Two pairs of DIY curtains for my dining room, plus a DIY double curtain rod

Two pairs of DIY curtains for my dining room, plus a DIY double curtain rod

• 1.30.2013

Curtains are such a pain, aren’t they? Not only are they expensive and a big color commitment for the room, they often don't come in the right size!! We wanted to hang the curtain rods as high and as wide as looked good, to make the room look bigger, so you'll remember I made the living room curtains custom (7 yards fabric, 7 yards lining--eesh!). The dining room ones are the same length, 107" or so, and while some curtains come in 108" lengths, they tend to be, like, $60/panel. Or only come in a few colors. Bleh. Target's curtains are sooo cute, but pretty much only come in 84" lengths! What do they expect me to do with those?!

I've been hunting Goodwills for ages for long enough curtains for the dining room, and never finding. So a while ago I found some 96" tan Ikea ones for $10. I figured, closer than some of what I've been finding. I can give them a colorblock hem treatment, right??

I didn't like how the tan looked, so we dyed them with two boxes of grey RIT dye. Then on to this problem:

So, then I just needed to find the right fabric for the hem trim. I didn't expect to find something perfect, but wasn't sure what color and texture to go for. I also thought about inserting a contrast trim band somewhere in the middle or near the bottom, to give them sort of a stripe and make them longer. But, then not long ago I found some neat teal cotton twill on the JoAnn clearance shelves, an extra half off, and bought the rest of the bolt. I made colorblock hem facings, I guess you could say, as long as I could do with the length of the fabric. It was a little wider than the curtains so I tore the extra off and still have it, maybe for something else.

They don't look FAB, but they're fine for now. I think I made them a little too short, and the teal isn't as bright or interesting as I was hoping. But better than too short!

So, another problem... unfortunately, most curtains and even fabric only come as wide as 55" or so... I think the rule of thumb is you want curtains to be about 1.5x the width of the window for nice pleating, so if you have two 55" panels, that means your window could only be 73" wide. Mine are waaay wider, and I put the curtain rods an extra several inches out to make the windows look nicer and bigger! So pretty much any curtains (two panels) will be too narrow!)

So I decided the grey curtains need to be more faux curtains, and sheers will let in more light, anyway. I had a pair of old white ones on a tension rod filling the space in the meantime, but wanted loooong sheers that went the whole length of the grey curtains and the wall.


Then, of course, my other issue was the sheers-- ideally I would use a double curtain rod, but I already had the nice brushed chrome-ey one up... so, I bought a super cheap curved-end white, boring curtain rod from JoAnn and spray-painted it silver, because I couldn't stand to have the cheap white metal showing at all.

Now we can leave the sheers closed all the time for privacy, but still get lots of light in, and keep the grey ones pretty open to the sides.

So I was so excited by how my DIY double rod worked out that I bought another cheapie one at JoAnn... even took a picture of the label of the first one so I could remember which kind it was! I now see they have a bunch on Amazon for way cheaper than the JoAnn ones, of course, with lots of choices. I think the key on this one was the shallow depth--it only "projects" 1 1/4", way shallower than the big curtain rod for the outer curtains, so it tucks behind nicely.

I gave it the same silver spray paint treatment, and hung it in our bedroom in the same placement. I had just bought some Ikea sheers to replace some plain white ones I had on a tension rod just for privacy and light, so this is a big improvement. Close-up on the double rod situation!

Curtains can be so expensive and challenging, so it's a big relief to have these done. At least for now. ;)