This week for the One Room Challenge I will be adding curtains to our multi-multi purpose room & taking them from shower curtain styled grommet curtains to a more elevated pleated style curtain with fresh hardware all without sewing a stitch!
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One Room Challenge
If you haven’t heard of the The One Room Challenge® before – its purpose is to encourage and support each other in finishing a room. The spirit of the ORC is solely to celebrate interior design in a positive, supportive environment. The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas.
Over 8 weeks, I’ll be a guest participant in the One Room Challenge & you will be able to following along with me every step of the way as I transform an extra bedroom into a multipurpose retreat for my husband, Garrett.
See my previous ORC post here:
Selecting the Curtains
As this room will be used occasionally as a guest room, it was very important that we selected black out curtains. The room that were transforming has already been updated with dark gray bead board and an olive colored green toile wallpaper. Originally the plan was to get a set of solid green curtains to blend with the color of the wallpaper, but the color matching was proving more difficult than anticipated. We pivoted and looked at tartan style plaid options.
I kept circling back to this very affordable set with the perfect combinations of colors to coordinate with the room. It had the beiges of the carpet, browns of the wooden furniture, royal blue & some subtle greens were the perfect color, they featured silver grommets and the various lengths that they came in were either too short 84” or too long at 95”.
I opted to buy the longer 95” curtains (the room is 8’ aka 96” tall) and I used fabric tape and new hardware to alter them to hide the grommets and look like perfectly pleated full length curtains that kiss the floor.
DIY No Sew Curtain Hemming
This hack to hide the grommets & adjust the length was so incredibly easy! It didn’t require cutting the curtains, sewing anything or pinning! All I used was the current seams as a guide to apply the fabric tape, an iron & a damp pillow case.
The first thing I did to prep the curtains was throw them in the washer & dryer. By doing this, not only did they get clean, the fold lines from the packaging came out, but it also means that they’re unlikely to shrink the next time they get washed.
Per the instruction of the hem tape, it said not to apply the iron directly to the curtain, and to use a damp cloth between the two. I used a pillowcase that I had on hand, and it worked like a charm.
I started by laying the curtain panel on a flat surface. With the grommet side up, along the bottom edge of the seam, I placed a piece of fabric tape the length of the panel. I then folded down the portion of curtain with the grommets over the tape.
Then I used the iron to press down on the pillowcase and held it there for five seconds. The heat and steam from the iron activated the glue in the fabric tape. I repeated this process until I had ironed the entire width of the curtain. After the top of the curtain was ironed in place, I went to the two sides and reinforced the fabric on the edges with more fabric tape.
After I was done hemming the top, the curtains were still too long so I used the same process to shorten the bottom edge.
For the bottom hem, it needed additional tape so that the hem wouldn’t fold down. I used two strips of fabric tape – one at the stitch line, and one just below the edge of the hem. I then ironed those in place, and reinforced the sides with an extra strip of the fabric tape.
By folding the hems down where they were originally stitched, it left the curtains with very clean, edges and acted as a straight line and guide to iron the tape evenly. The thickness of the extra fabric also gave the curtains a bit more structure, making them easier to arrange in even pleats.
Hanging the Curtains
The curtain rod that we went with features a warm gold, and is designed intentionally to curve to the side so that the morning light doesn’t sneak in through the side of the window between the curtains. We then selected a corresponding hardware set featuring oversized gold rings, and gold clips that connect to the curtains.
Before hanging the curtains I did an accordion fold as evenly as possible, given the grommets, then clipped the rings onto the curtain & slid them onto the curtain rods.
With the hemming complete, and the hardware clipped on, I was able to see the final length of the finished curtains. I measured everything, marked it, and then hung the curtain rod at the specified height so that the curtains would skim the floor perfectly.
Shop the post
Overall everything that I purchased to complete this project ended up being under $200 including the no sew fabric tape, two curtain panels, a 72″+ curtain rod, and two sets of curtain rings. The entire project took me less than three hours to complete, including running the curtains through the laundry. I’m very pleased with how they turned out, and think they’ll add some style to the space, while also providing the functionality that we were looking for.
Thermalogic MacDonald Plaid, Room Darkening, Grommet Panel, Blue, 52″Wx95″L
Extra Hold Ready-Made Curtain Iron-On Hem Tape
Cambria® Blockout 72 to 120-Inch Adjustable Square Plate Rod in Warm Gold
Cambria® Premier Complete Clip Rings in Warm Gold (Set of 7)
Be sure to follow me @HousewifeHospitality on Instagram as I continue working on this room as part of the One Room Challenge!
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