Skill Level-Easy
Time Needed-Moderate
Price-That depends--do you already have a ton of fabric? If yes, it could be free!
Here's what you need:
Scissors
A straight edge
An iron
A tape measure
A hot glue gun
Lots of hot glue gun sticks
Lots and lots of fabric
About a year ago, before I got married, I was inspired by Nate Berkus to "upholster" my walls. The idea is that if you are renting a home and can't paint the walls, you can always cover the walls with fabric. Liquid starch acts like glue, holding the fabric to the wall. When it's time to move, you just wet the fabric and the starch is neutralized. It's supposed to peel right off! As you can tell by the language of that sentence, I don't know if it peels right off. I never did the project. I did, however, START the project by buying lots and lots of fabric ($$$). When Doug and I got married and moved, the never-used fabric needed a project. I decided to make a curtained wall panel behind our bed, like a faux headboard, with matching curtains. The main problem is---I can't sew. My sewing machine has been broken for about as long as I've had it.
NO SEW CURTAINS IT IS!
So...I started with a chevron print fabric I purchased online. It was a HUGE roll of some canvas-y type fabric. The roll (and fabric on the roll) is naturally 57 inches wide. I did not cut the sides of the fabric--I maintained the width completely so that I wouldn't have to finish the sides. One panel was plenty wide to cover a whole window.
Step 1: I measured our wall from floor to ceiling and decided that a 7 foot length panel would be plenty long. I added about 6 inches so I could fold the top down to create a loop for the curtain rod.
Here's where we are so far: 57 inch wide panels that are cut to be 7.5 feet long. I didn't know how crowded 1 panel would look on a window, so I cut 5 panels. I figured I could put 3 behind our bed and 2 over the window. We really only needed 1 per window, so I ended up with 1 extra panel. I eventually used the extra to create a "nook" in our hallway--more on that in another post!
Step 2: Lay panel on a flat surface backwards--you should be looking at the side that will be facing the window. Fold top of panel down about 3-6 inches. I did 6 inches, but it wasn't necessary to have that much room for the curtain rod.
Step 3: Iron a crease into the fabric where you have folded the top of your curtain panel. I did this so that I wouldn't end up gluing the fabric in a crooked line. If you are really good at eye-balling the measurement, you don't have to do this part!
Step 4: Hot glue the flap you've just folded down to the back of the main panel.
Step 5: If you want a really finished look, repeat this step on the bottom of the panel. I didn't, and the fabric I used hasn't frayed or started coming apart. I suppose the necessity of this part depends on the fabric you choose.
All that's left is to hang and enjoy! All in all this project took me about 3 hours. I'm a very slow measure-er and I'm terrible at cutting straight lines. I moved very slowly to ensure minimal mistakes!
 |
| The panels behind our bed. |
 |
| The curtain covering the window--and bonus! The necklace holder from one of our first tutorials! |
No comments:
Post a Comment