I’m excited to kick of “A Week of Curtains” by sharing my most recent Knock Off! I love West Elm… I mean I probably browse through their site at least twice a week and I’ve been drooling over these curtains. My living room is being transformed piece by piece and the next step really needed to be window treatments. Last week we had our first snow so it was the perfect day to get to work on my DIY version. It’s really AMAZING how your entire room feels complete once you add curtains to it.  Just take a look……

{new curtains}

Mine turned out a little more shabby chic than the West Elm version but I think they fit well in the room.

{before curtains}

Do ya wanna make your own? Here is the break down……

The List

Paint drop cloth from hardware store – this is what I used for my fabric to achieve more of the shabby chic look

I used an off white latex paint – the same paint I put on my ceiling.

high density foam roller

paint tray

Stencil – I purchased mine from Hobby Lobby

durable paper/cardboard to put under your curtains

Start at the very top left corner of your fabric. I had my stencil off the fabric just a bit so it doesn’t look too perfect.Lightly coat your foam roller with paint. Start at the top/middle part of the stencil and go down only. If you feel like it needs more coverage do it again but don’t add more paint to your roller. Do each side of the stencil the same way. It’s really ok if each stencil is different. I had some that were heavily coated and others that were slightly coated.

I don’t measure….that’s all ;) lol No really I hate wasting time trying to figure out measurements. They generally don’t work out right for me anyway. This is how I made sure my stencils were in the right place every time. I used the tip of the painted portion and aligned it with the tip of the cut out stencil. My spacing was done by placing the top of my stencil right under the one I just painted.

I went down a few rows and then started going across. On the 2nd row over I placed my stencil half way lower than the one painted on the 1st row to offset things a little. Again, it wasn’t measured and I’m sure its not spot on perfect but I like imperfection!

Once you reach the other side of your fabric just align your stencil and finish it off. You want your stencil to look like its running off the fabric i.e. it was printed from a store not perfectly placed there by hand.

The fully stenciled fabric. You will need to let it dry for a few hours. Make sure it’s not wet before you move the fabric around.

Once your fabric is dry fold it in half and cut down the fold. I didn’t take pictures of every sewing step. Sorry! Sew a 1/4 inch seam down each cut side. Fold the top of each panel down to create the opening for your rod. I did about 2 1/2 inches. Sew a 1/4 inch seam to create the opening for your rod. Now go HANG THOSE CURTAINS!

Make sure you stop by tomorrow! I’ll be sharing some awesome curtain hanging tips from Kirsten Krason at 6th Street Design School.

Another picture…. just for fun ;)

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