Adding drapes to the living room has been more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I need really, really long drapes and a custom rod size. Now this can all be done with a ton of money in no time at all. That doesn’t exactly fit my budget. We still have so much to do in this house that putting some major money into custom drapes and rods is not about to happen. So off to the internet to either find fabric that I could use to make some drapes at a reasonable price or find some that I could buy at a reasonable price. I actually have a $0 budget for this, so I need to be really thrifty and figure this one out. This is the look I am going for, at least the look of how to hang them. Just simple panels hung on a simple rod high above the arch of my windows.
No problem on the drapery front. Ikea has the Ritva drape that I used in our master bedroom in the last house that would work beautifully and they come in a 118″ length. Perfect and the price is only $34.99 for the 57″ x 118″ length.
This sounds too easy until I get to the rod part again. I need a rod to be 101″ long and that becomes a problem. I also need for the rod to be at least 1 1/2″ in diameter since they will be up so high. Any of the adjustable rods just look like a wire when you put them way high up on a wall. Since my rods need to be nearly 10ft. high, they also need to have some heft to them. I decided that I wanted something white and simple to blend in with the wall. I want the drapes to soften the window and not be the main feature.
There were several places that I found that I could get a wood rod wide enough but the prices were staggering. Anywhere from around $70 to well over $100 and then they would still have to be cut down and on top of that is the cost of the brackets and finials. Rods for each window were adding up to around $200 really fast. That is not happening. I needed to find something a little cheaper.
A trip to the plumbing department of Lowes and I found 1 1/2″ thick wall PVC pipe that will be perfect. A 10ft. piece is $6.74. Cutting them down to size and a little paint to match the walls and I am good to go.
I think I will just use plain wood brackets that I can also paint to match the wall. These are perfect. $8.97 a pair. I will need three per rod so I can also have a center support.
Then I need finials for the ends of the rods. These are simple and large enough to work for only $9.97 a pair. These will be easy to paint with the other pieces too. (I will cut a small wood plug to go into the end of the PVC pipe so I can screw these in.)
Finally the last thing I need is really big wood rings to hang the drapes from. I found some at Houzz that will be perfect. They come 14 to the package for $29.99.
This now brings each rod to a final cost of $60.16. So much better and doable on a $0 budget. Each window treatment drapes and rod will cost only $95.15. Not bad for really long drapes and huge rods.
This is the look they will have when I get them done. My drapes will be simple cream colored linen, no pattern, but the rods and how they look above the arched window will be the same.
If you are looking for really big rods and need them to be simple or a special color, check out the plumbing department. I also found wood rods in the closet section but they only came in 8ft. lengths, but if that is what you need they were really great for a super inexpensive price too.
Ok, now to get these all assembled and up. Stay tuned.
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