Hiding the stuff

Unless you have been to my place, you have no idea about all the little surprises it has to offer... one being the murphy's bed in the living room. Perfect for overnight guests!


The doors that hide my guest bedroom (haha!) are original to the house, 18-pane leaded cast glass. So, they hide the innerworkings of the bed a decent amount, but without something behind the glass, the bed is still visible. See below for my quick and budget friendly solution.

To hide the bed completely, I decided to cover the inside of the windows with fabric. Lucky for me, someone who lived here before had the same idea, so the sash curtain rods were already installed at the top and bottom of the windows.

I shopped around for some fabric, initially looking for a large-scale graphic print. However, I stumbled upon a textile at JoAnn Fabrics with large scale scripty foreign words, and immediately knew that was the direction I would head. Unfortunately, that textile was selling for $40+/yard... not in my budget. The DIY in me immediately knew I could pull off the look for much less.

I headed to the $1.99/yard, 36" muslin... much better... and snagged 4-1/2 yards of it with a 40% off coupon and headed home to begin my project. (I didn't need to buy any markers for this project, as I had a slew of permanent markers to choose from at home).


Next, I needed to find a scripty font to trace onto my muslin... I didn't trust my freehand enough to pull this one off. I visited http://www.dafont.com and decided on a free font called Signerica Medium, which looks like this 

From the get go, I knew I would write the words in German. It's my favorite language for many reasons and has a special place between me and my bestie (she even sent me a German Christmas card once!). I printed a handful of phrases about sleeping, dreaming and spending the night in different point sizes.


Next, I turned to the muslin. First, I washed (to take care of shrinkage) and ironed it. Then, I folded each end of the fabric over and sewed a straight line on my machine to make a pocket for the rod at the top and the bottom. After I tested the fit of each panel, I set out to trace the words.

There was no rhyme or reason to my placement of the words, only that I tried not to use the same phrases near each other and also tried to vary the phrases of different size for a random look.

Once all the words were traced, I hung the curtains and my project was complete! In just under 4 hours and for only about $5, my guest bed is hidden... unless someone wants to put it to use, of course! And an added bonus: when I move, I will be able to easily repurpose the fabric as a pillow cover or curtains for a guest room at my next place!

Have you DIY'd a print on a neutral fabric using markers or paint? Are you willing to splurge on a high end textile for a small project?