DIY Embellished Curtains {An Anthropologie Swing Stripe Curtains Knockoff}

In the midst of decking the halls for the holidays, I’m continuing to work on Emma’s updated big girl room.  If you remember, I promised my husband that we wouldn’t have to repaint when we transformed it from a nursery to a bedroom, so I have been doing what I can to add bold hues without changing the paint.

I usually go pretty muted with draperies by sticking with solid colors that blend into either the wall color or nearby furnishings.  I usually prefer that they disappear into the wall and provide soft lines around the windows more than I care about them making a statement.  Usually.

Except for these.

I have been swooning over Anthropologie’s Swing Stripe curtains since the moment I laid eyes on them last year.  They are fun and fabulous, and I knew they would add some much needed texture to Emma’s neutral walls.  However, for $158 per panel (and I needed 4!), that was definitely not going to happen.

So, I did as I do and DIYed them myself.  I am exceedingly happy with the way they turned out, although they took way, way, WAY longer than I expected they would.

I bought 2 sets of curtain panels at Tuesday Morning.  They are 96″ x 40″ in a linen blend that hangs beautifully – and cost only about $20 for a pair.

I knew that I wanted 15 stripes of small pom pom trim on each curtain, but each stripe needed to be made up of 3 rows of trim – which is 45 rows of trim per panel.  So for 4 panels, I was looking at 180 rows of pom poms (45 x 4).  My panels are 40″ wide, so that means I’d need 7,200 inches of trim (180 x 40) or 200 yards (7,200/36).  Yep, that’s a lot of math and a whole heck of a lot of trim.

I searched online until I found somewhere I could order small pom poms that wouldn’t end up costing me an arm and a leg.  CheapTrims.com ended up being a great place, since they had a large selections of colors and the trim I selected ended up being about 60-cents per yard.  With my 2 sets of panels running $20 each and my trim costing $145 after shipping, I had enough materials to make 4 panels for slightly more than it would have cost me to buy ONE of the panels at Anthropologie – and I got to pick my own colors.  This feels like a buy 1 get 3 free deal to me!

Since my panels were 96″ long and I wanted 15 stripes of trim, I drew stripes with a pencil and yardstick horizontally across the curtains every 6 inches.  Then, I just started adding trim – and this is where it got tricky.  I tried fabric glue.  I tried hot glue.  I tried craft glue.  I sewed them.  I went back to the craft glue.  And then back to the hot glue.  Every single way I tried to attach the trim ended up being a challenge for various reasons – dried too fast, didn’t dry fast enough, hard to sew once there were multiple rows of pom poms in the place, left me without fingerprints.

What worked best for me was to do about 1/3 of a row of hot glue and place that portion of a row of trim.  And then add glue to the next 1/3 of that row and glue more trim.  I’d butt two more rows of trim up under that one and then move down to the next drawn line.  A set of panels that I thought I could whip out in a few hours ended up taking me 3 days off and on.  However, once I had my gluing technique down, it went much faster – but still takes hours to do one panel.

I also used this opportunity to replace the old OMG-we-are-having-a-baby-and-we-still-have-temporary-paper-shades-on-our-windows corded blinds with my favorite cordless, top down/bottom up cellular shades.  Since I found Payless Decor online several years ago and tried them out, I get all of my window coverings from them – the quality and prices really can’t be beat.  I love this type of shade because it provides privacy, yet I can leave it open at the top and still have natural light in my rooms.  I get these shades in pearl (which is a nice bright white) with the cordless and top down/bottom up options.  These are both great options to have in a kids’ room, and they stack nicely at the top, so you can raise them all the way up and they aren’t all that noticeable.

In case you are in the market for new window coverings, Payless Decor sent me some savings codes to pass along to you.  From today through Monday 12/2, you can use code EMCS1113 to save an extra 10% off cellular shades or code EMBS1113 to save an extra 10% off bamboo shades. Everything is generally 40% off to begin with, so that extra 10% gives you a really good deal.

There’s one more little trick I wanted to show you about Emma’s new panels.  Because the glued on trim made them stand a little rigid on the edges, I wanted to help them hang a little more softly.  So, at about halfway down the panel, I clipped the edges together behind the curtain with a little binder clip.

The result is beautifully hanging panels, right?  I really love how they look flanking her windows.

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!  May your day be filled with friends, family, food and fun decorating – I know mine will be!

This is a sponsored post from Payless Decor.  They outfitted Emma’s windows with new cellular shades in exchange for a review of their product.  All opinions expressed are my own, and I was a customer of theirs long before they were a sponsor of mine.