Make No Sew Ikat Curtains For A Kids Room, step by step

Some people who went for a pattern like this on the daybed might go for something neutral and plain for the windows (like breezy white curtains). Others might pluck one of the colors from the blanket and go for that (bold red cotton panels, taupey-gray velvet ones, etc). We might have been tempted to go with something more neutral and safe if the room was not meant for our color loving child (so the bedding could “be the star”) but since it is Clara’s new space, and we enjoy kid zones with a few layered patterns and colors, we chose to simply go to our go-to local fabric outlet (U-Fab here in Richmond) and see what grabbed us. And by us I mean Clara. It is her room, after all…

Like a moth to a flame, this happened:

She had some lively playing with a few crazier options (a bright orange one with large coral on it, a dark purple plaid, etc) but this one was certainly something she pointed at a few times – and we thought it in fact could work – especially since it has navy and white in it, which are two of the colors we have mentioned wanting to add to balance all the pink & red.

In short: Clara’s clearly a decorating genius. Simply kidding. The truth is that there are likely a ton of fabric options that could layer nicely into a kids room when it comes to curtains (as long as they are not too “alpha” they’d fall in line behind the bedding and a bright rug without totally disappearing). But we did like that there was a quite quite quite subtle chevron-ish pattern going on (the blurry linear edges in fact reminded us a lot of her daybed blanket). And the price was not too scary…

… especially with a store-wide 20% off sale that was being offered on top of that discounted price. So in the end we got simply a smidge over ten yards to make four extra long panels for the room, which each broke down to around $25 per panel after the sale.

When we got home and tucked Clara in for a nap, I rolled out my bounty and began cutting my four panels from the roll (because let us be honest she’d yank this every which way while I was trying to measure and cut if I tried to do this while she was awake).

The simplest way for me to measure for panels is simply to see how long I want the wrapped up curtain panels to be (ex: 89″ high) and then add two extra inches to the length of each panel to account for the hems on each end that I will add. So each of the four panels that I cut was 91″ long and then was hemmed to a wrapped up size of 89″, which might not sound that long but I enjoy hanging my curtains on a rod with rod clips, so those tend to add a little length too. That way the rod can be mounted simply a few inches below the ceiling like I like it (we left some extra room for crown molding which we will be adding in here down the line). Oh and I use the full width of the bolt for the curtain’s width, which means less cutting, and they are as thick and full as possible that way.

I am a fan of using one panel as a template for the others. So once I measured out and cut the first panel, I simply placed it on top of the fabric under it and made three more of them in exactly the same size for a grand total of four soon-to-be curtains.

Then I used my trusty hem-tape method, detailed here and here. For over half a decade I have used the heavy duty Heat N Bond stuff, and it has not only held up amazingly but it can even be washed, so I am certainly a fan. I have also sewed curtains and in fact think the hem-tape ones look crisper and straighter since keeping my stitching straight is not as straightforward as following hem tape with an iron for a pleasant straight hem. Like so:

Oh and it consistently helps to wash your fabric first (before cutting and hemming it) so it is all pre-shrunk!

As for the curtain rods and ring clips, we in fact had them already (remember we had hung them back here?), we simply took out them to paint the room so we could re-hang them at the height of our freshly made curtains. So here is John’s tricky little tape move for hanging the rods (he folds some painters tape under the hole he’s making so it sticks out like a ledge and catches the drill-crumbs).

For the detail loving folks, we used these plastic anchors (we like to make sure our rods are held in with more than simply a few screws in case a kid hangs on the curtains – which we have found results in simply the fabric slipping out of the ring-clip’s “mouth” instead of the whole rod banging down on them).

Bada bing, bada boom. Clara done good with her curtain choice, we think. They sort of look black and white in these pics, but they are truly navy in person, and we plan to bring more navy into the room in a bunch of other ways (picture some navy picture frames on the wall, a navy pillow or two on the daybed, perhaps even a navy light fixture or ottoman in the middle of the rug). That will “link” the curtains to the rug and the daybed a bit more, so they will not look as random. Should be lively to inch towards a more wrapped up look. You know how impatient I am…

While the room keeps slowly evolving, I am soaking up the little things. Like the fact that the curtains nearly touch the floor but do not (it keeps them cleaner and helps them hang in a fuller, loopier way). Oh and here is one more hanging pointer: clip the rod rings to the rod and to the fabric and have someone hold them up at distinct heights until you like the way they hang and then mark the wall and hang them at that height. That way they will not be dorky short or too long. It certainly beats trying to guess the length of the curtains while hanging a bare rod (if the actual curtains are on the rod they can assist you pin down the ideal height).

Oh man, it still feels fairly empty in here (and that old fan practically pokes John in the eye every time we are in there) but we can in fact picture more things being layered in now. Like our kids table and perhaps an ottoman to break up all the pink in the rug plus a ton of playful art to add balance. Here is the ol’ to do list:

• paint the room (more on that here)
• cut down our old den side table to make a play table (more on that here)
• bring in a dresser (we’d enjoy to find something secondhand) (more on that here)
  
• make/hange some curtains
  
• add a rug (more on that here)
  
• hang art on the walls along with a few other 3D objects that we have in mind (how’s that for cryptic?)
• install a new light fixture
• refinish or paint Clara’s new dresser (which we got here)
• paint the chairs a bright glad color to go with Clara’s play table
• turn the junked up closet into an actual clothes closet/reading nook
• add crown molding (along with tackling the other un-crown-molding-ed bedrooms on this side of the house)
• add accessories like more pillows, storage bins for toys, etc

Sounds like a good time to me. I know, I am crazy. Kids rooms are so much lively though! What have you folks been up to? Anyone else making curtains or letting their kids assist with fabric or paint choices? Do you use the hook-the-curtains-to-the-rod-and-then-hang-the-rod trick too? It took us a few years to figure that out, but it seems to be a lot more exact that trying to measure curtain length and account for the height of the ring hook and the rod itself (we used to be off by an inch or two after all that calculating and then we’d have to re-hang them again to fix our mistake). Oh well, live and learn!

Psst- The latest roundup of Clara Conversations are up on the house Life, and let us simply say there are a few gems – at least according to us, her obsessed parents.