DIY Lapis Lazuli Curtain

 

Lapis Lazuli painted surface design on thrift store curtain. 

 

Here is the original color of the drapes: Neutral. Boring.

  I did wash them before I began the surface treatments.

I picked up a set of drapes at St. Vinny's last week.  They were taupe / neutral colored, and I knew they'd still let in a lot of light.  It's drapery fabric with latex on the inside (dry-clean only) so I knew I couldn't dye them -- which would have been my first inclination.  So I turned to the internet and found this post from Bob Villa bout how to paint your curtains: Turns out you can use regular latex acrylic house paint with a textile medium added.

So I went down to the local hardware store, picked out the darkest blue they had in the 24 oz. can. Flat--no sheen or finish because that would interfere with it adhering to the curtain.

The lady mixed it up for me.  I told her my plan -- that I wanted to paint some drapery curtains blue, then splatter it with gold to make it look like Lapis Lazuli.  She thought it would not work very well -- even with the textile medium.  I still wanted to give it a try.  Even if it didn't work, I didn't have a lot invested in it, and it brought me back to my surface design roots.

It took 3 bottles of the  textile medium (24 oz total) with 12 oz. of latex acrylic pain to cover 1 drapery panel with 1 coat.  The textile medium directions recommend a 2:1 ratio with the paint.  Although the textile medium is white, it did not dilute the blue color at all.  Bob Villa recommends 2 coats, but I didn't have enough of the textile medium to go another round.  

I used both a pain roller and a regular flat paint brush to fill in the parts that the roller missed.

I kind of like the uneven finish that gives.  

Here's the back side. Like a summer blue sky with white clouds ...

 

  

Detail: Lapis Lazuli surface treatment: Blue with gold spatters.

Then I used some gold watercolor paint (no textile medium) that I had in my stash to splatter on the highlights.  Yes-- It's watercolor, but I'm not planning to wash these ever again.  And it's stuck to the paint layer, not the fabric, so I think it will be ok.

So far so good!  The fabric maintains it's flexibility.  The textile medium says I should heat-set the paint.  I'm not going to do that with an iron.  Would the dryer work?  Too much tumbling that might disturb the paint adherance ...What about the oven?  Would that melt the latex layer?  Do I even need to heat set if I'm not going to wash it?

This is where it will hang in the bedroom.

Pretty convincing!

Even my husband was impressed -- and he used to work in theater.  He said that was good enough for a stage set!  Do they use this textile medium in theater, or do they just go ahead and paint the muslin?