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DIY Shower Curtain

Bathroom, D.I.Y. Project, Home Decor, Renter Friendly, Sponsored, Textile Printing
By Emma Chapman

DIY shower curtain (via abeautifulmess.com) DIY shower curtain (via abeautifulmess.com) This is one of those projects that falls in the really fun but also really practical category. My favorite! Although, for the record, I also like impractical projects too. 🙂 I had been thinking about buying or making a shower curtain to give our guest bathroom a little more personality. I was able to create my own design by printing onto waterproof vinyl, and I am SO happy with the results. My design is very much inspired by 1960s pop art, think Andy Warhol. And the design is similar to this awesome project Mandi shared some time ago.

I teamed up with our friends at Canon USA to create this project. I recently started using their new PIXMA TS9020, and I love it! Other than being a printer that fits all my at-home printing needs (great colored photos, craft projects, as well as scanning and printing work documents), I love the new design. It’s white, boxy, and more compact, so it fits right in on my office desk. You can see some pictures of the new printer below if you’re curious. There are also 4 different printers in this new series. You can take a look at each of them here!

DIY shower curtain (via abeautifulmess.com) This was such a fun and easy project to make that can have a big impact on your bathroom space, bonus points that it’s totally renter-friendly too. I’ll share how I made mine along with some additional ideas for changing up this project to suit your style in case your not a pop art fanatic like me. 🙂

SuppliesSupplies:
-clear shower curtain + rings (I used this one, but any clear curtain will do.)
–Canon PIXMA TS9020
-copy paper
-colored card stock
–inkjet vinyl paper
-scissors

Once you’ve got your supplies in hand, here’s how to create a design.

Make a bw versionStep One: Create a black and white version of your design. Since I was aiming to create a pop art inspired look, I took a few images of fruit I had photographed and edited them black and white. You could do this in Photoshop or with an editing app like A Color Story. Print the black and white images out (two to a page if your design fits).

Make a color version Color copiesStep Two: Now scan and print the images to the colored card stock. You can use the copy feature on the printer for this, which makes it SUPER easy!

Ink jet vinyl printing projectStep Three: Cut out the colored shapes, scan, and print to the vinyl paper. Be sure to check any instructions your vinyl paper comes with. For example, mine recommended choosing the “high gloss” paper setting when printing to ensure the ink didn’t run. Another great feature about this printer is it has a rear tray so that loading different material types like this vinyl paper is super easy.

You might be wondering why I cut the shapes out before printing to vinyl. I was aiming to use the least amount of ink as possible, so I didn’t want to print a huge colored area that I just planned to discard later. I LOVE printing all my colored photos at home, so I like to save my ink whenever I can to be more economical. I was actually sort of amazed how little ink I used throughout this project when you consider how many colored shapes I printed out—hooray!

Cut out vinyl shapes Make your own shower curtainStep Four: Cut out the vinyl shapes and adhere to the outside of the shower curtain. You’ll want to adhere your design to the outside for two reasons. First, even though the vinyl is waterproof, this will still likely help to make this project last longer in your home through use. And second, the back of the vinyl I purchased is a soft white. So, they are not see through or clear, meaning if you want to see the design, it needs to go on the outside. From the inside (when you are taking a shower), the shapes appear white or kind of cloudy and you can see the design peeking through some, but it looks way better from the outside.

DIY shower curtain (via abeautifulmess.com) There are SO many ways you could change this project up! You could print a more realistic looking picture to the vinyl, like succulents, florals, or your pet. That could give you a similar look to this project, or this one if you go the pet route. I think this could also be a fun one to make for a friend who just bought their first home. 🙂 Really easy to do and the result is so fun!

DIY shower curtain (via abeautifulmess.com) And for all you long-time readers who might be thinking, “This bathroom looks an awful lot like the old studio house bathroom… what gives?” Good eye. My guest bathroom is a bit on the small side and only has one small window, so it’s quite dark. I really wanted to show off my curtain in the photos I shared, so I asked Katie if she’d let me photograph it in her bathroom (the old studio house), and she said yes. Which by the way, if you have a friend who will let you come over and randomly invade their bathroom to take photos in, you have a very good friend indeed. 🙂 I’ll show you guys the curtain in my bathroom on IG stories today if you follow @abeautifulmess. Happy crafting! xo. Emma

Credits // Author: Emma Chapman. Photography: Janae Hardy and Emma Chapman. Photos edited with the NEW A Beautiful Mess actions.

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