North Carolina, Award winning, "Green" AP , on a mission to decorate my house, while cleaning up my neighborhood through recycling rescued roadside finds. Join me as I recycle items into something modern, elegant, and absolutely DIVA!
All posts are not about home decor, but most are. Either way each post is ECO-nomically friendly and will assist the environment.
Happy recycling!~Kindle
"At times, I feel creatively depleted and I can easily trace it back to where my energy was sapped and abused by a dear crazy maker friend.
If you have a friend or family member that has these traits, they are most likely a crazy maker:
They live for gossip.
They are always late and are constantly destroying schedules.
They love telling you a long, involved story about someone while you are trying to finish a deadline.
They are expert blamers. Nothing is ever their fault
They hate order. Only chaos serves their purpose.
They expect special treatment, even when you do not have the time."
Preston goes on to say, that we put up with them, because we all have a bit of crazy in us, and it takes some diligence not to indulge....You can read the full article on his site. I had to share.
If you have a love for blogging and want to become a writer for Re-nest, apartment therapy is doing it again. I am showing reuse love, by reusing web space, so go read about it...
Last week, I went to the fabric store for some curtain fabric, as I now have a beautiful picture window, and I found the beautiful fabric up top.
I fell in love with the crisp cream, and the nature aspect in the leaves. To top it off, the black outline and the black leaves are a raised plush velvet. It feels amazing, but the colors were wrong for me and the pattern a bit cluttered. Even at $12.99/yard (knowing that if I change my LR colors), I could have new curtains for about $80, in two hours max, I am hooked on my colors(purple, orange, green, antique white), and have to pass.
So being the DIY experimentalist that I am, I came up with this very rough mock-up
My cream fabric is not the standard 54 inches wide, (of course not) my fabric is 72 inches wide. So this little diva will be replicating for quite some time. The cream fabric cost me about 5 dollars for a bolt of about 20 yards, so I am using what I have, and hoping to save tons of money, (time being of no importance, [we will see if that changes]).
I hate being told to use just one type of material, to get a job done. Fabric paint? Huh? I want to use the color paint and any other material, necessary. I want, what I want! (yup, that constant attitude towards everything, sometimes gets me in trouble). So with that in mind I did some experimenting, using puff paint, a chisel tip sharpie, different plush fabrics I have been hoarding waiting to use, and light purple latex paint. Click the picture to make it larger
The inspiration fabric has 5 colors in it, so...I will use the deep purple(looks black in the photo), rust, green, gray, and an antique white (not shown in the experiment swatch). I am choosing these colors because I can keep my LR neutral and accent any color in the curtains at anytime, without having to change them with the seasons.
My discoveries: This fabric is "shrink in an instant". I was going to use it for another project and I washed it to see if it would shrink and it came out as tight as a gauze bandage...not very forgiving of water, so I will definitely NOT EVER wash or steam these curtains!
Because the fabric is very porous, the latex paint, acrylic paint and sharpie took to it quite well. I will not allow anyone to tell me I can't use latex paint for curtains, as they are not in contact with people often, it is ok. If this were a comforter, (which I will be painting one of, very soon)I would not use latex paint.
The puff accent is gorgeous it dries shiny and elegant, but will take some time and of course more money. I am undecided about that. The outline in sharpie (not shown) is definitely easier and less time consuming than the acrylic paint, but can look a bit cheesy up close, because it bleeds a bit. The acrylic paint dries dull and more realistic of painted fabric and it just looks "ok" to me. Either way, I do not want these curtains to be too busy for the room, or feel like an arts and crafts project(although it is..DON'T JUDGE ME!!).
I used Aleen's glue for the applique's and they are holding like crazy, which I love. So far I think I am on the right track. I will make the leaves closer the vines longer and nothing will overlap
This project is going to be a while, so come back for the outcome!
PS I have been out of the blog world for a minute, so can you please leave a comment letting me know you stopped by, so I can visit you? Thanks
