I’m finally on time with something around here and that is the Winter Pinterest challenge. I knew exactly what I had in mind this go around and was excited to to try it out.

I first came across “painted” curtains nearly a year ago on my daily Pinterest lurking. I thought it was a neat idea and pinned it for future reference. I have actually been searching for the perfect fabric that I could use to DIY my own since I don’t really like to plunk down serious dough on something that I can totally DIY and besides there are many more fabric options to chose from. Of course I hit a road block when I kept coming back to this fabric.

Kelly Wearstler’s “Imperial Trellis” (House of KWID line for Schumacher)

LOVE! But nearly $130 (discounted) a yard..holy cow NO! That was not going to happen. I need a total of 6 panels and roughly need 3 yards a panel. Craziness! Well Im a pretty resourceful person especially when it comes to something that I really want. I did not want to budge and I found an alternative.

Richloom Solarium outdoor fabric (8.98/yard)

HECK YEAH! This made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Finally something that I wont feel guilty on “splurging”. Nearly identical although the pattern is a little shorter than the original and several colors to chose from. Yay! Although they do have some good options and was leaning towards aqua, in the end it was not what I was looking for. Sigh.

As I was organzing my pinterest boards I came across the “painted” curtains. So I started researching on how to paint curtains and also looking for stencils that I could use and that’s when this happened.

Lattice Trellis Stencil by OMGstencils on etsy

Oh my gursh!

Ok so let’s get down to the nitty gritty of this project. Now please be aware that this the method that I used and worked perfectly for me but may or may not for you. Please note that no matter how careful you are it will rarely turn out perfect. ***I apologize for the pictures all were shot at night.***

What I used for 6 panels:

• Ikea Merete Curtain Panels. (3 sets already hanging in my living room, perfect candidate for my project)
• Latex Semi gloss paint ( 1 gal, yep regular latex paint. Color matched B.Moore’s Palladin Blue to Dutch Boy)
• Delta Ceramcoat Texile Medium (5 bottles – Purchased at Hobby Lobby with my coupon. Reg price $5/bottle.)

• Foam roller
• Stencil

I did this project on my dinning table. You may find it better to work on the floor but for me this was way easier. My panels have already been laundered a couple times prior.  Make sure that you get all wrinkles out. Here are step-by-step directions.

1. Prepare your surface. Line up your stencil on your fabric.  I started at the top center of my panel so I could get even sides. I taped panel down to my table or it would not move. I also used painters tape to keep the stencil from moving. I did not use adhesive. Just and extra unnecessary step in my opinion.
   
   Mix your paint and medium. With the brand I used it was a 2:1 paint to medium ratio. I started off with 2 cups paint and one cup medium, stirred and put in a paint pan. When I ran low I would just add another 2cup/1cup mix in . *What the medium does is to ensure that you fabric does not become stiff after paint dries. It is still flexible and wont crack after washing. CHEAPEST place to get is at Hobby Lobby. Searched everywhere and online..still cheapest and save even more with their coupon!
2. Start rolling it on. To ensure that the paint would not come out blotchy I made to sure to lay in on medium thick. You have to make sure that all the grooves are filled in evenly. Let it dry slightly. I waited about 10-15 and then  started the next set. You have to be careful not to lay the stencil back down too soon if you have paint under the stencil.

This took me about a week to complete the painting process.

After 7 days you “heat set” the paint. You can do this by putting a cloth over the curtains or flipping them and dry running your iron. NO STEAM! I suppose you can just toss them in your drier as well on the  “air dry” setting.

I am totally psyched about my “new” curtains and have had many compliments on them. They are not perfect and you look super closely at them you can see some imperfections which I am totally okay with. There are some blotchy parts in some areas but nothing that is noticeable unless I close the panels completely and  let the sun shine through them.

I don’t know why I’m such a slacker but I’m blaming this hiatus on this unpredictable Midwest weather. For instance, Monday we hit almost 60 degree weather and here we are today sitting at 20 degrees but with the wind chill it feels more like 10 degrees. Sigh. It’s exhausting and I don’t do much. Spring teasers are always a pain in the you know what. I’m ready to bust out my sander and tackle the hutch in the dinning room or finally finish the mudroom area in the garage since we don’t really have room for the actual thing.

As of late the only thing I’ve been working on is my little girls “Big Girl Room”. The room was formally her older brothers until they were moved to the basement. It’s like a mini apartment down there so they were eager to move down..literally. So Rhemi took over the boy’s room and we are now working on personalizing the space for her. There is still much to do but she is definitely enjoying the extra space she now has even though she technically claims EVERY room in the house. That’s my two-year old for ya. I will be posting progress reports on the status. For now I will show you some before pictures (lost the before shots I took..darn), plans and changes made to those plans.

(*This is what the room looked when we first moved in. My boys vetoed the lilac walls, lol)

1. Paint Walls
2. Paint and stencil ceiling.
3. New curtains and rods
4. Replace closet bi-fold doors or update existing ones
5. Replace ceiling fan with light fixture
6. Paint, update and add closet organizer
7. Bed canopy
8. Wall Art
9. Re-finish dresser
10. Rug
11. Accessorize

So after a total of a few hours(during a 2-week span) I’m finally back! I couldn’t figure out why my site wasn’t loading right and then couldn’t even log into my dashboard! All simple fixes in the end but sheesh way too much research. At least I picked up a few pointers for future issues, hopefully there is none. I’m  trying to add a few things to make things easier to find and navigate.

…and now to your regularly scheduled program.

With the holidays already here, things have been fairly busy at the lovefunk casa. Trying to put up lights (the guys did WITHOUT supervision = mistake #1)and setting up all the decorations. I love this time of year and always look forward to sprucing up the place with xmas decor. Every year I usually put a pretty white tree with cool and dramatic ornaments. This year however, I wanted to do something a little more “Christmas-y”. So I came up with this> Tree #1 that sits in our living room. I also have one in my dinning room and will be posting pictures soon.

