DIY Drop Cloth Curtains

It’s rained here every day for three weeks except for one day!

Confession: We don’t usually do this many crafts, but with all the rain we’ve had in the past three weeks, I have had to get creative to keep us entertained. Being cooped up doesn’t just drive the kids crazy. It drives mom crazy.

Today we did something cool and invited some friends to help us!

Drop Cloth Curtains

No sewing necessary! 

I usually would have done this outside in the grass, but it was going to storm, so I made as much room as I could in the playroom.

I bought 6×9 canvas drop cloth from Lowe’s. It cost $10.78. The cheapest white curtains I found at Wal-Mart were $12, so not only did I get a good deal, but I got a cool canvas look.

The first thing I did was measure the curtains in the boy’s bedroom from rod to floor. The curtains were about 7 feet and the drop cloth was 9, so when I laid the cloth down to be painted, I folded the top two feet over, so that it made a “ruffle.”

Then it was time to paint. There was a total of 5 kiddos painting. I used paper plates to put puddles of different colored paint on and lined the plates down the middle of the drop cloth. I had the kids pick a spot and start painting! They could paint whatever they wanted. Hand prints. Foot prints. Shapes. People. Animals. Anything was up for grabs.

I’m not going to lie. I love to paint. So, I had as much fun as they did. Actually…more fun. I was still painting after the last one said they were done.

Half way through painting, I began to wonder how much of it was going to go through the canvas cloth and onto the playroom floor. Later, I found the answer to be NONE! The canvas was sturdy and not one drop seeped through. Not even the rinsing water that the kids spilled on the canvas!

The kids were done, so once I decided I was done, it took about two hours for everything to dry. I went ahead and put the clips for the curtain rods on because my ruffle was perfectly measured, and I didn’t want it to be lopsided. I found a set of 7 curtain rod rings with clips at Wal-Mart. They were sturdy and great quality.

There was paint everywhere. It was on people’s hands, feet, bellies, faces, and clothes. And the finished product was awesome!

The kiddos enjoyed painting on such a large canvas. We had kids aged 22 months to 8 years painting. Their favorite part was painting their hands and feet to make prints on the canvas. They were so excited that mom didn’t care they were getting paint everywhere. After about 45 minutes they started getting bored with the project. After all there was a lot of canvas to paint. It would have been neat if there was a way I could set it up, so they could come back and continue painting later. This project was taking up the entire playroom floor, so we had to wrap it up so that everything could dry in a timely manner. It’s difficult to tell kids to stay out of a playroom. Around two hours later the drop cloth was completely dry. So, I hung it up………

Let me know what you think!!

All you need:

• 6×9 Canvas drop cloth. Purchased at Lowe’s for $10.78. Size can be adjusted to fit your window by folding over the top creating a “ruffle”
• Paint– I used paint from the arts and craft aisle at Wal-Mart
• Paint brushes– I bought a pack of 25 assorted brushes for $4.00 at Wal-Mart. The pack includes: angled brushes, foam brushes, small and large brushes, and round foam brushes that make perfect polka-dots.
• Curtain rod rings with clips– Pack of 7 for $4.77 at Wal-Mart.