To Hang Your Pretty Drapes With...

Want pretty curtain rods, but don't want to drop a lot of cash on them?  Make 'em!  For this project, I got electrical conduit tubing at Home Depot.  Whenever I go there, I find a flock of folks with orange name tags that will literally walk you to wherever whatever you want is.  Or maybe I just look lost every time I go?  ECT- $1.98 for 10 feet of it, so you can make a really long curtain rod, or the really nice folks at your local hardware store will cut it for you, so you can make more!  My windows were 36 inches wide, so I had them cut my rods 39 inches long.  I don't know why I picked that number, I just did.  You could also use wooden dowel rods.  However, they were $2 for 4 feet, so the ECT was the more frugal choice.  And it is sturdier, so if you have heavier curtains, you don't have to worry about sag.  I also picked up curtain brackets.

I spent the most on the finials- $10/pair.  I just LOVED these, but for my next curtain rods, I'm going to saw off parts of old stair spindles.  You could also use shatterproof Christmas ornaments (or non-shatterproof if you are careful and brave).  I have also seen some nice drawer pulls that could serve as small finials.  But I like mine BIG!

I attached the finial to my ECT by whittling down a wine cork, screwing the finial into the cork, slapping some glue on it and inserting it into the tubing.  Then I had to pull it off to get my curtain on there later, so don't glue it til AFTER you're done and have curtains on it.  Or if you whittle the cork just right, you don't need to glue at all.

Finials attached to ECT pre-painting

best stuff ever. 

Get out your favorite color spray paint!  For room these were going in, I thought brushed nickel would look nice.  I found hammered-look rustoleum goodness-in-a-can. This is expensive.  I think it was about $7-8 for this can of spray paint.  But I can use it again on something else.  The "metal look" spray paints are not cheap, but what it lacks in frugality, it makes up for in ease of use & results!

I also spray painted the screws and brackets the same color.  Tip for spray painting screws- shove the ends into a plastic cup!  It keeps them from rolling and the tops (which are all that really matter anyway) are easily accessible, thus evenly coated.

I put 2 coats of spray paint on the rods and finials, 1 coat on the rest of it.  I didn't prime anything.  I don't believe in priming, it just delays my results.  I'm sure one day that will come back to bite me...

Bad angle makes curtain rod look off-center. It's not :)

On the wall.  I can't tell they were home made.  Total cost:  I am only going to say $1 for the spray paint, because I can do several more projects with this, so I won't apply the total cost of the can to these curtain rods.  Wine Cork- already had it.  ECT $2 (for 10 feet, I made 3 curtain rods for those 2 bucks).  Brackets & screws $2, finials $10.  $15 custom curtain rod.  Would be much cheaper with different finials.  Or you could do no finials at all.  That's the beautiful thing of doing it yourself, YOU get to design it however you want.