No Sew Drapery Update

We inherited basic ivory drapes over the  back door when we bought the house. I thought they were fine, except for the fact the casing at the top was so tight, it made it hard to slide them to the side to open the door.

It was like inching them to one side.

I thought about getting some clip-on rings to hold them up, but since these will get the most use of any in our whole house, I thought it might not be strong enough.  I also envisioned my toddler pulling on them and pulling the fabric out of the clips to get outside.

So instead I got some huge drapery grommets to make them easier to slide back and forth.

NO SEW DRAPERY GROMMETS

1. Measure and trace the template along the top of your drapery.

2. Cut out all the circles

3. Put the tall half through fabric

4.  Snap other side in place

The next problem was the drapery rod.  It was kind of cheap to begin with, and already had duct tape in the center when we got here.

But the bigger issue was the fact you couldn't have the center support in the middle of the rod, because the drapes had to cross all to one side to get the door open.

So major sag in the middle that was getting worse.

It's always surprising how much drapery/ window coverings cost to me.  New hardware seemed expensive, and seemed like it would have the same problems, all requiring a center support.

So after a while of thinking of solutions, I went to Home Depot to find a 1/2" metal rod.

The plumbing aisle had copper tubes, for $13.00--more than I wanted to pay and they were heavy.

So the solution was found in the electrical aisle.

I bought a 10 foot pipe 1/2" in diameter of electrical conduit for $1.97!

I brought it home and measured it, cutting off the excess with a hack saw.

Then I spray painted it black.

(I sprayed one side, let it dry, then turned it over to spray the other side)

So now with a strong rod, and grommets to make it easy to slide back and forth, it's much more efficient and better looking.

It also helped to paint the trim white and the wall from vomit yellow to the Glidden Gentle Tide.