DIY Your Own Window Treatments
May was a crazy month around our house! And you may have noticed my lack of blog involvement. But no worries. I’m back! With the exception of a couple of dance recitals this weekend, our crazy time has normalized. I’ve been saving this post for awhile and am excited to share how you can save some dough if you DIY your own window treatments
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Curtains and rods can get pretty pricey, depending on several factors.
The size of the window, the number of windows, and the materials you use definitely make a cost difference. If you only have one window to worry about, then maybe sticking to a budget isn’t the highest priority. However, dressing multiple windows at once is a good way to put you in the poor house if you are not a millionaire.
I have a couple of super, budget-friendly curtain ideas. First, is the trusty ol’ canvas drop cloth. You can get them in almost any size and they look like linen, so that is a bonus. 9′ x 12′ drop cloths are really cheap when you consider that you can get two large curtain panels by cutting them in half. I think I paid around $15 per drop cloth at Menards.
Second, I love to use basic white twin flat sheets as curtains. I snagged some from Walmart for $5 each for our bedroom. For our living room, I had an extra king flat sheet in storage and decided to cut and hem it. Don’t they look great!?! So for about $10 you can have a set of curtains for one window. Score!
Adding a wooden dowel to existing curtain rods can extend their length for only a few dollars!
As for saving money on curtain rods, I came up with this handy trick. We bought basic black curtain rods that were just too short for our larger windows. After a little brainstorming, I decided to buy a wooden dowel rod ( our was 7/8″ x 48″) and paint it with black chalkboard paint.
The color was pretty much on point and after adding it inside of the existing rods, we had super long curtain rods for only a fraction of the cost we would have paid for something bigger!
If you have extra money in your draperies budget, you can always snag some ring clips to hold the curtains up. Or, you can just cut a slit in the end of each top of the sheets and create a pocket to run the curtain rod through!
You may have noticed that all of our windows have wood blinds on them as well. This is because our curtains are more decorative than functional. We have electric baseboard heaters and will have to have to curtains up and out of the way during the cold season. Ugh.
Anyway, I hope this little insight into how to DIY your own window treatments encourages you if you are looking to dress up your windows without breaking the bank. I love how curtains can soften a room and if you hang the rods high, they can even make a room look bigger!