DIY Curtains and Pottery Barn Knock-Off

I can’t believe that Lobster and I have been in our “new” house for almost a year now. Time flies, eh? In that year we have done our share of painting, planting and fluffing. The very first room we painted was our master bedroom. This is why:

GAH! Oh the horror! The awful memories! Who paints their bedroom bright tangerine?

We quickly repainted that hot mess with a nice neutral grey/beige. SO MUCH BETTER. But since that time, besides finally getting our bedroom furniture delivered and my wonderful bedding from Pottery Barn ordered and delivered, I haven’t done much by way of decorating. One of my main pains in this room was the large window with a smallish window seat.

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to put curtains on this window without paying a gazillion dollars for custom curtains and a custom rod. So for almost a year now, I have lived without curtains and scoured the internet for ideas on what to do with this flippin’ window.

Finally, I found it. Inspiration hit me like a brick. And like always, when I get an idea that I love, I go slap-happy crazy planning, preparing and executing the plan until I get what I want. Here’s what my eureka moment turned into:

See those thingys? Yeah, they’re knobs. I found them at Hobby Lobby on sale for $1.50 a piece. Score! The only problem was that the metal parts were bronze and I wanted brushed nickle. Did that stop me? Heck no! That’s what spray paint is for! So I bought eight of the knobs and a can of “brushed nickle” spray paint, took the metal bits out of the knobs, went to town with the paint and replace the metal bits. Voila! White knobs with brushed nickel metal bits that I just screwed straight into the wall. Hooray!

See that finial that’s holding back the curtain? Also at Hobby Lobby on sale for $1.50. It was black. I also spray painted that sucker within an inch of its life. Yay!

This fabric was a “linen look-alike” fabric I got on sale at Joanne’s for $5.99 a yard. I got 6 yards and measured the panels to be 86 inches long (plus more to allow for hemming). I then hemmed the top, bottom and sides of each panel with Stitch Witchery (which I thought would be an easier, quicker process than sewing the panels…it wasn’t).

I don’t know about you but I kinda like it! I know they’re not functional (as Lobster was quick to point out) but I wasn’t going for function. I was going for style on the cheap and I think I found it! Woot!

Anyhoo, the other problem I’ve had is finding affordable and nice looking art for the walls. Lately, one of the Pottery Barn catalogs has featured tin tiles as art. I fell in love:

So, I decided instead of paying a billion dollars for distressed tin tiles, I’d make them myself. Take that, PB!

I found a great store in Fort Worth called The Old House Supply Company and they had plenty of ceiling tiles. After looking at all of them, old and new, I decided on a pair of new tiles. They were cheaper and I liked the pattern better. Then I went and got a primer, dark metallic and off-white spray paint and started experimenting.

First up was the primer. Do you like my mask and protective sunglasses? I look hot.

Next I put on a couple of coats of the dark metallic paint. I intended this to come through when I distressed the tiles (unpainted they were very shiny silver). This didn’t work out as well as I planned but I didn’t know that at the time.

It didn’t look half bad with the dark paint. But I was determined to complete my experiment…

So I went ahead and sprayed a couple of coats of off-white…

And then I started sanding with fine sandpaper. WHAT HAPPENED TO MY THUMB? OMG! Just kidding. I still have my thumb.

And this is the result. I know you can’t see much of the distressing from this picture. I’m thinking I might need to take an extra-fine sandpaper block and do a little more distressing. And I need to rehang them a little closer together because it looks a little wonky. But overall, I like it. And it cost me all of about $30 for the whole project. (That’s my fat, devil cat, Little. She is the spawn of Satan.)