Friday 21 June 2013

DIY ombre lace curtains



I've had these plain lace curtains from IKEA for years now....and although they are great for a light window dressing, I was beginning to tire of them......so I decided: I have nothing to loose...lets go OMBRE!!!

I've seen ombre curtains all over pinterest and checked out a few tutorials, but in the end I did it in my own way....
.....here's what I did:



You will need:
Curtains
 bucket of warm water (6 litres) 
Dye
Salt



I chose to use 3 colours dye. I will tell you why in a minute...
Go with the instructions on the packet, but don't wet your curtains first, as you only want the colour on the bottom half of the curtains....

 
First I mixed the china blue with the bahama blue, as I wanted a light aqua blue result...
...I mixed them 50/50, and only used half the packet of each one...

I followed the instructions of the Dylan dye, and mixed the powders into 500ml of hot water.
I filled my bucket with 6 litres of warm water and mixed in 250g of Dylan salts....

I prepared my curtains by folding them together length wise, so that I could be sure the dye would start at the same length of each curtain, and hung them up on my washing line in the garden....

I mixed the hot dye/water-mix with the warm salted water in  the bucket, placed it below the curtains and dipped the bottom of the curtains in....

 

I dipped them in, then pulled them out a little, to ensure a nice graduation from white to coloured ....
....then I left the curtains to soak in the dye-mix for 40 minutes.....



After 40 minutes I pulled them out a little further, then left them for another 40 minutes....
....gravity will help, as the dye-water will run down the curtains...

 

Next, I mixed the remaining powders of my two blue dyes with a little bit of black (about 1/3 of the pack) into another jug of hot water......I also added another 250 grams of salt to some more warm water......


 
 I lifted the curtains out of my bucket, before adding my new dye mix and topping up with more salty warm water....gave it a stir, then popped the curtains back into the bucket at a level below the start of the blue....

 

 Again: if you dip them in a little further , then pull them back out a little, gravity will help create a gradual ombre effect.......

After another 40 minutes I added the rest of my black dye powder to some hot water. I lifted the curtains out again and added this mix into my bucket, then  left the very ends of the curtains in for another 40 minutes


Then I took the curtains out of the bucket....disposed of the dye...and let the excess dye  drip off the ends of the curtains....

...After about half an hour, I spread the curtains out on my washing line and let them dry fully....

 

I know you are supposed to rinse your curtains after, but I didn't, as I wanted the colours to be quite vibrant.....if you find the colours are too vibrant for your liking...give them a rinse....and they will fade to a subtler colour....

 

I love the end result...our front room is at the back of our house (I know: how ironic ?!!!) , so quite dark, and this was a fun way to add some colour without loosing any light coming through the window....
.....and I think it makes my cheap Ikea lace curtains more modern.

It really was so easy to do, I've got a feeling I might be going ombre in the bedroom as well....
...although my husband is not convinced....


What do you think....Ombre or plain white?
How would you dress a window in a dark room?


Thanks for popping by...

xxx
June


7 comments:

Magdalena Jansdotter said...

I love the ombre effect!Would happily have it everywhere..love it on clothes too.. :) Yes I am a hippy at heart.. ;)
Your curtains look great..
I would have several lightsources in a dark room..unconventional,in corners..uplights etc

june olsen said...

thanks Magda!! totally agree with your comment about lightsourses....mood lighting is key!! got a great DIY light project coming up soon, so watch this space!!!
xxjune

Unknown said...

Hello June,
Your curtains look beautiful. We tried dying polyester curtains with Dylon and washed them afterwards. The color disappeared and we had white curtains again. I see you didn't wash them after dying. Very smart of you! Don't the curtains give off, leak color? And how long did you had to dry the curtains?
Thank you very much.
Angelica

june olsen said...

Hi Angela! yes...I didn't wash them....until a few months later, and the dye stuck!!As the material was a quite synthetic polyester, they didn't really take that long to dry(?) and I never experienced any leaking of the colour! I actually have new curtains now, but still hang on to my ombre lace ones for the future! :)

Anonymous said...

1. Stop abusing ellipses like a depressed emo 12-year-old.
2. That's hardly a gradual gradient. They look awful.

Intern said...

love it, It was gobsmacked blog! my friends must see this. I will tell it when we have time for curtain cleaning.

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