I couldn’t decide what kind of curtains I wanted for our dining room. So, I made my own! To create custom curtains, all you need is a Sharpie and an afternoon! DIY custom curtains with a Sharpie, then take your curtain call!
The dining room has been nearly complete…it was just waiting for curtains to go on that bright teal curtain rod. I had been thinking about what these curtains should look like. I didn’t want anything heavy. I didn’t want anything traditional.
I love this fabric from IKEA and thought it might be just the right thing, especially with the new black and white rug.
Courtesy: IKEA.com
In fact, I already had some of that fabric here from another project and I liked the look of it when I looked at it in the dining room.
But it wasn’t quite right.
Numbers just didn’t seem right in the dining room. It’s all about the food, people. OK – and wine. But mainly food.
Then it hit me…I could make my own curtains, using the Nummer fabric as inspiration, but have it be all about food and eating.
Genius.
I went to IKEA and got a package of Vivan – plain white – curtains.
$9.99 for two panels. Perfect.
I got out my trusty Sharpie pen…
Use a regular, permanent Sharpie marker and not a Sharpie paint pen.
I spread out the curtain on some cardboard and got to work. Use cardboard underneath to prevent any ink from bleeding through the curtain fabric onto the floor, and to give you a flat surface on which to write.
Hank helped, of course.
Note the clothespins in the picture above. The clothespins held the curtain in place on the cardboard, so that it didn’t move while I wrote on it.
I had sort of thought out the kinds of words I wanted to use, but, in the end, I just free-wrote it. I repeated the pattern/words every three lines.
The first line is about eating.
The second line is about cooking.
The third line is about kinds of food.
I alternated with printing and cursive and funky lettering.
And when I got to the end, I put the cap on my Sharpie and hung up my handiwork.
I love them!
They’re light, airy, and full of words – love that.
All you need to do this project is $10 for curtains, a Sharpie marker, and about an hour and POOF! you have your own, personalized curtains.
Pin it for later:
A "recovering lawyer," I turned in my power suits for power tools and a life of DIY. I believe in merging old and new to make a house a home.
OK. That’s very clever. I didn’t know you wrote the words. They looked so good that I thought you purchased the fabric that way! The translucent nature of the fabric makes the fact that it is covered in words not at all overwhelming or distracting. Bravo. Proving yet again that good penmanship is important.
Awesome! So creative and they turned out great!
These are so awesome Karen. I really need to try this. I pinned them twice because I could NOT resist XO
Really really great idea! These kind of projects make me smile…taking a concept and making it fit our style and spaces. So cool!
Sooo stinking cute, Karen!! I love it! Pinning! {well of course I am 😉 }
wow! It sure helps that you have such cute handwriting! Love these!
Tami @ Curb Alert!
This is such a great idea!!!! I love it. Thanks so much for sharing at Project Inspire{d} ~ linking to our party board and sharing…AWESOME!
Have a great week.
Hugs,
Mary Beth
Love the curtains, Karen!
Your curtains look awesome, well done. Great way to personalise your decor!
Loving your curtains & your blog. My dog does eat pizza crust, he is a guts. Nice to come along another blog with a furry mascot 🙂 and thanks for linking up with Eat.Pray.Love 🙂
fabulous! and i love how you free handed them, not stressed out with perfection.
Those curtains are awesome!!! Great handwriting on it too, it makes it look so professional! Love them and pinning them!
Susan
I’m so glad RED chose to include these in her Looksi curated board. It was such a great project! 🙂
Awesome! I’m thinking of this in my bedroom with poetry, bible verses on marriage and love…. Thanks for the inspiration!!!! 🙂
What a great idea, Renee! I have another friend who teaches biology, and she made these curtains for her classroom with scientific terms on it. They are awesome! The possibilities are endless. I’d love to see your finished curtains!
What a clever idea for personalizing curtains. I’d love to see your friend’s biology curtains! Thanks for sharing with this week’s Throwback Thursday party.
Thanks, Paula!
Hi Karen, found your post on Hometalk. Love your curtains! The handwriting makes them so unique! Thanks for sharing your tutorial!
Val
Thanks, Val!
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Thanks, Reda! I’m worried you might be spam, but I’m glad you like my blog!
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Thanks, Mackenzie!