Wall of Curtains
| August 10, 2011 | Posted by Jessie under Build it Yourself, Master Bedroom, Window Treatments |
As you saw in our bedroom reveal, we created a big wall o’ curtains. Here’s what it looked like before:
And here it is all full and pretty:
Because we were trying to keep expenses down on this project, we created this wall with stuff we already had around the house for the most part. Here’s what we needed:
- scrap wood {1x4s}
- scrap fabric {I used muslin and drop cloth}
- drop cloth
- electrical conduit
- curtain rod hooks
So our version is a short cut route and may not be fancy enough for some, but it works just fine for us. It gave us the feel we wanted without the extra cost.
Mike created a frame with scrap 1×4 pieces of wood we had in the garage. He measured the length of the wall and we decided how thick we wanted it {about 13 inches, just enough to cover our curtain rod} and he created this frame.
Then I wrapped the frame in fabric. I had some scrap drop cloth and used muslin for the rest. My drop cloth scraps were about 13 inches wide and I had enough to make four stripes. We did a little math and figured out how long the muslin stripes needed to be to make an even pattern and I went to stapling.
The fabric looked great and we were proud of work
Until I lifted it up and realized you could see through my thin fabric. Uh-oh. So we got to damage control. I wasn’t going to buy different fabric and re-do it so we had to get creative. I took some more muslin that I had laying around and wrapped the boards with the fabric {to dilute any contrast in color}. Then we took some of the foam boards we had left from the countertops and filled the empty space between the boards on the back. Sadly, we missed one piece of wood and I haven’t it taken it down to fix yet…oops.
Lucky for us, we aren’t perfectionists and it hasn’t bothered us enough yet to get up there and fix it. Did you notice it before I pointed it out? Anyway, the next thing Mike did was add small pieces of wood to either end to nail into the side walls.
This is like the little scrappy project that could, huh?
We each got on a ladder on either end and Mike screwed it in to keep it secure. To hang the curtains {which are a combo of the black out curtains I made last year and a drop cloth ripped in half and put on either end}, we needed a super long rod. Remember the theme of this project-cheapo. We bought 12 feet of electrical conduit from Menards for $3.
And did nothing but set it up on our curtain rod hooks. It’s hidden under the cornice so you can’t even see it! And $3 for a curtain rod? I don’t think I’ll ever look back. We feel like we are living in a rustic hotel room. The curtains look great open
What do you think? Would you make a cornice out of scraps? Have you made any scraptacular projects lately? I’d love to hear!
try putting the black drapes on the outside and the beige drapes on the insides, i.e. swap them. The black drapes make the wall-to-wall effect diminished since they chop up the “big” window.
Thanks for the suggestion but the black curtains are actually black-out curtains and we like to sleep
so we’ll have to keep them in the middle {in front of the windows}!
It is hard to believe what a difference that makes in your room; very nice and cozy! I love it!! And how clever you and mike are coming up with the “scrapy” inexpensive way to make it look so lovely (ha)!
Love the master!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Deana!
[...] They’re done! Well, almost:) We are still planning on adding some arches in the top of each, but I do have some pictures ready to share. Let me first remind you of this wall when we redid our room last year with the wall of curtains. [...]