Inexpensive Curtains- A Quick DIY Project

Hello, hello! Happy Wednesday. Is it Mid-Week already?! It goes by so quickly.

Well, like promised, I am back today with a post about how to create inexpensive curtains for your home for about 1/5 of the cost of what you would buy at any retail store.

While this post may not be inventive (and it is most likely something you have already heard before) I thought I would still share how we save some money on curtains since they can be a little pricey to purchase in my opinion- especially if you are looking to cover more than 10 windows (which was our case).

So a while back I had been on the hunt for some curtains for most of the rooms in our home. Since moving to a home with more space, we needed to find some curtains for the windows in our new home...we have so many windows in our new home and love that because our last house did not have as many. However, while we love that, what we don't love is the cost it takes to cover up windows in style.

Let me start with some simple math before going forward, bear with me:

We had 11 windows that needed new curtains and the cheapest I could find when I first researched was IKEA. Here were the options I found:

Option 1 from IKEA:

The LENDA curtain at 118"

Curtains with tie-backs, 1 pair at $35

That would cost us a total of $385   

While beautiful curtains, Ummmm...no thanks!!

 

 

Option 2 from IKEA:

The LENDA curtain at 98"  (shorter than the previous Option 1)

1 pair at $20

That would cost us a total of $220

Ok...slightly better than option 1 but still not what we wanted to pay for just a pair of curtains

 

 

Option 3 from IKEA:

The VIVAN curtains at 98"

1 pair at $10

That would cost us a total of $110

Now we are getting somewhere....BUT I still wanted to hunt for something a bit better as far as cost goes

 

So......

one day while strolling through Wal-Mart with the family (we normally do not like shopping at Wal-Mart for various reasons- but we did this particular day none-the-less) I decided to head down the bedding aisle. To my surprise, I spotted some gray patterned curtains that would look great in the girl's bedroom. I originally was looking for white sheets, but wouldn't you know it, they were sold out! So after not much thought at all, I went ahead and picked up 3 twin flat sheets at less than $5 each because the girls have 3 windows in their room.

 

I thought, "Hmmm, if this works, this would be a great deal and a great way to cover up those windows in our home."

 

I went ahead and bought them and cut each in half. Sorry, no pics of the process, but it is pretty self-explanatory. ;)

Now, after this step you could easily hem the sides but I decided not to for these. I just wanted something to quickly put up and these did the trick. Plus, they add some nice color and texture to the girls room AND they were the perfect length already! Here are some pictures of them in our girls room.

 

 

 

 

I really love the color and pattern like mentioned before and because of this, went ahead and bought some for our dining room. That was kind of another happy accident because I really wanted to find white bed sheets for the dining room but couldn't find the correct amount needed, so I used the exact same ones I used in the girls room in our dining room and love it!

 

Here are some pictures of that:

 

 

 

I did go ahead and hem the ones in the dining room because they were a little long in here. But I already had the stuff for that so it wasn't much hassle to do so.

Also, since then I have already bought some for the other room we needed them for and all I have left to cover is our bedroom.

 

Now, for the breakdown of the cost:

Option 4 from Wal-Mart:

Flat bed sheets

1 sheet at $5

That costs us about $55 total FOR 11 WINDOWS- woohoo!!!!
That also means that each panel costs less than $2.50. Score!

 

I am all about saving, especially when it comes to decorating. And since we moved/just bought a house, we need to watch where we are spending our money. 

Because I love to change things up and move stuff around, I didn't want to spend a ton on our window treatments as well. They can really get expensive! But I think this is a great solution if you have to watch your budget and find something that still looks great.

 

There you have it.

What do you guys do for window treatments?

 

Thanks for stopping by and again, if you haven't liked my Facebook page, I would love it if you did. ;)

Thank you also to those who have been reading my blog and FB page. I really appreciate the support!!

Linking up with Lamberts Lately and Natasha in Oz