Here is the last part of my 3 part series on how I’m reusing old (antiques or not) things by giving them new purpose. Click here to see my past posts on the Kitchen and the Bathroom.

Window Treatments

Bedroom: My old apartment, which was in an older home (before I was married), had these really tall windows. I bought fabric from Walmart for about $1/yd and with no sewing involved, made hanging drapes that were held by 2 small grapevine wreaths at the corners (which were on hooks attached to the wall). After Joel and I got married and bought our home I cut that same material down to make mini versions of my former window treatment for my new bedroom windows (which were a fraction of the size of my apartment windows).

I never did bother to have them hemmed. My mother-in-law has offered to do it, but its not a necessity right now. She is going to make me some curtains for the sunroom and thats a bit more of a priority. Besides, who knows if I’ll decide to “reuse” this fabric for something else

I did have soooo  much fabric (because my apartment windows were soooo long) that I had used some of the extra fabric to drape over one of our dressers. I don’t use it there anymore but it was something different.

Sunroom: I decided to throw in the sunroom here since I did make my own cafe style rods out of pvc tubing, end caps, brackets, etc and some left over interior wall paint.

Somehow I did mess up on the measurements and the main rod is a bit shorter than I need, but I will make do (see last picture at bottom).  The rod above hangs over 2 windows. You’ll see the aprx. 16 foot rod down below.  It might have cost me $10-15 to make these rods (everything included). Thats a great savings. However, I did have some regrets because I didn’t do it “quite right”.

What I learned from this project…

Having a (aprx) 16- foot rod that doesn’t come apart is NOT convenient. You may want to reconsider doing it that way. I’ve tried to move this thing through the house. Not good.  A shorter rod wouldn’t be so bad though.

Don’t use housepaint (hehe)…I’m all about using what I have on hand and cutting corners. But honestly, I think you need spray on paint or something that won’t come off easily. And maybe something to seal it.

When you paint a long rod like this, you need a proper place to put it to dry. I didn’t have this option handy and I was painting outside when the fall leaves were on the ground. Newspaper stuck to my rod, I was in a hurry.

Sometimes it isn’t as rewarding to take the cheap route.

I won’t be applying for any jobs with Martha Stewart. I’m not that patient nor precise with measurements!

Click here to read one of the posts I found while researching “how to” make my pvc rods. I recommend doing it his way instead of taking my shortcuts. I also see he has some pics of making an “L” shaped rod (probably with an “L” bar?) – looks very interesting to me!

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