How to Dress Up Blinds and Shades with Paint

This geometric pattern adds movement to a room. Use the end of a dry makeup sponge to dab color with varying pressure between taped-off lines. To change the look, use different tape widths and work in the existing shade color as one of the stripes.

Add a final touch with squiggles, accomplished with a stiff, dry, round-tip brush. Push the paint into the shade fabric to leave a strong, solid line. The shade's tabs extend the stripes and help guide design placement.

• Roller shade
• Scotch blue medium-tack painter's tape: 3/4 and 1 1/2 inch
• Makeup sponges
• DecoArt Americana acrylic crafts paint: French Vanilla (FV)
• Benjamin Moore color samples: Coral Gables 2010-40 (CG)
• Artist's brush: #2 round-tip stiff-bristle
• Delta Ceramcoat acrylic crafts paint: Village Green (VG)

1. Apply blue painter's tape to mask the stripes that will remain unpainted. If the shade has tabs, use them as guides for stripe spacing. Depending on the shade you choose, you may vary width, number, and colors of stripes.
2. Using the square end of a makeup sponge -- one for each color -- apply FV to some stripes and CG to others in desired sequence. Dab the paint using light and heavy pressure and rotating the sponge tip to create a mottled look; let dry before removing tape.
3. Using the round-tip brush and VG, paint a loose squiggle along the outer edges of each CG stripe.