DIY Curtain Closet

Living in an older home has its benefits. The moulding is to die for. The windows are enormous. The exterior is dollhouse charming, but the closets.....oh, the closets leave so much more to be desired. Brian has been using the bedroom sofa as his closet. Not only is it sad but it's messy and I knew we had to find a better arrangement to suit his suits;) I always planned on buying another IKEA aneboda wardrobe off Craigslist to match the other one (which I still would like to eventually do) but we'll have to drive out to either Philly or Baltimore to pick it up and I want to wait until I have more than one reason to travel out there.

For now I came up with this very inexpensive way to make a closet when you don't have built ins or enough money to purchase armoires. Honestly, I never liked the way curtains over closets looked. Whenever I saw them resort to curtain closets on "Design on a Dime" I cringed. They looked sloppy and almost worse than nothing at all. So instead of simply hanging curtains from curtain rods I made custom panels to lye flat and give the curtains a more decorative polished look.

The key to keeping this project cheap is uing materials you already have.

Materials:
1. Rod to hang panels- I used leftover bamboo I cut down a few summers ago and painted it with black spray paint I had on hand but any long piece of wood will do.
2. Two pairs of rod holders (sockets) for panels and closet rods. I had some two of these left over from another project which I never finished but if you don't have these they are only about $1.25 at your local hardware store.
3. Closet Rod. I bought mine for $5 at the Home Depot.
4. Fabric. I used leftover scraps and framed it with solid colored matching material at the top and bottom.

Since I used mostly materials in my home, in total I only paid $10 to make both curtain closets. Pretty slick.


First I made the curtain panels. To do this I measured the space between my IKEA closet and the walls. I then took that number and divided in two to get the width measurements of each panel. (Don't forget to add 2 inches on either side of each panel for hems). For the length I measured from the top of the IKEA closet to the floor. I used two yards of fabric for the decorative middle and subtracted that length from the length of the IKEA closet and used that measurement to cut the dark blue fabric for the top and bottom of the panels. (Don't forget to add 1" at the bottom for hems, .5" at the seams, and finally 5" at the top for folding over and making a casing.

After I cut my fabric I sewed the pieces together, hemmed the raw edges then folded over the top by 5" to make a casing for the bamboo rod. I made four of these.

I then screwed my rod sockets into the top corner of the IKEA wardrobe and the wall, hung my panels from the bamboo and placed bamboo into rod sockets.

Finally I screwed two more rod sockets into the IKEA wardrobe and wall inside the closet at eye level and placed closet rod into the rod sockets.

Done!