Remember when I stenciled my dining room curtains for the winter pinterest challenge? Well I never actually told you about how I hung them. I know that doesn’t seem too exciting, but keep reading if you’re interested in not shelling out big bucks for a curtain rod.
We hadn’t gotten around to putting up any curtains on this window since we moved in, so we were starting from scratch. I shopped around to the usual suspects (Canadian Tire, IKEA, even Walmart) for a budget-friendly curtain rod. I found that the rods were either really plastic-y/cheap looking, or they totally broke the budget. The ones I liked, which were heavier, cast-iron looking, and long (our double window is pretty wide) were all in the $40 + range. And there are far more exciting things that I could spend that money on.
So I consulted the hubs, got our thinking caps on, and did a bit of searching around on google. We came across a few folks who had used electrical conduit, so we went to our Home Depot to check it out. Electrical conduit is the piping system that is used to protect and route electrical wiring. It comes in metal and in super long pieces. And the best part? It’s crazy cheap. We picked up a hugely long piece (like at least 8 feet) for a less than $4. Then we grabbed some corner brackets and EMT straps to hang the conduit (these were a couple of bucks).
You can probably guess what I did with the conduit and hardware, right? Yep, I broke out the can of spray paint. At first I was going to go with oil-rubbed bronze, but once it started to go on I changed my mind and grabbed my trusty matte black. Here is the conduit pre-spraying:
As always, I did many light coats of spray paint. This ensures you won’t have drips or other messy bits. I also had to go and rotate that thing over and over again for full coverage.
Then handy hubs cut it to size with a hacksaw. I had to touch it up again with spray paint after this, but no biggie.
Then to mount it, you take the corner brackets and screw them into the wall.
Followed by the EMT piece, which leaves a half-circle which the conduit can sit right into.
You want to do one on either side, and a piece in the middle. Make sure to use your level to ensure it’s all lining up. A wonky set of curtains ain’t gonna look pretty.
Then you just drape your curtains on, and hang ‘er up. Looks pretty clean cut and simple, right? Exactly what I was going for.
On another curtain-hanging note, always make sure to hang them high and wide. That’s the cardinal rule to make your window look bigger (and it really does work – I have made the mistake before of hanging curtains that basically block the window!).
You’ll notice that I didn’t add any finials to the end of the rod (er, conduit). This was partly because I couldn’t find any that I liked, and partly because I actually just liked the way it looked without any. I might add some down the road if I see something that catches my eye, but I’m not in any rush.
So that’s it. An easy-peasy way of making a budget-friendly curtain rod. The whole thing cost us less than 10 dolla bills (we already owned the spray paint, but if we didn’t that would add an extra $6 or so). And this rod could have actually been longer (remember we cut it down), or we could have done two rods with the one piece of conduit. If you have a whole house of curtains to do, this is definitely the way to go.
Don’t you love finding smart cost-saving ideas? I know I do. What about you guys? Found any inexpensive rods or DIYed some yourselves? Got any other creative curtain solutions? Do tell.