Drop Cloth Drapes Gone Bad and the Quest for Stripes

I was so excited when I jumped on the "Dropcloth Drapes" bandwagon a while back.

I mean, who wouldn't be excited about LONG drape panels for less than $20!?

And they were cute too.

But notice I said they were cute?

Nine months later, they are not so cute and I am not so excited about them.

These drop cloth drapes cover our sliding door that sits next to our kitchen table. 

The table where my toddlers eat all of their meals.

And throw all of their food on the floor.

Food that splatters onto the walls, the sliding door, and all over the drapes.

No biggie though, the drapes are washable.

Right??

Not such a good idea if you didn't pre-wash them before hemming them.

Why??

Because they SHRINK and you are left with high-water drapes!!!

I hate high-waters.

Total rookie mistake. Duh!

Also my wonderful hemming job turned into a knotted up mess of dangling strings.

So not cute.

So needless to say, we need new drapes now.

I could just replace them with new drop cloths (but pre-wash them this time!),

but after looking at those drapes for months now,

I've decided that they just look too blah against our tan walls.

Too much tan on tan action, if ya know what I mean.

We need something with a little more personality.

I am so in love with horizontally striped drapes that I've seen on a few blogs.

The Yellow Cape Cod

used plain ivory curtains and attached strips of black twill fabric with fusible webbing. 

The raw edges were covered with black grosgrain ribbon. 

Nesting Place 

found vertically striped fabric, and turned it into super cute horizontally striped drapes.

 Faith's Place 

used leftover paint from the walls and painted stripes on plain white curtains panels.

I haven't been able to find wide striped fabric that I like (or that's affordable) 

and so I thought I'd give the painted stripes method a try.

Using my old, shrunken drop cloth drapes for a trial run, 

I painted wide 8" stripes using leftover paint from our walls.

(Keep in mind this was a trial run, so I didn't do the best paint job)

While it looks really cute from far away, up close it's not so cute.

It is way crusty and stiff.

If you crease it, the paint cracks too.

And I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up in the washing machine.

Bummer.

While the painting trail wasn't so successful, 

it did show me that the stripes look really good in our kitchen/breakfast area, 

so I am definitely going to persevere in my quest for striped drapes!

I bought these puppies at Ikea (only $20 for a super long pair!) last weekend 

and I'm thinking I'll try attaching fabric stripes...

if I can find the right material...