DIY Curtain Rod and Curtains - Farmhouse Style

DeeDee
by DeeDee
8 Materials
$65
1 Hour
Easy

During the Texas deep freeze about two weeks ago, we practically lived in our living room, huddled around the gas fireplace! We realized that our beautiful 100 year old windows with wavy glass do not seal well anymore. We put up some curtains from our old house temporarily to keep the cold at bay and it helped a lot, so we decided that curtains would be a great idea in our living room!

This was how the three windows in our living room has looked since we moved in. It was time for a change, dontcha think?


Here's our list of supplies:

(3) small 6" x 8" wooden corbels - $1.62 each at Home Depot

(1) 1-1/4” x 10’ Dowel Rod - $17.70 at Home Depot

(2) 9’ x 12’ Drop Cloths

(10) Clip Rings to hang the curtains

1-1/4" hole saw with drill

fine sand paper (220)

OPTIONAL: Weathered Oak Stain and Snow White Paint to achieve the look of the wood.

My honey took 3 cheap corbels from Home Depot and clamped them all together. He used his 1-1/4" hole saw to cut a half circle in the corbels. This is where the rod will sit. I used some fine sandpaper and smoothed out the rough edges after he was done.

Next he positioned the corbels about 12 inches above the window. We have 10 foot ceilings and I wanted the curtains to mostly fill up the wall.

He found the center of the window and placed the first corbel there. He then measured the same distance on either end from the edge of the window to get the end corbel placements. Me, I eyeball stuff, he measures, he's more of a perfectionist than I am. Haha! :) 

Next he laid the dowel rod up on the installed corbels and said. "there ya go"!

He marked the dowel rod for me so I'd know where to put it back after I added the clip rings and curtains. At this point I was planning on leaving all the wood natural, but then it just looked too yellow against the wall color, so I decided to tone it down a bit.

I went out to the shed to see what we had in our stash. I normally like using dark stains, but that was not going to work in this case, so I chose this weathered oak stain by Minwax.

The wood was still looking a bit too yellow even with the stain on there, so I white washed it a bit with some snow white acrylic paint. I did not seal these pieces because we are not going to be touching them that much.

NOTE: My version of white washing the wood in this case was me swiping on some white paint, spreading it around a bit and then using a damp paper towel to smooth it out and tone it down.

Next, I tried on the drop cloth to see how it looked. It looked really wrinkled, so I washed and dried the drop cloths and then folded one end down about 34” and clipped it in place.


Visit our blog For the exact ring clips I used.

I am loving the final look and so does my honey! I don't know why we didn't this sooner!

Please visit our blog for a short video on the process. Thanks so much for looking! :)

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  • Anna Anna on Mar 03, 2021

    How are the corbels attached to the wall? Anna

  • Sandyrojo Sandyrojo on Mar 04, 2021

    Love the look of the whole room, especially the mailbox wall! Are those book pages that you used?

  • DOD DOD on Feb 28, 2024

    Even though they ARE very pretty, I live in a part of the country where it's ALWAYS cold in the Winter. For almost 5 months of the year. Those wide weave drop clothes won't do much to keep out the cold or drafts. You can purchase "insulated" curtains in many stores and websites. A bigger investment than drop cloth material, but you will be so much warmer and not running the furnace as much with the proper insulating curtains. I see you first shared this a couple years ago. I'm curious what your experience has been since?

    PS I do love the look and the super easy process. I may try this in a couple rooms during the warmer months. Thanks for the "how to". 👍️

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