You may be surprised at just how simple these easy DIY cottage style curtains are to make! This project could be completed in under 10 actual minutes! Honest!

If you are here from Vintage Home Designs welcome! Wasn’t Michele’s dried ihydrangea wreath so beautiful?! It inspired me to use more natural, rustic elements in my Valentine’s Day decor.

Today I’m going to show you how to make the easiest ever DIY cottage style curtains! They pull a room together like a charm! This time I used this style of curtain to cover up the contents of a storage shelf in my laundry room. But this tutorial can used to create any type of curtain needs.

What I love about using curtains is how much they can transform a space and add beautiful texture and color. It’s so satisfying how quickly you can change the feel of a space with a project as fast as this one.

I’m a busy mom of five children, one of whom is a newborn. So I I NEED my projects to be fast and really simple. I have been gathering things to give my laundry room some cottagey, vintage flair for a while now. For me in my current season, this just means sprucing things up with decor and some easy projects like these curtains.

While I would love to add some beadboard or open shelving eventually, that’s just not within my family’s capacity right now to do many projects involving construction. That will come someday I hope. Until then, It’s been fun to see how much of a transformation I can create with just decor. And I’ve been doing just that all over this house!

I gave my nursery a similar vintage style makeover using just decor.

No paint, no wallpaper, no construction. Just simply decor. See my thrifty vintage nursery makeover here.

So, as with most of my home, I sought to do the same with my laundry room. Give it a completely vintage cottage feel working within my means and no construction. These easy DIY cottage style curtains played a huge role in creating that vintage cottage style look!

Stay tuned to see the laundry room reveal coming soon!

How I Created These DIY Cottage Style Curtains with Mostly Thrifted Finds

The main key to being able to create a beautifully decorated room with mostly thrifted items is to always be looking. Always be gathering.

The items that I thrifted for these curtains were all things that I had on hand due to thrifty gathering.

The fabric I found at a thrift store for $1.50 probably 5 months before making these curtains. When I saw the fabric I immediately felt drawn to it and knew I could use it in my home because it fit my style. I originally had another idea for it, but in the end the fabric became these curtains.

The clip rings were another thrift find. They were found this summer at a garage sale for $1 and I grabbed them because I knew I could use them eventually. I ended up having to purchase more clip rings to complete this project and I couldn’t find new ones in the same color as my thrifted clip rings.

That was easily remedied by spray painting my new ones with paint from another project to match my thrifted ones. It took less than a minute to spray paint each side of the rings. It was an easy fix that knocked $8 off the cost of this project since I didn’t have buy a second set of clip rings.

Find the clip rings I used here.

Tools You Will Need

A length of fabric that is two times as wide as your opening and at least 4 inches longer than your desired length

Curtain clip rings

Clothing Iron

Iron on hem tape, such as heat n’ bond (optional. I didn’t use any)

Tension rod

How to Make These Easy DIY Cottage Style Curtains

Start by cutting your fabric to the length you need for the project.

For the width, It will need to be twice as long as the opening you are wanting to cover up with the curtain.

For the length, you can gauge this by eye according to your space and desired length. Just make sure you add an extra 4 inches to your desired length before cutting.

Lay out your fabric flat and fold over two inches at both the top and the bottom of the curtain. Iron those down with the steam setting on your iron to create a hem.

This is where you can use the iron on hem tape. ( see my vintage bedskirt curtain tutorial using iron on hem tape here for step by step directions)

However, I was very pressed for time and didn’t even bother with the hem tape. If you iron on the steam setting that fold isn’t going anywhere. I don’t mind it not being perfectly secured, so I just ironed my hem into place and called it good.

Now fold over two inches of fabric on either end and iron into place.

Add a clip ring right over the top of that fold on each side to secure it into place.

Now you have a “hemmed” curtain that is ready for it’s clip rings and faux pleats.

You will create these faux pleats as you add the clip rings.

This may take a little paying around to space your rings evenly, but measure a width of space between each ring. I was able to just use the width of my hand span. Mark that distance mentally or by laying something like a pencil or pin there to be more exact.

Then go beyond that mark by 2-3 inches, pull that new mark up off the table and bring it back to meet your pencil marked first point to create a fold.

The result should look like the photo above.

Smooth the fold flat and clip a ring in the center of that fold to create a faux pleat.

Repeat those marking and folding steps until you have filled the entire length of fabric with the clip rings.

Now you have a curtain!

Slip your rings onto the tension rod and then secure your tension rod into place.

Voila!

You have created a beautiful DIY cottage style curtain in no time at all!!

How To Make Your Curtains Fit a Cottage Style

The simple pleats in these curtains definitely give them that slightly elegant flair of cottage style. However, whether or not your curtains speak cottage with lie mostly in the pattern of your fabric.

I chose a delicate floral pattern in muted hues of coral, blue, white, and beige. The muted tones and feminine pattern keep these curtains well within cottage style.

For Cottage Style Curtain Fabric Look For:

• Muted Tones
• Traditional Patters such as ticking stripe, buffalo check, toile, floral, or seerssucker.
• Natural textured fabrics such as burlap, linen, or lace

See Brick House Fabrics English Cottage Style fabric collection for inspiration!

I hope my easy DIY cottage style curtains inspired you to make your own.

They are so simple that anyone could do it! And the tutorial is so versatile that you can use them in any kind of space from a small shelf covering to a living room window.

If you have a bathroom of kitchen that needs a winter refresh consider removing the doors of the cabinets under your sink and hang these curtains there instead. Adding a pop of color and pattern with curtains can have such an impact and change the entire feel of a room.

Making your own curtains doesn’t have to be intimidating. All you need to know how to do is iron a fold!

Do you have a space in your home that could use a refresh with some cottage style curtains?

Let me know in the comments!

Be sure to stop by my friend Amy’s beautiful blog Amy Sadler Designs to see the DIY cork board organizer she made! So perfect for the getting organized in the new year!

Have a lovely day!

Be sure to check out all 9 of my friend’s beautiful winter DIY ideas!