Dining Room Curtain Project

This project actually took me almost a month to complete, from picking out fabric and brainstorming about how to make the curtain rod to only really being able to work during nap time. I love the way it turned out though! Here is the before picture. Well, its not a true before picture...remember the pink walls, card table and horrible light fixture from earlier posts? Anyway it's pretty dark picture(so is the after) because I can't figure out how to take a picture of a window and have it not turn out dark. Anyone have any tips? Here it is in all its glory...

The first step was to figure out how the heck to hang a curtain rod. It's a four window bay rather than the standard three, so I couldn't find anything online. Plus all the spacing between the windows is different....nice right? So off to Home Depot it was to try and create something. Four trips and a week later I had my solution. I bought four pieces of electrical conduit, four packs of wooden rod hangers and some plastic tubing. Oh, and a hacksaw. The cheapest one I could find ($3)...which turned out to be a not so good idea.  First step was to measure and cut all the conduit. I measured from crease to crease and took off about 3.5 inches to leave room for the joints.

And here is why the $3 hacksaw was a bad idea...it kept falling apart! It this about six times during the cutting process. I know what your thinking..."wait did you even have that many cuts to make?" All I have to say to that is thank you for assuming I get everything right the first time.  I actually make about 15 cuts because I thought "eyeballing it" would be sufficient.

Luckily my little helper was there there to encourage me....

I put the plastic tubing in the joints to make sure the curtain tabs wouldn't fall between the cracks and here is what it looks like finished...

Next step...make the curtains. After a few rejects I ended up choosing a grey/blue chevron pattern I bought off of fabric.com. I bought 15 yards and had juuuuust enough. I had to make back-tab curtains to that I could lace them around the hardware and have a clean finished look. I'd never made them before so I just winged (wung?) it. First I made the tabs by cutting 4 inch strips, folding in half and sewing. I did it this was so it would have a nice edge when I turned them pattern side out. Not that it mattered because they are hidden anyway. That's my perfectionist tendencies shining through.

Here they are finished (yes, I pressed them). I made eight for each curtain for a total of 40.

Next I hemmed all the four edges of each curtain, which was definitely the least fun part of this project. Well, that and getting all my cuts wrong ;).  Then I folded down the top edge of the curtain (4.5 inches) and pinned the bottom part of the tabs to the edge, sewing the tabs and seam all at once. For the top of the tabs I folded them over to be even with the top of the curtain and sewed them individually.

 Here is a view of the back of the curtains all hung up...

 And here it is finished! My casual dining room looks much more "grand" now!!

The grand total for this project ended up being just under $100. Not bad considering I've seen the same curtains (shorter, rod pocket) selling for $150 a pair on etsy. Hmm...maybe I should sell curtains...

I still have big plans for this dining room. We (okay, the husband) is going to build a Pottery Barn inspired table that seats eight and I'm dreaming of the seagrass dining chairs from World Market. It might be awhile before that happens though, as that part of the project will NOT cost under $100.

Linked to:

Between Naps on the Porch, Keeping It Simple, Running With Glitter, Homemaker On A Dime, Dittle Dattle,  The Tattered Tag, The DIY Showoff, Home Savvy, Be Colorful, The DIY Home Sweet Home, Mad In Crafts, The Girl Creative, Polly Want A Crafter, Sumos Sweet Stuff, Making The World Cuter, Lines Across My Face,  Coastal Charm, Skip To my Lou, Cherished Bliss, Confessions, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Tip Junkie, Creative Itch, Topsy Turvy, Sassy Sites!, A Bowl Full Of Lemons, Me and My Boys, Sugar Bee Crafts, Bella Before and After, Not Just A Housewife, Oops I Craft My Pants, Homework, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Much Ado, Eisy Morgan, My Girlish Whims,    Savvy Southern Style, Someday Crafts, Women Who Do It All, Handy Man Crafty Woman, The Thrifty Home, Lil Luna, Saved By Love, Fireflies & Jellybeans, Remodelaholic, Serenity Now, Lolly Jane, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Chic On A Shoestring, 504 Main, Designer Garden, Happy Hour Projects, French Country Cottage, The Shabby Nest, Fun To Craft, Fingerprints o the Fridge, Freckled Laundry, Be Different Act Normal, Tatertots and Jello, Nifty Thrifty Things, I Heart Nap Time,