Last Fall, I upgraded the curtains in our front room with a little DIY... aka blood, sweat and tears (hah!). It took longer than I anticipated, but in the end, it was completely worth it & now we have high end looking curtains but at a fraction of the cost!
Here is a quick tutorial on how to DIY your own curtains and a round up of some of my favorite curtain panels!
Supplies Needed:
6 curtain panels (The ones I used from Ikea are no longer available, but I linked some other Ikea options below!) My window is roughly 12 feet in width and the number of panels can be adjusted based on YOUR window width
Curtain Rod - I used this one from Ikea (I won't show how to hang/install this in this tutorial)
Curtain Rings - I ordered these from Amazon
Pleat Hooks - I ordered these from Amazon
Hemming Tape - I bought this from Ikea, but you can also buy it on Amazon
Scissors
Iron & Ironing Board
Steamer - this is the steamer I use!
The Process:
1| Measure your ceiling height and figure out what height your curtain panels need to be... you can get panels that are longer than needed, but make sure you don't get panels that are too short. I've rounded up some of my favorite panels at the end of this post!
TIP: Make sure the panels you purchase have the correct heading, so you can weave the pleat hooks into it. They will need some type of weave on the back of it, see the photo below!
2| Weave the pleat hook into the header of the panel - see pictures below for reference. You can choose the spacing of your pleat hooks... but make sure to be consistent with the spacing and continue this on all of your panels.
3| String your curtain rings onto the curtain rod - make sure to move the rings in between the brackets if necessary/depending on how you want to place your panels. Also, count how many pleat hooks are on each of your panels and make sure you have that many hooks on the rod or between each bracket.
4| Hold the panel up and hook the pleat hooks onto the drapery rings
5| Once the pleat hooks are attached to the rings, let the panel fall. From here, if your panel is longer than needed/pools on the floor, you will need to mark the new length for your panel.
6| You can mark the new length with a piece of chalk - or you can use a tape measure; do this by measuring down from the curtain rod, to the floor, and this will give you your new curtain panel length.
7| Once your new curtain panel length is marked, unhook the panel from the drapery rings. Lay it on a flat surface and cut about 1" longer than the desired length. You will then lay the hemming tape along that edge, flip it over to meet the panel & iron it to make it bond.
TIP: Make sure to use the appropriate heat setting and hold the iron on as long as possible... the more heat the better the bond will be.
8| Once the hemming tape has cooled, you can hang the curtain back up by hooking the pleat hooks into the drapery rings. Your panel should "kiss" (or barely touch) the floor now.
9| Depending on what material your curtain panels are, you may need to steam them. Steaming can also help some fabrics "fall" or "hang" better - so it's always a good idea to steam the panels if you can!
10| Enjoy your new, full, beautiful curtains!
TIP: Always buy more panels than you think you'll need. When the curtains are closed, you never want them to look like a flat sheet on your windows... you want them to still have ripples and movement to them. This is why I used 6 panels for our windows!
Talk soon friends,
Kayleigh