I was looking into roll down shades to use on our new covered porch when I came across the idea of using drop cloths for curtains. Yes, canvas drop cloths, you know like painter's cloths that painters use! The roll down shades were advertised as "great for shade and keeping the heat of the sun out." I figured they would also do the opposite for keeping the heat in, although they were not inexpensive to say the least, as we would have to special order them to fit.
Also after pricing outdoor curtains, I know those are not inexpensive either. The drop cloths seemed like a great idea to me, but, selling that idea to the Hubster was gonna take a great deal of effort, I thought to myself. Amazed I was and full of disbelief that he actually said he liked the idea, and he was even asking questions as in "how-to?" How-to hang them, how-to this, how-to that, and where do we get them?
Well, I was full of questions myself with few answers, but I figured if we both put our combined thoughts together with a plan, I knew we could do it! The idea I had seen used conduit for the rods and screw in hooks to hold them up, and curtain clips were used to hang the drop clothes.
It took a couple trips to the local home improvement stores to get drop cloths, curtain clips, and also originally the thought was to use actual curtain rods(his preference), which by the way I knew would cost much more than what I had planned via the idea I had seen using inexpensive conduit for the rods. Turned out the actual curtain rods didn't seem to work well enough after all. Another trip to return the curtain rods and purchase conduit lessened the overall expense greatly.
A ten foot section of electrical conduit costs only about 3 or 4 dollars compared to the $12.99 for the curtain rods that we'd purchased! The drop cloths cost about 14 dollars a piece for a 6 x 9, 10 oz. cloth, and they require no sewing since they have nice finished edges all the way around! (Awesomeness!) We had section openings that were just at six foot across and the drop length needed was about nine feet. Perfect! We calculated needing at least six cloths to cover the areas, but ended up getting one more to help close off the gate/entry area too. This gave us more of a completely enclosed curtain coverage for all of the open areas.
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I love the look and think it also adds a real touch of southern charm. We simply hung them up with the curtain clips and pulled them back. Hubster cut the conduit in short sections and had the genius idea of adding the black rubber chair tips to the ends, and he also painted over the gold screw in hooks with black paint. He was going to paint the conduit also, but we liked the contrast with leaving them unpainted.
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The curtains add a nice look to our new outdoor room! And, they're functional!
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On a bright sunny day the curtains drawn help cut down on the sun glare. Also, if it's cooler they help to add warmth to the space, especially when we light a fire. They also add privacy too!
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And of an evening they add a cozy blanket of warmth and privacy as well!
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A closer view of the rods and hardware. So simple, easy, and best of all they're much less expensive compared to the cost of actual outdoor curtains! After all it is outdoors so I figure it's easy to replace them if they don't weather well, but I expect they will do a fine job, and I really do love the look!
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panoramic image
Our cozy corner of the world...
~ Tammy ~
