Custom Drapes at an Affordable Price
If you want custom drapes but you don’t have the money to spend on them, then this Ikea curtain hack is for you.
I was in the same place. My living room has a rather large window and it seemed that no matter what décor I put in my living space, everything fell flat. The large back wall was missing visual interest. The problem was, everywhere I looked, the price for custom floor to ceiling drapes was astronomical with the average price for a custom length quality curtain anywhere from 250-1500 per panel. I simply couldn’t afford it as a mom of two with only one household income. So, for a total of eight months I searched and searched and truly began to agonize over the decision (as silly as that seems). When you don’t have a ton of money to work with, you really want to make sure that whatever you buy is really worth your while. This meant months of searching, questioning, changing my mind and searching again. It was truly exhausting.
Ikea Ritva Curtain
Finally, I stumbled across an IKEA Curtain hack and was amazed with the quality of the curtains and the overall finished look. Using my Ipad, I enlarged a photo of the drapes, squinted with one eye, cocked my head to the side, and held the Ipad up in front of my window. Finally, I had a solution to the problem of my boring lifeless window wall at a price I could truly afford.
I started shopping for the curtains immediately and quickly discovered that although amazon does carry the Ikea Ritva curtains, they are a bit more expensive than they are on the actual Ikea website. With an Ikea within driving distance (they offer instore pickup only), I ordered a set of the panels online at the 118in length for a total of $40. What a bargain!
When I got them home and opened them up I was even more impressed with the quality. They are thick but not too thick and they filter light without blocking it completely. They also have a slight texture to them that is just truly amazing and is exactly what I was looking for.
Additional Items Used
In addition to the curtain panels, I got some SY hem tape from ikea for $2, curtain rings with drapery hooks for $14 from amazon, and a curtain rod from Target (project 62 brand) for $28 total.
My total project cost was just $84 for custom looking drapes! Such amazing cost savings. I am still in shock with how much money was saved for the overall custom look that I was able to pull off with this Ikea curtain hack.
The hardest part of the whole project was hanging the dang curtain rod. Why are curtain rods so hard to hang? That’s another blog post for another day. HA!
Attaching Drapery Hooks
Once the rod was successfully installed, I attached the rings and drapery hooks to the rod. After this was completed, I attached the curtain to the curtain rod using the drapery hooks and rings.
Adjusting the Length
The next step was to trim the curtain to the appropriate length. I happened to have some pins available so I used them to mark where the curtain needed to be hemmed. I made sure the curtain was long enough to kiss the floor. I wanted the curtains to meet the floor exactly without puddling.
Inserting Hem Tape
Next I brought my ironing board and iron over to the window and with the curtain still attached to the rod, I flipped the bottom upside down on my ironing board, inserted the hem tape on the fold where the pins were attached and ran my iron over the curtain to adhere the hem tape.
Removing Excess Fabric
Lastly, I cut the excess curtain fabric off the bottom and steamed the curtain with my iron (while still attached to the rod) and wham bam, custom drapes at a fraction of the cost were completed.
This is truly a beginning level DIY project. It was rather time consuming but I found the majority of my time was spent hanging the dang curtain rod. Hemming the drapes to the right length was actually a fairly quick and simple process.
I hope this blog post was helpful for you and that you are inspired to DIY your own Ikea curtain hack. 🙂
Megan
