The living area of my house (living room and dining room) have four windows (technically, three windows and a sliding glass door) that were in desperate need of some curtains. So I decided to make my own. Even the curtain rods. Because curtain rods can get pricey. Especially the longer ones. Plus, I have two windows that practically meet in the corner, so they were kind of demanding some custom attention. My DIY versions cost a little over $15 each.
I've seen lots of good tutorials for DIY curtain rods using everything from PVC to wooden dowels, but I followed this one by Allison of House of Hepworths the closest. Girl's a genius. Just sayin'.
I started by buying some 3/4-inch electrical conduit at Home Depot. For some reason, my local Lowe's sells this stuff by the foot, making it much more expensive than Home Depot, where they were $3.27 for the entire 10 foot pole. It always helps to price check. The 1/2 pipe is cheaper, but I liked the bulkier 3/4-inch.
I bought four pipes and had them cut to size in the store. Since they are not adjustable, you'll need exact measurements before you go.
Next, I headed to Ikea to buy some brackets to attach the rods to the walls. I bought nine Betydlig wall/ceiling brackets (which means you can attach the curtain rod to the ceiling, if that's your thing) for $1.49 each. They can hold up to a 1-inch curtain rod.
On the way to check out, I went into the As Is room and stumbled upon a box of curtain finials being clearanced for $1 each. By far the cheapest I have found anywhere, and I even liked their look. So I picked up six and quickly skipped to the register.
I already had a bunch of curtain rod clips on hand from our last house, so I only had to buy two more packs. They are from Wal-Mart. $6.97 for a package of 7 clips. Ones from Ikea might be cheaper (they have both plastic and metal), but I wanted mine to match what I already owned.
You've probably noticed the range of finishes on these various parts. Obviously some spray painting was in the works. I wanted gold, so I picked up two cans of Rustoleum Metallic Gold. I bought two cans (under $5 each) and I used every last drop.
I already had primer on hand (Kilz White Odorless - which is not odorless, BTW, but it does stink less than the other kind) and leftover clear spray for a topcoat. The Rustoleum paint says specifically not to use a sealer with it, and it does dull down the finish a bit. However, I thought it was pretty important to protect the paint since these will be working curtain rods, not just for decoration.
I sprayed everything. One coat of primer, a couple of coats of gold, and a final coat of sealer.
Now, here's where I hit a little snafu. If I had bought the finials first, I would have bought a smaller diameter pipe. Because the finials were designed for a 1/2-inch pipe. But I already had the pipe purchased and cut when I found the finials. So rather than waste $16 buying smaller pipes, I decided to get creative.
I bought one 1/2 inch conduit and had the nice people at Home Depot cut it into 6 18-inch long sections. This cost under $2. I decided on 18 inches just because it was a nice even number, no physics involved. The Ikea brackets came with some sticky padding you can put on the brackets for smaller rods. I cut just a small amount, and then stuck it to the end of the pipe, so the pipe now fit the finial snugly. Then I tightened the finial. I thought I might need glue to keep it all in place, but it worked fantastically all by itself.
You'll notice this conduit isn't painted - it slides into the larger, painted conduit and is completely invisible.
Finally, the rods were ready to be hung - but I'll save those pictures for tomorrow since this post is so long already and I haven't even talked about the curtains yet.
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