DIY Drop Cloth Curtains

Good morning friends. Happy weekend!

Raise your hand if you like curtains.🙋🏼 Raise your hand if you like inexpensive curtains.🙋🏼🙋🏼🙋🏼 I’m not sure why, but window treatments can be SO expensive!! So today I’m going to share a tutorial on how to make these AMAZING drop cloth curtains with y’all! These are so simple, inexpensive and look great! (Added bonus: the canvas material is a neutral tone, so if you’re trying to go for the farmhouse/Joanna Gaines look like me, these are absolutely perfect!)

Here are the items you will need:

• 2 packs of canvas drop cloths
• 2 packs of drapery rings
• Tension rod if you can’t damage the walls or a regular curtain rod (make sure whatever type of rod you use fits your window)
• Command hooks that can hold 5lbs if using tension rod (I used 3 to be safe)

Let’s get started!

If you are using a regular curtain rod that you screw into the wall, you can skip this step: figure out how far you want the rod to extend from both sides of the window and then place pencil marks on the wall a few inches in from that. This is going to be where the Command hooks will go on the ends. Measure from the ceiling to where the top of the Command hook will be to ensure that they are the same height. Then do the same thing in the middle. Expand the tension rod and place it on the Command hooks. Put your drapery rings on either side of the rod.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures from this step. My dad was helping me set it up during move in and things were a little crazy because I had to be at a meeting at 7 so we were on a time crunch.

Now that the rod is hung up, you can begin on the drop cloths! When you take them out of the packaging they are going to be wrinkled and creased from where it was folded. In order to get these out, throw them in the washer and dryer. They’re still going to be a little wrinkled when they come out, but the major creases will be gone for the most part.

Let’s get these wrinkles and creases out!

When I took them out of the dryer, I just draped them over my shoulder and it created a nice coat lol

The next step is slightly tedious, but necessary. Grab an iron and put on your favorite Netflix show and go to town ironing out both drop cloths. Drape the drop cloth you aren’t working on at the moment over a couch so it doesn’t get more wrinkled. They aren’t going to get completely unwrinkled, but they will look much better!

These are the wrinkles left after they came out of the dryer. Let’s get those bad boys out!

I watched Gilmore Girls while I ironed

Drape the drop cloths over a couch so they don’t get more wrinkled!

Once you’re finished with this step, comes what I think is the hardest step (at least to all the perfectionists out there.) Fold over the top part of the curtain until it is the height that it won’t drag on the floor when it is hung up. Start with one end and then bring the other end over to ensure they are the same height. Then use the rest of the drapery rings to clip them spaced evenly.

Clip the drapery ring on the fabric. Easy peasy!

I folded the edge of the cloth on the end rings so that it gave it a more finished look than just the edge of the drop cloth showing.

Line up the edges of the folded part on the opposite end to make sure they are the same length

If you use Command hooks, slide the last ring over the hook so that it won’t slide off the end.

You can hang them however you want. I folded mine over and made “pleats” in the fabric or you can just clip them and let it flow like my favorite blogger, Sarah @ Little Vintage Nest did (where I got the inspiration to do mine.)

I folded mine so that it gave it a “pleated” look

Sarah’s are more ruffled. Hers look great, but when I tried to make mine look like that, it didn’t look right. But she is perfect so everything she does looks amazing. I think this style works better if you have more space to work with.

Now that you have one up, repeat the same process for the other side!

One side is done! (Sorry for the huge glare, I should have closed the blinds lol)

You would think that it would be pretty straightforward and simple from here, however, I am convinced that even though the packaging said they were the same size, that one of my drop cloths was slightly bigger than the other because I hung the other side up so that the bottom wasn’t dragging on the floor and the folded part was way shorter than the other side! And if I made the folded part the same length, one side would be dragging on the ground. It didn’t make any sense to me.

Both sides up, but oops! The folded over part on the right side is way longer. Gotta fix that!

I liked the length of the left side better so I attempted to make the right side even. I arranged and rearranged and took it off and put it on the floor and tried to get it even with the other side probably 15 times. My neck was killing me because I was straining to look up while standing on a chair trying to fix them! I even took off one of the drapery rings to see if the larger spacing helped. It definitely looked better! So I only used 6 of the 7 drapery rings that came in the pack on both sides.

I tried laying it on the floor, to see if that helped. It didn’t.

This is with all 7 drapery rings. The “pleats” just look too close together. Not at all what I wanted!

I finally asked some of the girls on my football rotation if they could come over and help me and it literally took 5 minutes!! I made the folded part longer than the other side and then folded a couple inches from the top over the back so that they were the same length and it wasn’t dragging on the ground! The folded part is a little less than two feet in length. I think the main reason why I was struggling was because I was trying to do it by myself and it’s so much easier to have other people available to help hold things up while you’re doing one side. Thank you girls!!

With 6 drapery rings, and the folded parts are even! Its a miracle!

I apologize for the lighting being so poor. There isn’t an overhead light in the living room area (why? I’m not sure) so one of my roommates is bringing a lamp stand when they move in.

They really make the space so much more homey! (you’re welcome for the sneak peak of the lodge!)

I’m so pleased with how they turned out and for only $11 a panel, it’s so affordable!! I want these curtains in every room of my house when I get my own place. The arranging is the only hard part, but it’s a necessary evil to getting them to look the way you want.

I hope your summers are ending on a great note. I’m so excited for fall! It’s my favorite season and my birthday is during fall, but fall means that it will be winter soon and winters in Indiana are not so great. Oh well, I’ll just enjoy the weather until then.

I also just want to give a big thank you to everyone who continually supports my blog; y’all are the best! Don’t forget to like this post, or share it on Facebook. You can even follow A Kentucky Girl’s Thoughts so you get notified every time I post something new. Just click the follow button at the bottom and enter your email address 🙂

xoxo,

Alyssa

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