Love the full, thick neat pleat look for your curtains, but not wanting to pay the hundreds it costs for bespoke curtains to create this look?
Well in this blog I'm going to talk you through how I achieved my look for as little as £150!!
So, its pretty simple and quick (the only long boring part is ironing all the curtains, because we will have 6 panels in total urrghh!).
And that's essentially the main part behind this look, panels panels and more panels!
What you'll need and where to find them!
Curtain pole - you want this to be much longer than your window in order to create the look i've gone for where it is essentially a wall of curtains and it creates the illusion that the window and wall is much larger than it really is!
My french doors are very large so I've gone for a 4meter pole. You can find most required length poles in your usual places, however for my extra long one I searched 4 meter pole on google and searched around. I decided on a brushed chrome effect, I previously just had chrome and I find the brushed chrome a beautifully subtle silver with a more classy feel and less 'bling'.
Curtains- Now this is where the cost can really vary, due to needing more panels than normal if you choose an expensive curtain the price will significantly increase. This is because you'll need 6 panels In total which means 3 packs. However I tried a few different curtains some being quite expensive that just didn't do it for me, when I came across a new curtain in Dunelm.
They are their plain cotton collection in Natural, and although looked very insignificant or special in the packet, I knew would work perfectly for what I wanted to achieve. I opted for the largest 228x228cm.
and just £55 per packet of two panels!!
(don't be put off by the website picture, the colour is completely different.)
My look is achieved with eyelet curtains, so If you want different curtains then any eyelet will do the same job.
Voiles- I incorporated voiles also, again in the eyelet style, but make sure you go for Ivory instead of white in my opinion. They can look yellowy in the packet but thats because they're all bunched up. By getting Ivory once they are up they just have a softer look to them and more classy than paper white.
Once you have all your bits, and all 6 panels are ironed.... especially if you go for the same product as mine as they come tightly packaged so very deep creases...(the only downside) but the end result...well totally worth the effort! Heres what to do next.
⥤ We aren't planning on drawing our curtains, just the voiles and so I didn't bother sewing each panel together, however if you're planning on drawing them then ideally you'll need to sew the length of each panel together. Each side will consist of 3 panels of curtains. So you'd need to sew down two lengths to attach the three panels into one continuous panel.
⥤ Whether you are sewing the panels together or like me, leaving them as they are. You will need to take them up so they sit almost flush to the floor, approx 2cm off the floor. The problem with leaving the length draped on the floor is that the pleats will not sit as neatly at the bottom.
Sew along the bottom and cut the excess away. I also cut the behind lining just above where the stitch is as it was pulling the curtains causing them to not lay flat, this just took the pressure of the bottom and let them hang neatly.
⥤ So now the panels are all set, if you're including voiles you will need to pop these on the pole from the outside inwards first, but leave the end eyelet off the end in order to put the first eyelet hole of the curtain on first and then the final voile eyelet. Following this finish feeding the three curtains panels onto the ends. The image below shows how they should feed into each other so no gap is left on show.
⥤ Once all the panels are on, secure by screwing back on the heads to ends of your poles.
Finally, push the eyelets close together, so each ring touches the next. This can require some fiddling and puffing, tugging and touching up but once in place they sit and stay perfectly. Each of my pleats is approx 4cm wide. This is when it becomes apparent why 3 panels is needed either side, because we are pushing them close which causes the panels to become very thin, therefore by doing this continuously with multiple panels on each side we can achieve the thick look.
And there we have it! The actual applications is really quick and easy, the time spent is prepping the curtains but for just £150 curtains It was completely worth the effort! and as you can see from the final images it has really opened up the space and provided the illusion that the window and wall length is very large.
I hope this has helped some of you achieve the look or has given you some ideas on various curtains styles and what you would like to achieve in your homes.
Thank you for reading,
Emily- Louise
xx
