living room curtains

part of our "home renovation" planning has been based on two things; trying to temper my love of all things color, and trying to keep the cost down.  truth be told, i really like making stuff, so keeping things somewhat inexpensive isn't too hard.  the yellow wall cost us $15, and guess what? my husband loved it.

one of the things about D that is so frustrating, is that if you ask him hypothetical questions, like, "how would you feel about the color yellow in the kitchen?" he will not give you an answer.  he will simply insist, over and over, that he doesn't know, that he would have to see it to give you an opinion.  if you ask, "would yellow walls make you want to kill your wife?" he still won't cop to a yes or no.  he claims he simply cannot "see" something before he can actually SEE it.  he will sometimes say, "i might like that," but that's as close to an answer as you can get with him.

i had what i thought was an awesome idea for curtains for our living room the other day.  i did a few drawings, showed him where things would go, and showed him some photos i was using for inspiration.  what did he say? you guessed it, he said he thought it sounded like my idea would work, but he would have to see it before giving deciding if he liked it or not.  i feel like we've been together long enough that him saying that is my green light.  in any case, that's how i use it! so today i started making our living room curtains.  (more after the jump)
i knew right away that i wanted to use painter's drop cloth for the fabric.  i know that sounds weird, but if you go to flickr and check out the tag "drop cloth" you will find a lot of crafty things people do with them.  i like it because it's pretty neutral as far as backgrounds go, but the fabric itself is nubby and interesting in a textural way.

here i am, using my good friends freezer paper stencil and blue tape!  i used my handy dandy paper cutter to make 5 inch squares that i cut into two triangles. 

i did not use fancy fabric paint! i used the cheapest michael's stocks; the craft smart line.  the colors are great, it's good quality, and guess what? i already had a bunch. 

the prep work was the most tedious, and because this is the first panel i made, it did take more than a few hours.  i'm going to estimate four for this one.  the others may go faster because i know what i'm doing and have a plan!  

as for my husband, regardless of all the photos i showed him and drawings i did, he was still fairly wary.  when all was said and done, though, and i held it up to show him how it will look, he said "yeah! that looks great!"  you know why? because it does.  i'll keep you posted when i finish the other panels and hang them.  i'm going to go cut out a whole lot of freezer paper and prepare right now!