece), that were first washed, dried and ironed. (Make sure to get matching drop cloths. In this case they each had one vertical seam down the middle.)
I laid out the drop cloth on my kitchen island after everyone had gone to sleep so I could work in peace more quickly.
Since the bottom of these drop cloths aren’t exactly straight, I had to create a straight line across the bottom where I wanted my first stripe to begin. I began my first line at 8″ up from the bottom, accounting for the crookedness of the actual fabric.
I knew that I wanted four stripes like the Ballard drapes, but that I also wanted the entire striped portion to take up 1/3 of the total drape height. So I measured my stripes to be 3″ wide each with 3″ between them.
Then I could finally begin rolling on the paint. This is a flat latex wall paint that we chose to match the client’s chocolate brown sofa. I used a Sherwin-Williams 6″ mini roller …the same one I use for painting walls for a nice smooth finish.
It took two coats of paint to get the stripes absorbed evenly. I kept newspaper underneath the fabric so it wouldn’t bleed through to the countertop.
Immediately after the second coat, and while the paint was still wet, I peeled off the painter tape. The lines weren’t perfect, but they were pretty darn close.
The first panel took me 3 hours but the second panel went a little faster…about 2 hours total.
The paint dries a little crispy but once hung, the fabric drapes pretty well. You can train the canvas with clothespins to fold in specific places if you wish.
Here’s the final product.
Whatcha think? Here’s Ballard’s $180 version ($90 per panel):
And here’s our painted version.
Since I already had the paint roller, it only cost $15 for the quart of paint + $28 for drop cloths ($14 apiece).
Total = $43.
More importantly, Becki loves them in her newly transformed living room. I will be posting more about her makeover soon!