PVC Pipe Curtain Rods
I have been facing a dilemma since we moved into our house. We have 6 windows in our living room, which I love! The amount of natural light is great. I‘m fairly addicted to natural light. I cannot stand a dark house. Who cares if my energy bill would be a little less each month if I closed my blinds? I NEED LIGHT!
Back to my dilemma. The window walls are so long that it would cost a fortune to install drapery rods. Each wall is 10+ feet long. That = major money for drapery rods! I had to get creative….
Also, our windows meet in a corner, so that makes it more complicated. See the picture below.
I saw a show on HGTV that used PVC pipe for drapery rods in a room with a really long wall. That is what I would do!
This price is what it would cost me to do 20+ feet of wall space.
1 3/8″ Drapery Rods = $77.94 (from Lowes)
1 3/8″ Drapery Rods = $150.00 (Bed Bath and Beyond)
1 3/8″ Drapery Rods = $159.98 (Amazon.com) or 1 1/4″ PVC Pipe = $9.09
Holy Money Saver! So, PVC Pipe it was.
I went ahead and bought wood finials, brackets, and sconces to go with the PVC Pipe. I am in love with them. Wait….can you love something that won’t love you back?? I then found some spray paint that would match the finials/sconces. I gave the PVC pipe a few coats of Valspar Velvet Brown. I realized that the PVC looked too ‘matte’ after the spray paint, so I also did a few coats of a clear Gloss. Can you see the difference? Wow. They are looking pretty niiiice. Would you guess they were PVC pipe? Now, the installation. What a pain. It wasn’t hard, just took a while. First I installed the brackets and sconces. I then CAREFULLY slid in the PVC pipe. Your pvc pipe WILL scratch if you aren’t careful. I did a few ‘touch ups’ on mine after installing it. See my scratch?? I then slid on my curtains……. I want to take a break from my ‘PVC’ post and talk about the curtains. I am in LOVE with the fabric! I looked everywhere for drapes, and couldn’t find anything even close to what I wanted. So, I broke down and decided to make them myself. How to actually make them will be another post entirely. I did make them (it took 2 weeks!!!) and I think they turned out pretty sweet. I used a chocolate and cream damask, with a wide chocolate band at the bottom, and some cording in between the two fabrics. What I love the most about this fabric is the ‘burlap’ look them have. It makes the fabric way less formal looking. Now, back to our reguarly scheduled post….. I hot glued the finials onto the end. Here are some finished shots. I think it looks pretty fab!
BEFORE (like, before we moved in….)
Sarah – you did a fantastic job! I can’t believe the price difference and I think you created something way more attractive than can be found in stores! Thank you so much for sharing!
You can visit more of Sarah’s creativity at her blog, A Little of This, A little of That.
I agree with you. Awesome job with the curtain rods.
It is a great alternative. Did you know you can heat it up and bend it to make a curved rod ?
This is a great example of "thinking outside of the box." A few years ago I helped decorate a model home in a new subdivision. The "head" decorator had used a gorgeous window treatment in the room decorated as an man's office. For the big fat curtain rods she used those hard cardboard rollers (I call them rollers) that upholstery or drapery fabric come on. I ran all over collecting those big fat "rods" but never put them to use….it is still a great idea.
Wow! I love this.
That is wonderful! Great job!
What an awesome idea! I am definitely going to have to remember this one!
Great idea! Your room looks amazing!
I love this idea!! I have never seen it done before but I am totally going to try it. I'm currently working on our master bedroom and we have a window behind the bed and I want to do that whole wall in curtains so this helps me out a ton!! Those curtain rods are expensive!
This is EXACTLY what I needed!!! We have TONS of windows in our home and I so badly want to put drapes on them but we just don't have the money to go mounting oogles of pricey drapery rods with expensive, pre-made drapes yada, yada… thanks for forwarding on the info DIY Show Off!!! =D
Those look great! This post is about a week late for me. I just broke down and bought an expensive curtain rod…
This is awesome! I was going to make curtain rods out of thick wooden dowels, but they would have been more than $10! Great job!
What a great idea! We have a bay window in the master bedroom that just has blinds on it, because I don't want to pay for the rods to fit.
I'll have to look into making some rods with PVC, of course then I'll have to figure out what kind of curtain to hang!
I love the new look for so much less.
It's funny, I was laying in bed last night and trying to think of a inexpensive way in which to make a canopy for our king size bed. Would you believe PVC pipe is what I thought of? Funny great minds thinking alike again.
GENIUS! I'm so impressed, I never would have thought of that… excuse me, I have to go measure my windows…
FABULOUS! great thrifty idea for curtain rods!
That is a fabulous idea and I love the fabric. You did a great job/
Cheri
It is stunning – you did an absolutely fabulous job.
You are the Queen of thrift! they do look FAB.
Great idea, and helpful. I love how you've laid out the drape in what looked like a hallway. Gotta work!
Those curtain rods are awesome!!! Great job. Thanks for sharing. Love & blessings from NC!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I have had an idea for making curtain rods from pvc pipe for awhile, but wasn't sure how to implement it. This is awesome, thanks!
Those are amazing!!! I can't wait to use PVC for my next curtain rods!!! Love it!
what a fabulous idea! 🙂 I am all for anything that looks fab and costs next to nothing! I have two cans of oil rubbed bronze paint that's just itching to be used…now I know what I'll use it on! LOL Thanks for showing the how to! 🙂
Melissa
Curtain rods looks very Decent. Also i love your idea of use PVC Pipes versus regular curtain rods.
Thanks
Orion Ornamental Iron, Inc
Drapert rods
Those are beautiful. What a great way to save money. I should look into doing that at our house. We are military and move a lot and windows change a lot but I could handle paying for PVC everytime!!
ATUL BRAND- Twenty years experience pipe manufacturer and supplier of Delhi/India, provide quality pipe manufacturing in pvc pipe, pvc conduit pipes, conduit pipes, pvc conduits.