I decided in our new house, I would put the same curtains and curtain rods on every window for continuity. That sounds like a way bigger deal than it is… we literally have five windows that need curtains. I think it was more laziness than design aesthetic to just do them all the same. That did mean I had to find something that would look good in every room. I have gone the plain white or plain black curtain rod in the past (and I do love B&W), but I want to incorporate more wood in this house for a warmer, cozier look.
I fell in love with these West Elm curtain rods, but at $109 a pop… that wasn’t really an option. After thinking about it extensively, planning and rejecting plans, I settled on an affordable fairly easy sub that I think looks pretty great!
For the curtain rod I bought some poplar 1” dowel rods from Lowes. Brackets and curtain rings came from Amazon. I got some nice thick -just barely ivory- curtains from Ikea. The finials are copper pipe caps from Home Depot. It came to ~$35 per curtain rod, including clips, brackets and finials. That sure beats $109.
The poplar dowels are naturally a light pine color. I wanted mine a little richer and more brown. (I think my days of Scandinavian style light wood are ending?) I had a lot of trial and error getting the stain color just perfect, but finally did using a mix of three stains. Three small pots will make more than enough stain for the curtain rods. If you want to use the same ratio I did, test this on your wood before committing. It can come through WAY red on more porous wood.
| WARM OAK STAIN | ||
| 1 tsp. Minwax Early American | ||
| 3/4 tsp. Minwax Red Oak | ||
| 3 tbsp. Minwax Ipswich Pine | ||
I ended up spray painting my brackets, finials and even the curtain clips. I wanted gold and I wanted it to match. Not an easy ask if you also want it affordable! I used this Rustoleum Gold. Spray paint primer is the shit and totally worth the extra step on a project like this. I don’t know why I never used it before, but it really helps with wear and tear. If you choose to spray paint curtain hardware like I did, you’ll want to set up a painting station that can stay in place for a couple weeks. Every piece will need 1 coat of primer and 1-2 coats of paint. Sometimes you can only paint one side at a time. I like to give my items 24 hours to dry between coats, so you can see how the time would really add up even if you are more diligent than I was! The end result will be perfectly matching hardware in the color of your choice though, so worth it.
I don’t have painting pictures because it’s just spray painting. If you haven’t spray painted before do a test run on something like a flower pot before attempting detailed items like curtain clips. My best tip is go slow and give your item lots of dry time between coats.
I went to Ikea with the intention of getting Ritva curtains (which I guess Bloggers love?), but changed my mind and got Merete curtains. The pattern on the Ritva reminded me of hotel curtains. The Merete are thick and a nice warm white color, but have silver grommets at the top. Silver would clash with my gold hardware AND I wanted to use clips, not grommets. Since I knew it would have to hem the curtains anyway I decided to hem them from the top and remove the grommets. Hemming curtains is really straightforward. You could even use iron on hem tape instead of sewing.
Always pre-wash anything you are going to hem. There is a good chance things will shrink in the first wash and dry.
I used my curtain clips to hang the curtains so I could measure them. This is the best way. It’s easy enough and you are more likely to get the length right vs just measuring.
Once you have your measurement, pin your curtains and rehang them to check if your pinning is accurate. Measure twice sew once! There are better ways to hem that look more professional, but I just did these straight across and cut the extra fabric off.
Remember, even after you sew them to hang them again before cutting. I like mine to just touch the ground and barely puddle.
When your curtains are hemed and trimmed, lay them flat to add the clips. I used a tape measure to be sure my clips were evenly spaced. I used eight clips, added every seven inches.
I can see a little roughness on my hemline, I used pinking shears to trim them. But it’s not noticeable in the day to day, even with sun streaming through. Like I said, there are much nicer hems that you could do! I just kept mine simple. Or you could hang them with your hem on the bottom instead of the top. Over all I really like how these came out!
The gold is a little warmer than these pictures show, but not overly yellow. These caps have a foam liner glued inside that helps them stay on, but allows them to come off when needed.
I think they look really crisp and clean without being cold. The gold/wood combo is a warm neutral that adds some glow and texture to the room. Now I just need new shades…
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