The Cheapest Curtain Rod and Easy Almost-No-Sew Curtains

I wanted some decorative curtains for the nursery (they didn’t need to be functional—there’s mini-blinds). So I set out to find the cheapest way to accomplish this. I saw THIS post about using electrical conduit as a curtain rod and knew it would be the cheapest way to go. $2 for 10 feet of sturdy metal? Yeah baby! Genius!

Next challenge was finding mounting hardware. Just like curtain rods, the mounts are way overpriced. $5 or more for two? I don’t think so! Instead, I wandered around Home Depot (or was it Lowes?) until I collected enough metal pieces to make a go of it. Here’s what I ended up with:

Screw them together and what do you have?

A curtain rod mount! I was able to make four mounts for $4.46, which is about half the price of anything else I could find.

The only thing left to find was some kind of finial or knob to finish off each end. I saw some golf balls in a toy box and thought, “Meh…why not!” I stuffed each end with scrap fabric, smeared hot glue all over, then held the golf ball securely in place until the hot glue dried. I’m sure there are other roundish objects that could be used… I’m thinking ping pong balls.

A quick coat of spray paint (Krylon’s Bright Idea) and I have a cheerful, functional, custom curtain rod for around $8. And once they are painted, no one would ever guess the finials are really golf balls.

$1.00 for half the electrical conduit…I’ll use the other half in my bedroom
$3.23 for two mounting pieces…again, I’ll use the other two in my bedroom
$3.75 for spray paint
FREE golf balls

Woot! Woot!

Now how about the curtains, you ask? Well, they used to be a twin-sized flat sheet I got on clearance. I cut the sheet down the center to make two panels and hemmed them on my sewing machine.

Then you know how sheets have one thick end that’s kind of like a pocket? I just cut slits through that part (making sure not to cut through to the front fabric) to make faux pleats. Like this:

Totally easy and totally cheating if you are a perfectionist sewer. But I’m definitely not, so it works for me! But my high school home ec. teacher would be cringing right now. 🙂

To spice up the solid fabric, I added some lace, ribbon and ric rac that I had in my stash. And I may have hot glued some of it because it seemed easier than trying to sew it straight. Add some lace tie backs and that’s it! The curtains cost me a whopping $4.