It would be nice if everything we needed to do in our offices, or kitchens, or workshops had pretty equipment and supplies. It really would. But of course, in most people’s lives there’s things you really need easy access to, but don’t want to necessarily have on display. Like a charging station for example.
In these cases, I like a little curtain to hide the messy business. Why a curtain and not a door? Because with a door you have to fuss with it, open it, leave room to open it… and let’s be honest, I’m not the neatest workshop resident ever. I want to be able to just push the fabric aside, get what I need and move on.
With that in mind, I wanted to hang a little curtain on the front of this vintage cabinet I’ve been working on, but I did NOT want to spend any money on it! I’m on a budget, people! I don’t have money for teeny tiny curtain rods! So I figured out how to make one with some stuff I had laying around. I thought you might like to see how I did it so you can do it, too!
Read on for all the details.
Besides a little scrap of fabric, all you need are some simple tools, a couple of cup hooks, and some stiff wire like this aluminum ground wire we happened to have on hand:
To put in the cup hooks, you just press the tip against the wood and twist. It takes a few turns to get it to “grab” and start screwing in, but don’t give up, it’ll do it.
If they get too tight toward the end you can use pliers (or here I am using vice-grips) to do the last few turns. But be careful!! If you twist too hard you can break the hook off (#askmehowiknow).
So then you have your cup hooks attached to your cabinet.
Next cut a nice extra long piece of your wire, straighten it, and lay it across the hooks so you can size your curtains.
For the curtains you would just cut one or two piece of fabric a bit longer than your opening and quite a bit wider (say, 1 1/2 times wider), and then hem all the sides in so it’s the right size to hang from the rod to the bottom of the opening. Or you could use a napkin or other item you have on hand that’s about the right size. Slide the wire through the top hem, or if you prefer, just use safety pins or even tape.
In my case, the cup hooks sat a bit low, so I also added a line of stitching 1/4″ in from the top fold so that it would “stand up” a bit from the wire and not leave a gap. If this is way confusing, I’ll write a separate tutorial for that. Leave a note in the comments if you’d want that!
Once the curtains are on the wire, then you can use the vice grips to bend the ends of the wire down at a 90 degree angle so they will keep the wire from sliding around on the cup hooks:
Check the fit:
Then clip the ends off about 1/2″ – 1″ from the bend. I’m using bolt cutters, but you could also use wire cutters or any other cutter you have on hand.
And voila! They will sit nicely on your cup hooks, making a super-cheap curtain rod!
Perfect for hiding your charging station (I have a tutorial for how to get power into a cabinet if you want to see that).
Technology in the back:
Pretty in the front!
I love the little curtains to hide unsightly things. I think they’re so cute! What do you think? Do you use curtains to hide things or do you have other techniques?
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