Tutorial: Stenciled Curtains

Today I am going to share with you my super easy way to stencil curtains....without painting!!

That is right, no painting involved.

I bought the Merete Curtains from IKEA and  I love them! They are nice and thick, super long, and only $25 a PAIR!! However, with white walls and white curtains my husband thought it was a little boring :) I have been debating forever over what to do with them, stripes and what color, a stencil, ribbon trimming, etc. My biggest fear though was painting them. I have heard so many different responses to fabric paint. Some people love it and it turns out well; others hate it, saying its hard and crunchy. Well I didn't want crunchy curtains....
When I finally did decided on the stencil I wanted I was thinking how much easier it would be if I could just trace it on. It would be so much faster and easier than multiple coats of paint! So I went about googling it and found out about Fabric Markers! They are easy to work with, don't change the texture of the fabric, and you can wash them! I was delighted! And soon went about stenciling my curtains.

I found the template for my stencil here. I just printed it out, traced it on some cardboard, and cut it out, using the cardboard as my template. At first I did just one single stencil, but soon had the idea to do multiple at once...making it a TON faster and easier to keep straight.

Fabric Markers are $2.50 at Joann's. For my 4 curtain panels I used 3 markers.

You will want a large flat surface to work on, I used a large table out in our garage.

Have fun! Here are pictures of the process!

I started in the middle of the curtain, just to make sure it looked even. The main thing you need to worry about is staying straight!! I often took a step back to make sure everything was lined up correctly.  

Like I mentioned above, I first started out with doing a single stencil at a time.

It took awhile, so I soon made another template with multiple. It made the job so much faster and easier! 

I love how they turned out! They add just a touch of character to the room but aren't too overwhelming! And for the price you can't really beat it!