Dining Room Drapes

Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on my Dining Room post!  I said I would share more about the different parts of the room, and I thought I'd start with the drapes.  First, I thought I'd share my thought process.

Custom drapes are lovely.  Really lovely.

Ashley Whittaker via

However unless I were to sew them myself (admittedly not actually that hard) and happened to come by dozens of yards of fabric I loved for really cheap (this is far harder in my opinion), they would cost a lot.  Suffice it to say, it just didn't make sense for me to go that route, especially since we'd only be living in this house for one year.  So that left me with ready made drapes.   While it is possible to find pretty printed drapes, I felt safe going with a solid panel, and I like the nice, clean look they give.  I figured I could always customize them a bit with some trim, which is exactly what I ended up doing in my dining room.

I purchased some inexpensive Ikea linen panels ($50 for a pair of linen panels is a steal!)  and used fabric glue to attach trim to the leading edge.  I must give a huge shout out to the lovely Christina over at Full House for the heads up on this trim.  Heritage Trading Company sells all sorts of pretty trim on eBay for cheap!  It was a happy day when I got this package in the mail!

I was inspired by Nicole at So Haute's tutorial for tweaking the top of the drape so it too appears more custom.   I wanted to mimic the look of a pleated drape that hangs below the rod with rings sewn on, so I chose not to thread the drape through the rod (which would be ok, and I've done it before), like it was designed to be used.  Instead, I purchased some packs of rings from Lowes (or Home Depot?  can't recall) from which to hang the drapes.  The catch is I didn't really want to use the clips, so I cut off the clips from the rings with a wire cutter.  {Have I lost you yet???}  I then used a pack of pins to thread through the back layer of fabric.  I hooked these on to my rings, and I rather like the look :)

Here's a picture of the back of my living room drapes which I installed in the same way.

They say design is in the details, and this was one step that I really think made my inexpensive store-bought curtains look a bit more custom.

Lastly, if you are curious--my curtain rods are actually not curtain rods at all!  They are made from plumbing hardware bought at Lowe's.

Again, for me I was motivated by a desire to keep costs down, but I have to say, I like the way the plumbing hardware gives a somewhat unexpected industrial finish to my dining space.  I can't recall exactly how much I spent on these, but it was not much.  And the great thing is I was able to fully customize the size because the kind folks at Lowes (or Home Depot) will cut the pipes for you right there in the store at no charge! Fun times!  If you are interested in using plumbing hardware in non-traditional ways, there are a myriad of ideas available on Pinterest.  People have done all kinds of things with it!