Hand painted shower curtains.

Have you ever wondered why shower curtains are so boring? It’s because manufacturers of mass-produced shower curtains are limited in how they can print. A roll type print is generally used, which means that each design is repeated every 33 inches. We are 6ft. x 6 ft shower curtain. The same design is repeated three times. That’s why there are endless weird floral and geometric designs.

There used to be large screen printing operations available in the US, but they have long since fallen out of favor. Last time I checked one machine was idle and the other was rarely running. Large screen printing offers more design options, but it is extremely expensive, wasteful, and has become a dinosaur in this high-tech age. Productions abroad can outsource this work for much more reasonable costs for manufacturers, but often the quality grows less and less.

Because consumer tastes reflect current styles and colors, commercial designs are often “in” today and “out” tomorrow. No matter what’s available, the end result feels ordinary and often just plain boring. In the first house I renovated, I became obsessed with finding the right shower curtain for my dying new bathroom. After gutting the entire room down to the dirt-filled crawlspace, I became increasingly frustrated that nothing I found fit the bill.

As an artist, I decided to paint my own. That produced even more anxiety. This would not be an easy task. What materials do I use? What kind of paint would allow for multiple washes? After spending all that time painting something, I didn’t want it to fade or peel… and most of all, where would I paint something that big? Eleven months later I had experimented with everything within my reach and found something that was worthy of my beloved new bathroom. I never dreamed that it would become a business. Soon, people were asking me to paint a shower curtain for their house and it suddenly dawned on me… If I was bored with commercial designs, there must be others who are bored too!

In March 2008, I will celebrate my 20th anniversary by hand painting shower curtains. I have since moved and renovated other houses, but that first bathroom still holds a special place in my heart. Especially since the 10-year-old shower curtain designed for the space helped sell the house!
It just goes to show that if you want it done right, do it yourself and do it to the best of your ability…you never know where it might lead.