Cheap Curtains?

[Anguschick1]

Last time I bought curtains for our family room, I found some cool shower curtains on clearance and bought two for the big bay window. We just ordered a new couch (first new furniture piece in 5 years, only our 2nd new piece ever!), so the old furniture and curtains are moving out to the front room (currently 3 different patterns on 3 different uncomfortable pieces) so we'll have a "look" there too! I've been looking, but haven't been able to find anything I like so I was wondering what ideas you had?

The window is very big, 2 standard cloth shower curtains barely cover the window when closed so if I make something the fabric needs to be fairly cheap. Also, the look is somewhat country, all-around casual.

Any ideas?

TIA!

ETA: The window is west-facing, so the curtains have to be pretty heavy to block the light.

[Mama J Rock]

I have huge windows that were hard to cover without spending a ton of $ so I just bought some cheap sheer panels to close when I want them closed and then bought some afghan/throws that matched my furniture and cut them diagonally into big triangles. I then draped them across the top of the curtain rod so they look like the drapy valance scarf type of curtains but it really dressed it up so the sheers didn't look so lame. They hang with the center point hanging in the middle with the fringy edge creating a "finished" look. If you want I could probably take a picture and post it for you if you think you would like to see how it looks.

[Anguschick1]

That sounds really cool! Would you mind posting a pic?

How did you fasten the throw to the curtain rod? I'm wondering if ds would try to pull it down as he loves playing w/fringe.

[MommytoMJM]

You can also make a triangle valance out of inexpensive dinner napkins. As far as inexpensive drapes, how about regula, flannel or jersey sheets made into panels, to make them big enough, you could wither use King size or buy 4 flat sheets and put 2 on each side so they hang down 2 on each window....

[Mama J Rock]

The sheers we just used the little ring clips to hang them from the rod so that they will slide back and forth pretty easily. Then we just draped the afghans over the rod. I hope you can at least get the idea of what we did from the pictures. It was hard to get a very clear picture because of all the light.

curtain pictures

Also, I would think that you could even just leave the afghans complete and stitch over the top inch or two and create panels that you could slide open and closed that would still have a similar styled look but in panels instead of valances.

Let your creative juices flow!!

[Anguschick1]

Very cool pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[Eman'smom]

We are doing curtains in our living room right now, I order 10, yes 10 packages of curtains 80X84 from www.smartbargins.com it was the only way to come close to being able to afford curtains, we looked at everything we could, blankets/shower curtains/ regular curtains everywhere. I couldn't buy the fabric heavy and cheap enough anywhere.

[jstar]

i bought my last set of curtains at ikea. before that i sewed some with ticking stripe fabric i bought at joann fabrics. dh hated those for some reason. ikea is cheap though and they're SO long you can hem them to fit any window

if you don't want to sew they give you a plastic iron strip to hem them with.

don't know if you have an ikea near you. we have to drive to seattle to go. their shipping prices are pretty outrageous unless you're going to buy a bunch of furniture too

[lmonter]

How inexpensive are you aiming for?

I really like our textiles from Ikea. We got 2 packages or *huge* (I think each panel is 57 inches wide by 118 inches tall or so) dark blue thick fabric curtains for $25 or $29 a package. My mom hemmed them for our 4 huge living room windows, then we took the bottom 'scrap' part to make curtains for the master bedroom. Our master bedroom faces northeast, living room faces southwest, and the curtains block a lot of the light and heat (like a 10 degree difference between having them open or closed for the day during the summer).

Then we got two tablecloths ($15 each), one for the dining table, and one for curtains for the kitchen (so they match!), curtains for the master bathroom, and whatever we have leftover will be turned into napkins.

I also just throw it all in the washing machine since they're 100% cotton and we're good to go.

I also just got the new Ikea catalog, and the 'new' stuff they have that I'd like to get actually coordinates really well with what we currently have. We have mostly hand-me-down furniture in the *entire* house, so none of it really matches and it drives me nuts. (My old crib and dressers, grandmother's side tables, dining chairs and bed frames, other grandmother's dining table, mom's old wardrobe turned sewing cabinet, dh's bachelor stuff, etc.) But new furniture isn't in the cards, so I just drool.

[carlasher]

Very nice photos! Thanks for the ideas!