Guest Room Series: Painted Chevron Curtain

I fell in love with this diy chevron curtain from kfd desgins found via Pinterest and I knew I had to give it a try for the guest room curtain. This project was tedious and time consuming (especially when you're crawling around on the floor 7 months pregnant), but I love the end result. And in all reality it wasn't that difficult to complete.

I had old off-white IKEA tab top curtains. Long ago I stopped using the tab tops and made a pocket to fit on a curtain rod. I really wanted white curtains for the guest room, so I had Kyle bleach the curtains in a 1 part bleach 4 parts water mixture. The bleach took the color out of the curtains and now they are white (I would call it white, but not bright white).

After washing and ironing the curtain I laid it out on a big flat surface (our living room floor) and measured the size to create a template for the chevron pattern. There are all different sizes of curtains and windows, so these measurements might not work exactly for everyone, but they can easily be adjusted.

My curtain was 52 inches wide x 82 inches long. I chose 9 points for the chevron pattern. The curtain was divided into 1/8 sections (0, 6.5, 13, 19.5, 26, 32.5, 39, 45.5, and 52 inches). If you want less points you could divide it into 1/4 sections like the inspiration photo (0, 13, 26, 39, and 52). For each point I laid a piece of painters tape down the length of the curtain. See the picture below for an example.

To create the chevron pattern I made a mark on every 8 inches on the first section. On the second section I measured in 5 inches and then started marking every 8 inches. I rotated these measurements for every other section. This is how the chevron pattern is created.

Once all the measurements were complete I took painters tape and connected the dots. One word of advice when taping, alternate taping above and then below the line to ensure that each section will be equal once painted. Therefore when taping one section will look smaller than the next section, but once it's painted and the tape is removed they will be equal.

Once taping was completed I used a utility knife to remove the strips that would interfere with painting.

Then I got to paint. I used regular latex wall paint and a small foam roller. I was able to complete the 1st coat with a sample size of Valspar paint. I did have to buy another sample size of paint, but we'll get to that in a minute.

Once finished painting I had the great pleasure of removing all the tape. I had never used painters tape on fabric, but it worked great and created very crisp lines with very little leakage.

After the first coat the paint coverage varied in a few spots, so I touched it up with a regular craft paint brush. But to be honest I kind of liked the varied paint coverage as it made it look a little less modern and a little more casual...that is until we hung the curtain.

(please excuse the nasty baseboards, we haven't gotten around to painting those)

The painted chevron pattern that has the most light exposure looked like tye-dye which is not the look I was going for. So, back to Lowe's for a 2nd sample size of paint and a second coat on the chevron stripes that are over the window. This might not happen if you have a higher quality curtain or start with a darker color and paint on white. So, while this project took a while to complete I LOVE the finished project!

PS: Originally I was going to do 2 curtains, but the other wasn't the same length and due to the position of the bed I figured one curtain panel would be fine. Call me lazy, but I'm totally fine with the look.

Other guest room projects include:

Ruffle flower pillow

Sunburst mirror