DIY Curtains

We bought our house last August but with honeybee's arrival in October we haven't had much time for home improvement projects. The rooms are mostly put together but we haven't painted or decorated any room other than the nursery. The 'to do' list is crazy long and will take a long time to complete but we are trying to start, little by little.

Our house has a formal living room in the front and a family room, dining room, and the kitchen in the back. Basically, the back is one giant rectangle of a room with the dining room separating the family room and the kitchen. Because our house is a single story we have ten foot ceilings which I absolutely love. The problem is that our sliding glass doors to the backyard in the dining room are eight feet high.

I hadn't done much shopping for curtains before buying our house but I now know that 100+ inch long curtains are not widely available in stores. I quickly felt defeated by my inability to find curtains and decided to make my own. I also did not want to spend a fortune on fabric so I took a less conventional route - tablecloths! I saw a post on pinterest and was inspired to make it work. I went to my favorite store to get good stuff for cheap (Target) and found 104" tablecloths in the perfect color.

To make them into curtains I obviously had to put my diy skills to work. I bought a curtain rod, 2 packages of grommets, and some stitch witchery at Jo-Anns bringing my total cost for the entire project (after using all my Jo-Anns coupons) to $85. Not bad, right?! Even the cheap curtains I found in the wrong size were like $40 a panel so I definitely saved myself some money.

I wasn't worried about the curtains being too long so I finished the panels before I hung the curtain rod. When it came down to it I hung the rod as low as possible and the curtain are still a wee bit short. Oh well.

Anyway, to make the panels I created a header using the stitch witchery. That stuff is amazing! Just cut, place, and iron - magic! It took awhile to measure the header and iron it together, but since I don't have a sewing machine (or know how to use one!) it wasn't a big deal. After the header was done I carefully measured where to place the grommets. They were easy to install and transformed my tablecloths into curtains. Here is the end result:

The panels easily cover the width of the door when they are closed and make the back room perfect for movie watching. The grommets help them hang nicely too so I didn't have to bother with tie backs. The creases in the fabric are a little stubborn though so I may have to repeatedly iron them but that's not a big deal.

Overall, hubby is impressed and we both think they work good for the space. Yay! One more project done! I will probably diy curtains again but maybe try other materials. The tablecloths are perfect for the dining room but I think I need a softer fabric in the other rooms.

I think my next project will be the front bath. It doesn't need a lot of work but it could use a face lift. The guy we bought the house from had it painted the same brown color in EVERY room. I mean, I like the color OK in the family room, but I don't really want brown walls in the bathroom. :)