DIY Curtain Rods

I feel like curtains are one of the easiest ways to define a room. They can be bold or airy or whatever you want them to be! They can also be very expensive, along with the curtain rods to hang them on! 

When we first moved in to our little house, I made some cute little curtains and hung them up on the cheap rods you can get at Walmart for less than $10... but after 3 years, they were completely bowed in the middle and sagging. They just looked terrible, and did nothing to help our living room. :( 

So, for the past 4 months, our windows have been empty. (In my crazy cleaning spree before lil'est man arrived, I just couldn't handle the saggy curtain rods any longer, so I took them down and figured I would get back around to them when I had a chance...) I have two big windows and one small window, and in order to buy nice curtain rods for all of these windows, it easily would have cost over $60 (on sale!!!) and I was not willing to pay that! 

Then, I came across this awesome tutorial from House of Hepworths and knew it was exactly what I needed! DIY curtain rods made from electrical conduit that cost sooo much less than store-bought ones... and you can make them exactly what you want! Score! ;)

Here's my version and how we did it:

Start with electrical conduit. You can find this on the electrical aisle at either Lowe's or Home Depot. We bought two 3/4"x10' in order to make all 3 curtain rods. (two 68" rods and one 36" rod) Lowe's had the better price at $3.12 each! 

I also bought a bracket set and end caps from Home Depot. (You can get really creative with your finials! Think Hobby Lobby knobs! There are so many cute options that you can use here... I just wanted ours to be very simple. But, I think this is the coolest part about this project because you can literally make them be whatever you want! I thought about using the tiny garden picks at Target with owls on them... just an idea! ;) But, Hobby Lobby has tooons of beautiful and colorful knobs!) 

Also, grab some spray paint if you don't already have some on hand! And, get to work! :) 

First, we measured how long we wanted our rods to be, and cut them! I am still slightly afraid of power tools, so Chris cut them for me with a grinder! :)

Then, I spray painted them.

This Rust-oleum paint was awesome, and it dried pretty quickly! (Which I love because I am super impatient when it comes to projects like this! ;)) Also, I really liked the "hammered" look...

After they were dry, we shoved some corks in the end so that we would have something to screw our "finials" into! Then, we spray-painted the ends. (We actually screwed the end-caps in first, but you could see the cork a little so we painted them to cover it up!)

When that was dry, we screwed in our end caps (finials!) and voila! We are done! (Depending on the size of your finials and your curtains, you may need to put your curtains on before you screw in the last finial!)


What do y'all think?? I think they look just as great as store-bought ones, if not better!

I just love having curtains in our living room again!!! I feel like they make the whole room feel lighter! :) 

What creative window solutions have y'all come up with?? 

If you make some curtain rods of your own, please put your link in the comments! I would LOVE to see them!!!