DIY kitchen curtains

No sew buffalo check curtains in the kitchen above the sink.

Coordinating painter's drop cloth curtains embellished with
buffalo check fabric on the door wall in the kitchen.

Close up view to see the detail on the fabric.


In a perfect world, I would quit my job and become a full time home decor/lifestyle blogger. I'd also be creative and talented enough to do so. Since I'm neither creative nor do I have the time it takes to commit to such an endeavor it will remain my pie in the sky dream. I am however, good at reinventing the wheel. Which is what I did in the above pictures.

I had read on many blogs that people were going to Lowes or Home Depot to purchase painter's drop cloths to use as drapes. I had previously spent 160 dollars on drapes from Pottery Barn that I felt were just okay. I returned those drapes and picked up my 20 dollars worth of painter's drop cloths. The beauty of the drop cloths is that they are a heavy and thick material that is already hemmed on all four sides. All you have to do is iron and hang with clips. They have been hanging for about 6 weeks, but this past week I worked on embellishing them to add more interest. I bought some buffalo check fabric from JoAnn's that was similar to what I saw in the Ballard Designs catalog for about 25 dollars. I also picked up some stitch witchery which is used as a bonding agent.

I used the buffalo check fabric to make curtains for the window above my sink by just measuring, cutting, ironing and creating the hems using the stitch witchery. I hung them with some drapery clips and tinkered around with them until they looked right. I did it in about an hour and a half after my little ones went to bed.

With the painter's drop cloth curtains on my door wall, I had to fold over the material from the top because they were too long. I used the flap of material that I folded down to embellish with the buffalo check fabric. Again I measured, cut, ironed and bonded one material to another using the stitch witchery. I then cut strips of fabric to gather the curtains in the middle to allow for more natural light. In total the project cost about 50 dollars for both windows, not including the window hardware. Much better than the 160 dollars I had previously spent on two window panels from PB.