So as I explained in my previous post this was not my first attempt at a herringbone wall. The first go around I got my inspiration from this pin. I really liked the way the pattern turned out in that nursery but I thought that it may be a little too graphic since I knew that I wanted a medium-dark shade of blue. I stumbled upon this one. Perfect! Below I will explain the step by step method that I used to get my pattern. This is what worked for me. It is actually quite EASY my friends but a bit time consuming.

**Make sure that you paint your base color before you tape. The base color will be the lines that form the pattern. In my case I used white.**

Tools needed for pattern only:

• 2ft level or laser level. (I prefer the latter for this project).
• Tape Measure
• Painters tape (1″)
• Ladder

I started by figuring out the size pattern that I wanted busted out my 2ft & 4ft level, tape measure and painters tape. I will break these down into steps which I find are a bit more easier. I do apologize for the pictures that were taken from my cell phone. I only had a few so I’m demonstrating on a piece of cardboard for reference. Pictures are a DIYers BFF.

1. Figure out what size you want the pattern to be. You can do a wide pattern, tight, tall, short..you get the idea. Remember the bigger the pattern is the less taping you will have to do which you will. do. a lot.

2. Measure how far down I wanted the pattern to be and mark/draw your line. **(Skip this step if you are doing a full wall)**

3. Once I did that I marked my vertical lines which will be the mid and end point of our pattern. I did this with a 2ft level( I find this easier to work with than the 4ft since you have more control just make sure to line right or it can throw pattern off).  I marked mine with a pencil every inches. This will serve as your guide.

4. Tape your lines. I used 1″ tape which I found to be the perfect width for the pattern lines.

5. After I finished that I started to measure and mark my pattern. I worked from bottom to top. (Full pattern wall: work your way from top to bottom since it will give you and even pattern). I made my marks every inches. Work your way along the wall. FULL ROOM- When you get to a corner keep the pattern moving along without any breaks.

6. Tape your lines. (Whole room pattern: start from end of wall all the way around. Accent wall: Start from the middle of the wall so your pattern wont cut off awkwardly). Start off with the first half of the full pattern. You will be taping from bottom-right to top-left as shown below. After you do that tape the next half but this time you will be taping from top-left to bottom right. Make sure that you do not overlap the pattern itself. You then will see the pattern emerge. Exciting! Work your way along the wall.

6a. FULL ROOM- Corners can be tricky if you walls are not square. Figuring out the angle and all that takes MORE work but if you have the time and patience do it. My walls are not square so I improvised. Skip the corner to the next line and tape so that after the corner is flanked by taped lines. I went back to the corner and eyeballed it until it looked even with the rest.

6b. When you get to the top (for my pattern) it cuts off . You have to figure out the angle. You can do it the old fashioned way if you have a protractor laying around or you can  do as I did below. Use your measuring device and make a mark up 5″ from the top of the tape. Every few inches, whatever suits you. Line up your tape below those marks.

**You can also tape as you go when doing step 5. In the end it takes the same amount of time to mark then tape as it is to mark, tape, mark tape. I tried it all**

7. After what seems like endless marking and taping eventually this will happen. At this point I recommend that you paint over the tape edges with your base color and let dry. This will give you nice crisp lines once you pull the tape off. It can also prevent your top color from peeling a la

I got a little lazy and just painted the top color directly over the tape. The sad thing is that I expected it. I’ve taped and painted so many times. I knew better. Sigh.
8. So once that is dry you can begin to paint your top color/s. I used a roller both times but a small one second time around. Work with one color at a time if doing multiples.

First round I did a single color. Second time I was going to use 3 colors, all the same family but different shades. I ended up using only 2.

Paint colors:

Version 1- Valspar’s Thundering clouds

Version 2- Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter (light). Darker shade was a custom mix of Nimbus and Stonington gray which I did at home.

9. Before your last coat of paint completely dries, slowly and carefully pull your tape off. Do not, I repeat DO NOT pull the tape off crazy style over your excitement. If you start to see any type of peeling stop and use a razor knife along the edge of the tape. Don’t worry if this happens. It can be fixed!

TA DA! Your work is done my friends, well for the most part. You will have touch ups to do. Hard work pays off!

So glad that I have it finished. I love it. Now I need to finish the rest of the room. This room is about 45% done. There is so much more to do in this room but had way to many summer projects going on around the house that this is how it sits for now. I will have the house tour and the need to do updated soon to give you an insight of what has been, needs to be and what is being planned.

Hello everyone. After so much though and sitting around doing nothing actually, I have finally decided to launch my blog site to document all our home projects that we have, have had and currently working on. It’s great getting to finally keep record of facelifts, reno’s and additions to our home. This is our first home together and am excited to share all the details that go into whatever project we are tackling. That’s right! I plan to break down the diy, labor and financial stuff as it allows and hopefully in real-time . I have been reading blogs for the past 5 years and the one thing that I really liked about other home bloggers is when they would share the “good stuff”. I like to know that there are real people out there with real projects that are played out so well that it would not leave the rest of us little people to wonder at ever the slight possibility of being able to tackle a project. Now I am a DIY’er and have been for some time now. I’m ready to take on new projects and new skills. We have already been living in our home since May 2011 and have had several projects already done in which I will be sharing here in the next few weeks. We still have a TON more so stick around and see what we are up to. To learn a little more about us please visit the “about me” section.

I challenge you to follow us through this new adventure. I promise to be as honest and detailed as possible as to encourage others to tackle their own DIY projects. I can’t wait to put all my ideas out there and creativity. Ahh…excitement!
First order of business…The Fall Pinterest Challenge.