January | 2016 | Keeping The Joneses Up

You never truly realize just how EXPENSIVE curtains and window treatments are until you have to start buying them for a house with, what feels like, a bajillion windows. There are a lot of ideas out there circulating about DIY curtains and most of them are great. This is what I personally used and found to be the cheapest ,but best looking, alternative to traditional curtains.

Materials:

Drill (or a Hammer,nail and screwdriver)

Mainstay Cafe Rod Set ($2.97 @ Wal-Mart)

Mainstay Cafe Curtain Clips ( 14 ct $2.84 @ Walmart)

Mainstays Twin Flat Sheet ($4.99 @ Walmart)

Ikea Vivan Curtain Pair ($9.99 @ Ikea) Buy Here

Rod,Clips and 1 Flat Sheet

This window is 24″ wide so I cut my sheet in half for each side. If your windows are much larger,I would recommend 2 flat sheets.One for each side. i used 7 cafe clips on each side since 14 came in a pack.

This is with them closed. They look much fuller closed if you use two sheets or the Ikea curtain pair, but I never close them now. I’ve been using two sheets on the majority of my other windows.

I keep thinking I want to eventually upgrade my curtain rods, but then my money saving conscience keeps saying, “why?!”. They look fine and are functional. I may, perhaps, make some DIY valences one day if anything. I don’t know about you, but I hate the idea of spending 10 or 20 PLUS dollars on ONE curtain rod.It’s absurd, even if you have unlimited funds. It totally blows my mind.

COST:

$10.80 plus tax (one sheet method)

$15.79 plus tax (two sheet or Ikea method)

With two year old twins, my mind is always thinking of ways that they can possibly hurt themselves. We have windows on either side of the fireplace in our family room.If by some slim chance, those windows broke or gave way, there’s about a 10-12 ft drop on the outside to the ground. The windows are 24 inches wide so it’s difficult to find any kind of guard or gate. However, even if there was one for them, I’m almost certain it would look hideous.

So one day, going through all the stuff still not unpacked from our move, I came across a garden trellis that used to hang on the wall in my dining room. Then the idea struck me to cut it in half and to use each piece as a gate.

Materials:

Trellis

White Spray Paint

Sanding Block

Circular saw (jigsaw or hand saw can work too)

Brad Gun (hammer and nails work too)

See the windows on either side of the chimney,above the basement door? See the potential drop? Yeah. Better safe than sorry.

Similar to the original trellis that was used. I happened to score two of these free (usually $11) at Home depot in October because they were a little weathered. The one I used I bought five years ago at Lowe’s.

I used a battery powered circular saw and cut this bad boy in half. Used a block sander to sand down the rough edges and spray painted them white.

The pictures are bit dark, but you get the idea. I used my handy dandy battery powered nail gun and “stapled” the end pieces to wall. They’ve been up almost six months now and have held up great!