Hiah my friends! I have been doing a little bit of tweaking in my son’s room this past week and am very excited to show you! His poor room has been virtually neglected the past almost-3-years that we’ve lived here. Thank goodness he is a typical boy who could care less what his room looks like. As long as he has his legos and DS, he is a happy camper.
Okay, so his room started like this:
First off, I ditched the shelf below his window almost immediately. It’s now on the other side of the room. And just for a refresher, here’s the post I wrote about all his bedding.
I’ll just go ahead and start with the “after” and then share the deets. I hung some curtains in his room and I still can’t believe what a huge difference it made.
I’ll let you do a quick double-take now. Yes, I am just as shocked with the before and after.
I didn’t even paint his walls or anything. Just curtains. And the room looks like 10 thousand percent better. Wow.
I love with a capital L these curtains. They are actually navy/white pinstripe twin bedsheets that I found at Target in the clearance section a few weeks ago. All I did was add a 1″ wide orange grosgrain piece of ribbon down the inner edge of either panel.
The stripe compliments the stripe on the bedding, but because it’s such a narrow pinstripe it doesn’t compete with the bedding. To turn the flat sheet into a curtain I sewed the orange ribbon down the side and stuck a curtain rod through the top of the sheet (I had to seam rip some stitching to open it up on either side).
Then I just hung the rod so that the curtain would barely touch the floor – no hemming or anything. So easy!
Now for the really fun part! I totally did an ikea hack to hang the curtan. I was going to make another one of my custom $2 curtain rods but as luck would have it I came across two ikea “bygel” kitchen rails in my stash. I had them in my office before Ben and I did one of our many office flip-flops.
The wheels started turning and I thought to myself, “Self, these look like they could be awesome cheap curtain rods!” I tested them out and sure enough, they were long enough and the fabric fit on them.
All I had to do was screw them into the wall with the curtain already attached, and voila! instant curtain rods.
I am just giddy at how well they worked. And if you can even believe it, they are only $2.99 at ikea and come in two different lengths (these are the shorter 21″ length).
I guess you’d say this post is a double hack. I hacked some twin bedsheets into curtains, and I hacked two kitchen storage rails into curtain rods. I’m sexy thrifty and I know it.
And for your pinning pleasure:
I have been working like crazy on this house lately and I can’t wait to get down to business and show you everything I’ve done! If you’ve done any crazy ikea hacks lately or have made some curtains, share your post with us in the comments section!
No way – these are amazing, you are amazing! I also can’t believe the difference they made and I love that they are sheets and how you hung them up!
GREAT idea! It looks AWESOME!! 🙂
http://www.iheartmygluegun.com
That’s excellent. I love the pinstripe sheets -> curtains and that orange ribbon stripe is genius! I guess we are on a similar wavelength. A few months ago I used the longer bygel to hang a curtain panel as our closet door. Our real closet door came down within a week of moving into our house as it was in a terrible place! I also stuck a king size sheet up as a curtain in our bedroom. I still haven’t even cut it into two panels or anything! At least it provides some privacy. (I really need to be more decisive in there to move forward. I’m struggling with it…) Hacking is so fun.
Love that you used a sheet as a curtain. I’m going to keep that in mind the next time that I peruse the linen section (or the clearance rack)!
Well done!
Way to go on the double hack! Love that strip of orange that matches the pillows! Wish I had an Ikea less than 4 hours away!
Allison,
Very nice! I love how you put the orange ribbon on the fabric. Not only does the color go great with the navy blue but it also ties in with the trims in your daughter’s room giving the house a more cohesive look. Do you have stock in the ribbon company? 🙂
Maureen
Love that color combo! I did a similar trick with the den curtains in a very small space using curtain tie backs. He – you use what works! Sheets as curtains are brilliant and cheap!
Imagination runs wild! yeah!
Love it! Great hacks!
You always find the best sheets! I need to start hunting our clearance racks a little more closely!
Your hack is brilliant! Love the ribbon on the edges it really makes the curtains pop, and the curtain rod hack is fabulous. keeps it from being frilly by using something kind of industrial. Back to the Legos and DS right?
xo, Tanya
twelveOeight
Love love live the curtains and the bed!
Love this! Adding the ribbon trim makes them looks so cute. Great find on those sheets!
Question for you and/or others. Would this work best with percale sheets instead of cotton. I would think the non-cotton would be more “stiff” and would likely drape nicer…or am I putting way too much thought into this?
What a fabulous couple of hacks! I LOVE the tip about the ribbon and sheets… I think my sons room needs some curtains – this gives me something to look for. Thanks for sharing these great ideas:)
Krista @thehappyhousie
Thank for sharing your ideas. We have an ’85 motorhome with the original thermal pleated curtains which are intact but are falling off their rods. I have been trying to figure out how I could take them down, clean them and then re-rod them. Your ideas are wonderful.
I grew up with curtains made of sheets. My Mom didn’t know how smart she was! She would always get them with a decorative border, she made long curtains and cafe curtains. She could never believe everyone wouldn’t do this, it was so easy. Only the living room had “Drapes”. I have to admit, I have only used sheets a few times.
This is so great Alison, thank you! I’ve been planning on making some curtains from sheets for my girls room for a while now, but never thought to just use partial rods and not have them cover the window completely! This will make this project so much more manageable!
I did it! Thanks again for the idea 🙂
http://www.craftingintherain.com/2013/04/ruffle-curtains-circle-ruffles.html
Love those stripes! I painted wide horizontal stripes on my son’s wall and now am struggling with complimentary patterns that won’t compete. I really like the choice of narrow stripes, thanks for sharing!
This turned out great! I love the curtains!!!