DIY Side Light Curtains

by Heather

$35.00

Easy

I have been searching for the right sidelight window covering option and have come up empty handed. The options that I have seen were SUPER expensive, so I had to come up with my own. The best part about this project is there is NO sewing (if you choose).
Materials Needed:
One curtain panel
One Dowel Rod - size of your choosing
Four small tea cup hooks
Four cabinet drawer pulls
Hot glue
Hem Tape
Iron
Spray paint (your choice)

Here is the before. We HAVE to have some sort of covering on our side light windows mainly because the front door opens into the living room. If we do not have anything there, we are basically showing the foot traffic that goes by what we have.

After we moved in we tried to use the milky film for the window but hated it because it did not allow us to look and see who is at the door. We ended up finding these wooden blinds at the home improvement store and loved the privacy they provided.

Enter: dog. My dog LOVES looking out these windows to give people the stink eye when they walk by. When he does that, he bangs the blinds against the wall, which caused them to break. UGH

I could not find anything inexpensive to replace the blinds with, so I had to create something on my own.

First, I measured the width of the windows and cut my dowel rod to size. For me, I cut the rods down to 12" on each side.

I spray painted them to match the curtain rod on the window and hot glued inexpensive cabinet pulls on only one side of the rod.

I took a curtain panel I found at the store (on clearance) and cut it down to the size I needed. When I cut the panel, I cut from each side so I was left with only one side to hem. At the moment, I am fighting with my sewing machine. So instead of sewing the hem, I just used hem tape. SO MUCH EASIER!

I used the small tea cup hooks that you can buy 4 to a package and screwed them to the top of the window. Before you buy the hooks to make sure the size of the dowel will fit in the hook.

I hung the curtain and rod in the hooks and then hot glued the remaining cabinet pulls to the other side to keep the rods from falling.

I tied back the curtains so they are open low enough that people wont be able to see in (unless they are crawling) and the animals can see outside without moving anything. Plus, this is the only spot my fiddle fig plant can stand, so now it will have constant bright light.

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2 comments

Chelle on May 10, 2018

Thanks for sharing your project, I too have a sidelight window that I want to cover and cannot find any panels for, except for in boring pleaded colors. I guess making my own will have to be it. Looks great!

Like Reply
- Heather on May 24, 2018
  
  Thank you! It was so easy and affordable to make, you should have an easy time doing it!
  
  Like