The perfect pair of curtains can be a tricky thing to find. I had been searching for matching curtains for our open concept living room and dining room, and was very specific with what I wanted. My checklist included: long cotton canvas grommet curtains that fit within my budget, and were a pale aqua blue color. That’s a lot to ask for in a pair of curtains.
The closest solution I could find were the MERETE curtains from IKEA. They are long (and they come in two different lengths), wider than most curtain panels (57 inches), they do have grommets, and are a great price at $40 for a pair! The MERETE curtains come in a variety of different colors, but not pale blue. So I decided that I could easily “hack” a pair of MERETE curtains with two shades of fabric dye to get the custom color of aqua blue I was looking for.
Okay, let’s get to the tutorial for dyed aqua IKEA curtains! You can check out my short video, or see the full tutorial below.
*I received product in exchange for this post, but all opinions are my own. Affiliate links are provided in this post*
Supplies for IKEA curtain hack
- Pair of white MERETE curtains
- Water
- Salt
- 18-gallon Rubbermaid bin
- Rubber gloves
- Stainless steel bowl and spoon
- Fabric dye (1 pack Dylon China Blue, and 1 tbsp Bahama Blue)
Step 1: Wash the curtains
I followed the instructions on the fabric dye package pretty closely, so the first step is to wash your curtains and leave them damp.
Step 2: Prepare the dye solution
While the curtains were in the washing machine I got the dye solution ready. I filled up an 18 gallon Rubbermaid bin up to the line with warm water. This is about 60 liters of water. I decided to do this outside to reduce the possibility of making a mess, so just ran back and forth from the kitchen with buckets of water.
To get a pale aqua blue color I used a full pack of Dylon China Blue fabric dye, and 1 tablespoon of Dylon Bahama blue. Mix it up in a small stainless steel bowl with some warm water, then add it to the Rubbermaid bin. I also added 7 tablespoons of salt to the water and mixed it up really well, because that’s what the dye package said to do.
Step 3: How to dye curtains
Again, I followed the instructions on the package. I shook out the damp curtains to try and get rid of as many wrinkles as possible, then gently submerged them in the dye. I stirred constantly for 15 minutes with my stainless steel barbecue tongs, then occasionally for another 45 minutes. It’s a good idea to wear rubber gloves. I did not, and my hands were slightly blue for a couple days.
Step 4: Rinse, wash and dry
Rinse the curtains in cold water in your machine, wash with warm water, then dry. These curtains shrink a fair bit. If you need to hem, them make sure you wait till after you wash and dry them.
Step 5: Iron the curtains and hang them up!
The jumping off point for our living room color scheme was a blue and green stripe pillow that I bought from IKEA. I love blues and greens together and these curtains now fit perfectly within the color scheme.
The curtain rod is made from plastic PVC pipe and DIY industrial brackets, which makes these entire window treatments very affordable.
The nice part about the white MERETE curtains is you can dye them any color you want. You can mix up any shade of fabric dye, and use this tutorial as a guide for how it will turn out. You can totally use your imagination and make them any color you want!
Read how to make these curtain rods from plastic pipe!
I am thinking about tie-dyeing a bathrobe and a cushion cover. It’s not the same but I’ll be reading your post attentively before I get to work. Also I think you are sooooooo right – IKEA is the perfect place to hang out on a rainy day. If you bring the kids (my friends have children) it’s super fun to test all the beds and sofas 😉
Tie dyeing a bathrobe sounds like a really cool idea!
What a great idea!! And that colour is so fresh…nicely done! (I’m going to pin this for later!)
Thank you!
Love the color and it looks like fun to make!
I am feeling the need to get crafty! I love this idea. I am in need of an update on my office curtains, I may just give this a try.
What a great idea! I’ve been searching for something with just a touch of colour that’s not too expensive and this looks perfect. Pinned! Thank you.
Oh wow! They turned out so great, and your decor matches beautifully 🙂
Oh how I wish I had found this years ago. Brilliant idea and a cheap way to DIY. LOVE, and totally pinning this for myself to use very soon.
You picked such a pretty color! Nice job!
Wow, what a great idea! This post couldn’t have come at a better time either, I’ve been trying to find a way to make custom curtains for our living room 🙂
What an incredible color 💙 the first think I thought about was mermaids lol it is simply a relaxing feel for the room your hacks are always incredible 💙
Hi, Jess. It’s a very pretty colour and you certainly did a great job doing it! It looks perfect on your windows.
Great tutorial! Thanks for sharing it with us over at the To Grandma’s house we go link party, I will be featuring this tomorrow morning when the next party starts!
Thank you so much, I’ll be sure to check it out!
Love them, so light and airy.
Thanks so much!
I’ve done something similar, however there is one thing you need to know before you invest in the curtains, dye, time etc.
Many dyes and dye colors are not very UV stable, ( sunlight = UV rays) certain colors seem to be worse than others. I
I used purple dye, ( I kept the curtains all the same length even though a few windows didn’t go to the floor).
Within 6 months the ones getting a lot of sun faded, the ones with indirect sunlight faded but not as much. And as I keep my curtains open a lot, when I closed them I noticed I had stripes of darker then faded areas as when open the the curtains make a S shape with some areas closer to the window and other areas farther away. So I ended up with purple and pink stripes (the faded areas turned pink) not to mention that the curtains on the shorter windows were faded on top and darker on bottom after the UV rays got to them.
A few years ago RIT dye made a special clear “dye” that added UV protection to whatever you used it on. But they no longer make it, otherwise I would have used it to make the dye last longer.