Any ideas on dressing up my curtains?

Question

I have these great "block out" curtains on my big living room window but they are just blah brown...my colors are more dark chocolate, sand and deep red. The curtains are great for reducing glare and keeping my living room private but they are boring...any ideas to change them into something more WOW!?

dark chocolate, sand (beige), dark red with touches of black.

Answer 1

2 quick & easy plans:

1. head off to your local craft store and buy some paint. you're not going to be tossing the drapes in the wash, so they don't have to be fabric-specific paints, regular old ceramcoat or other inexpensive acryllic paint will work fine. find a stencil of something very simple and geometric (like, say, a fleur de lis, or a very stylized flower pattern) or repetitive (like an open-ended vine design that can attach to the previous stencil every time you paint it). paint these stencils with a LIGHT coat of paint in your colors all down the edges of the drapes. don't get too heavy with the paint or it'll look gloppy and sloppy, not so professional. if you want something a little more loose & free-form, go ahead and buy the fabric paints. they come with little pointed tips such that you can just squeeze out the paint like a pen. draw yourself a simple curved/slightly swirly line design down the edges of the curtains. make sure to take breaks every so often in the lines to let up on the squeezing and allow air in. then hold the tube tip down and tap it against a paper plate or something to move the air bubbles up to the bottom of the tube.

2. go to the craft or fabric store and get some decorative objects in your colors. you can buy small beads, sequins, ribbon, lengths of beads or sequins or little feathers already strung onto a fabric backing, or funky iron-on patches. if you don't want to hand-sew stuff on the curtains, bust out the hot glue gun and stick them on there. you can always experiment by lying your drapes across the floor and placing these things in different patterns until you find what you'd like. either down the edges or in an L shape across the corners would look nice.

or just mix it all up: stencil that delicate vine pattern down the edge, and put the occasional little bead or sequin into the wet paint as a highlight.

for both things, remember, less is more. don't coat your drapes with paint or stuff, just use little decorative accents to highlight what you've got. once you have it done, hang it up and give it a week. if after that time, you want more, you can always add more stuff later. good luck!

Answer 2

Take a measurement of your curtains to a fabric store and choose some fabric that you like. Have the fabric expert help you figure out how much fabric you need to cover your blah with something that you will love.

Answer 3

A decorative rod could help, or hang some long strings of jewels or beads from the hooks. Depending on how artistic or if you can sew, you could either stencil designs w/fabric paint, or sew some pretty ribbons on, etc,etc. Also, tassels are widely available and very pretty.