Kitchen Curtains

*****This post was edited to add to Funky Junk Interiors' Saturday Nite Special. Go check out the fun!

I spent several months this summer trying to find some curtains for my kitchen windows.

I knew that I wanted floor length panels, but I wasn’t sure what type of material I wanted. I thought about black and white buffalo check, but was afraid that would be too bold.

I wanted something more subtle.

I had in the back of my mind some curtains I had seen in blog land. They were made of drop cloths, and I thought they were beautiful.

The first ones I saw were at Layla’s blog, The Lettered Cottage. You can read about her curtains HERE.

She got her inspiration from a picture she saw in Pottery Barn…

Then I saw them appear again on Judy’s blog, Gracious Southern Living. You can see how she made her beautiful curtains HERE.

Don’t you love the black detail on the bottom?

So I decided to give them a try and see if I liked them.

I made many trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot to find just the right drop cloths (yes, I have analyzed drop cloths!), and you can read about my discoveries HERE.

One of the many things I learned was that not all drop cloths were alike.

See the difference between the top drop cloth and the bottom drop cloth in the above picture? I got these at the same store!

Many of my followers asked me which drop cloth package to get? Honestly ladies, I found that drop cloths wrapped in the exact same packaging were sometimes still made of different materials.

So I spent about 20 minutes in the store comparing the drop cloths, holding them up to the light, opening the packages, etc. The Home Depot guy must have thought I was CRAZY!

I could hear him thinking, “Come on, lady, pick one already! It’s just a drop cloth!”

I liked the drop cloth in the bottom half of the picture best. It had a lot more texture and beautiful brown flecks in it.

But YOU can choose whatever type you like best! (The variations are very subtle.)

Here are the things I love most about drop cloths…

1) They are 6 feet by 9 feet,which means they are super long and perfect for curtains to go from the ceiling to the floor.

2) All four sides are hemmed. Saving you some time when making your curtains.

3) They are a super heavy canvas material which requires no lining. Saving you another step!

4) And most importantly…They are Cheap! About ten dollars a piece. That’s a little over 3 dollars a yard!

Now, I chose the simplest way possible to make my curtains.

I have made window treatments before that were a lot more time consuming. These are the curtains and roman shades I made for my previous home. (It was Christmas time…)

But for my drop cloth curtains, all I had to do was hem the top and bottom of each panel, and I was finished.

I simply ironed the top of the panel down 2 inches, and sewed a straight stitch all the way across.

I did the same thing for the bottom of the drop cloth because I wanted mine to puddle in the floor.

If you didn’t want yours to puddle, you could do a bigger hem.

To find the correct length, create your two inch hem on top first, hang the curtain up with the rod and clips that you want to use, then let the drop cloth drape on the floor. Next, pin the bottom up to the length you want it. Take the curtains down and iron the hem the length you chose, then stitch. No cutting required.

If you do not own a sewing machine. simply hem your drop cloth using an iron and some hem tape. You can get hem tape for a few bucks at Walmart or just about anywhere.

It looks something like this…

I bought my clips and curtain rod at Hobby Lobby.

Though I love the “look” of the clips I chose, they are not as strong as the ones I got for my den curtains. The drop cloth is very heavy and has slipped out of the clips.

Then I took some black ribbon from Walmart and a couple of tassels from Hobby Lobby to create my tie backs.

To attach the tie back to the wall, I got real fancy and used a curtain clip. Could this be called a Window “Mistreatment”?

I love the finished look!

I had a very difficult time getting a good picture of my curtains. During the day, the sun is so bright that I get a huge glare in the picture. And of course at night, the picture quality is not as good.

Here are my curtains through my buffet mirror…

I also made drop cloth curtains for my den…

And a drop cloth slip cover that I will be sharing in a future post…

I am linking this post to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Stop by there to check out some really great posts!

Blessings to everyone,

Traci