Curtains in a rental place

[Sally]

We are renting a place that has verticals in every room. They look horrible:mad: I don't want to spend a lot of money but any ideas on how I could improve them or replace them cheaply?

[tracyel]

Hi Sally, I am on a tight budget doing up my house but I wanted to replace my curtains. I bought some eyelet curtains for my lounge room from Kmart for $15 each. For my home office, I wanted something black that would fit the style of my room and offer complete darkness in the early morning as it's joined to the main bedroom and has no door. I ended up finding a double bed quilt cover for $60 and made a few alterations. It fits the room and style perfectly I think.

[Julie-Ann]

Wow that's so cheap and impressive Traceyl.:D
Did you keep both sides of the quilt cover? Sorry I am totally hopeless with sewing, so I am trying to visualise how you changed it into curtains.

[tracyel]

Yes I kept both sides, it provdes extra darkness. I just used some hemming tape to make the rod pocket for the curtain rod. I'm useless with a sewing machine as well, hence the hemming tape, u just iron it on. It is actually still on sale at www.comeinside.com.au. You pay $49.95 + shipping and you get the pillow cases as well. Which I may convert to cushion covers (once I learn how to use a sewing machine) at a later stage. Every room of the house, except my boys' bedroom that I will be re-decorating has a common colour of black, so I could use them in the lounge room or even the bedroom.

[Julie-Ann]

Iron on hemming tape is about my sewing ability too.:D
How did you attach them to the curtain rod or track?

[tracyel]

I just folded the top of the quilt cover over enough to allow the curtain rod to thread through, then I applied the hemming tape to the bottom of the area i had folded and ironed on which created a seam and a gap for the curtain rod.

[Julie-Ann]

Genius- no sewing involved. Love it:D

[Milena]

I have verticals in our rental so I know what you mean. If you can't replace the verticals then an idea would be to cover them with something like sheer curtains. You could even put 2 on a rod so they are very full and really cover the verticals. See picture attached.

I also know that Freedom has some nice ready made curtains and blinds but with blinds it could be costly and tricky with the window measurements.

[Julie-Ann]

Good thinking Milena:).
I bought some white sheer curtains from Freedom for Mr16's bedroom. They were $60 each and they are a really nice texture. Much nicer than having to look at verticals:).