DIY Conduit Curtain Rod
My husband and I moved into our home a few years ago. It has taken us forever to furnish and decorate it. Sometimes I am a little intimidated with all there is to do - sometimes me being a "cheap-skate" gets in the way. I can't help it... if I find out there is a more inexpensive way to do something then I can't stomach the thought of over-paying. Take my living room for example. We recently got it painted and my lovely husband made me a coffee table. We still have more to do but figured we should start with the curtains before shelves and other knick knacks. Here are before pictures of my living room.
Here was our problem... the windows take up approximately 15ft... Have you ever priced a 180 inch curtain rod? They can go anywhere from $70-$80 to upwards of $100. That wasn't even counting the 5 curtain panels we were needing. So... I got to researching and came across an idea of using PVC pipe. GENIUS! After talking with my husband we decided to go for metal pipe instead of PVC. I think PVC pipe would be perfect on a shorter window span, ours was just too long and we would need several brackets to keep the pipe up without sagging. I was nervous this would defeat my "going for a deal here" idea. We went to Home Depot (Lowes would also work) and started pricing galvanized pipe and discovered it was going to cost over $18 a "pole" and we would need two, and that wasn't counting the brackets. Then we discovered the EMT Conduit ... only about $3 a "pole!" This conduit was non-threaded but could slide into fastenings just like PVC. PERFECT! Here are pictures of some of the odds and ends pieces we needed, excluding the two long "poles" we purchased.
All in all our metal curtain rod cost us right under $40.00. The bracket pieces pictured above are the more pricey part. Still, what a deal! We had the intentions of painting the rod but we actually ending up liking the metal look as it went well with our wall color.
It completely changes the look and feel of the room. I found these curtain panels at IKEA for $10.00 a panel. These were a steal considering we needed panels that were around 96 inches long. Some panels can get upwards of $30.00... EACH! I also love how the white turned out. If you don't know much about me yet, know this: I love white. I have an obsession with white, and gray... I'm a neutral kinda person. Here are some pictures of the wall fastenings and the "T" in the middle. We used anchor screws at the two curtain rod ends and didn't need an anchor screw in the middle because there was a stud.
If you are looking to update a room in your home with some new window treatments consider going to your local hardware store. Not only is it inexpensive but I think it looks nice too. If you don't know what color to do consider white, it goes with everything and if it ever needs a good cleaning you could always just bleach it.
This whole project cost less than $100. We saved at least $50.00 on making the curtain rod ourselves and over $100 by finding these IKEA curtain panels. I can't wait to use this technique for other rooms in our house. What is your next room update project?