Hand block-printed shades

If you follow me on Facebook, then you know I was featured with six other bloggers (including my blog friends Kathy at My Interior Life and Autumn at Design Dump) in a round up of budget decorating DIYs on the Style at Home website.  My project is an oldie that I hinted at but never shared.

In fact, this project started as a cautionary tale.  When we moved in, this house did not have window coverings in the bedrooms, and since I had no design plan and had not even begun to think about budget, I simply ran to Home Depot and had some white vinyl shades cut to size.  This was basically the cheapest option with good light control.  Fast forward a year or so and you encounter the problem: because we already had window shades, we did not want to buy new window shades.  (The lesson: don't buy "temporary" unless you are okay with it being basically permanent!)

So I needed a fix.  I ordered a carved block used in block printing off of etsy, read tutorials on painting vinyl shades, and got down to business.  Before starting in on the shade, I tested some patterns and colors on large paper.  I quickly realized that a light color would work better than a dark one, like the navy wall paint from the guest room, which showed too many of the irregularities in this process.

So I settled on the wall color from the girls room.  And rather than the climbing vine motif above, I settled on a simple grid pattern.

I taped a tape measure across the bottom of the shade, used a roller to layer paint on the block, and printed every five inches.  (Look closely to see the paint!!)

When it was time to do the next row, I used a ruler to make sure the spacing was even in both directions.

I printed a straight square grid first, then added one stamp in the middle of each square.  I just eyeballed that.

To finish it off, I used a krylon matte sealer and let it cure for a couple of hours before hanging it back up.

These shades have gone up and down at least once daily for about 9 months, and they are still looking good!

Of course, I would still love custom matchstick blinds in there, but for now these are pretty cute, but darn hard to photograph.  In fact, this may be why I never did share the project--that pale pink is sure hard to see, and when you have to shut out the natural light in a room (but don't have professional lighting equipment at your disposal, well, it doesn't look like much.

But tell me: would you ever hand-block print anything?  It actually took way less than an hour once I made decisions about pattern and color and got on with it already!