Drop Cloth Curtains – My Patio Refresh Part 3

Welcome back for Part 3 of my patio refresh project. Today I’m showing you how to add Easy Drop Cloth Curtains to your patio. You can even us this same technique inside your home.

So far I’ve shown you how to Paint a Seagrass Rug and How to Repair a Wicker Table and today I’ll show you how I made these super easy no-sew curtains for my patio in less than 15 minutes.

Last month I bought two drop cloths for a blogger challenge intending to make curtains for my bedroom but ended up instead making a Stenciled Pillow.

This post contains links to products, if you purchase something after clicking on my link I may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you).

My plan for the Patio Refresh was to use mostly what I already had and a little paint.  I had to purchase one drop cloth to replace the one I used to make the pillow.

I had already purchased the clips from before so this project cost me only the price of one drop cloth, or $10.

Here’s what I started with.  See that bamboo at the top?  That’s what I was using to hold up some tab top curtains I made.  They weren’t my best work and neither was that bamboo so both had to go.

With the failed bamboo idea I needed to find a new/different curtain rod. Thankfully I never throw anything away.  Seriously, it drives my husband a little crazy.

But this broken curtain rod, missing one of it’s cute crystal finials, that used to hang sheers in our daughter’s room, that’s been propped in the corner of the garage by the door?

Yes, that one!  It’s perfect because it’s long enough to span the 12′, buh bye sad little bamboo.

I used a hammer to knock off the one remaining crystal globe and gave it a good spray paint with some left over brown Rustoleum paint I had so it would blend in with the frame of our gazebo.

Step 1: Add a curtain rod to your gazebo

If your gazebo frame is metal you’ll have to get creative. Zip ties will be your friend. Don’t worry, no one will see them once they’re camouflaged.

It wasn’t easy to get this hung by myself but a girl will do what she has to do to get the job done.  I propped one end on the rail while I securely fastened the other. Leave it a bit loose until both ends have been zip-tied.

Hang the curtain rod away from the frame a bit so the drop cloth curtains won’t get hung up when you open or close them.

• Our heavy-duty zip ties were white so I got out my handy black sharpie and colored them in place.
• Don’t forget to slide on the curtain ring hooks before you zip tie the second side.

Ok, hard part is done, the rest goes pretty quickly.  I had already washed and dried my drop cloth (for shrinkage) so I was ready to hang them.

How to Hang Drop Cloth Curtains

I didn’t take pictures of these steps but since my drop cloth is 9′ tall and my gazebo isn’t, I had to make some adjustments

Step 2: Determine the correct length

• Fold the top edge toward you and hold it up to one of the clips. Keep adjusting it until they’re about 1″ from the ground.
• Once they’re the right height you can start clipping them to the rod.
• You might need to make slight adjustments if the hem looks really.

Step 3: How to get perfectly spaced curtain pleats

Use as many rings as you want, I already had two packs of seven so I used seven per side.  Just make sure you use an odd number, here’s why that’s important:

1. Clip each side of the folded drop cloth to the outer rings for the side you’re working on.
2. Slide the outer rings together and pull out on the center fabric to find the exact center of the drop cloth. Clip the center ring to the folded center of the drop cloth.
3. Spread out the drop cloth between the far right and the middle ring clip, now eyeball (or measure) the placement of the other two so you have 3 equal sections. Clip to the drop cloth.
4. Repeat step 3 for the left half of that drop cloth panel.
5. Step back and make sure you like how the bottom hangs, make any adjustments necessary at each clip to raise or lower the bottom hem.
6. It’s a patio, so it doesn’t have to be perfect.  Plus the tie back will hide imperfections.

You can either leave the top fold as is or you can do one extra step for a top valance look.

Step 4: Create a folded curtain valance

1. Starting on either side of the panel grab the loose end that you folded toward you as you hung the panel.
2. Holding the clipped curtain pinch the clip and slip the loose end under and into the clip.
3. Move to the next clip spreading out the curtain as you go so they are smooth.
4. Repeat for all curtain ring clips.

This is what your curtain will look like.

Step 5: Create a simple curtain tie back

I needed some tiebacks for my curtains so I grabbed a roll of Jute string I used on another project, but one strand would look to puny.

I wrapped it around the gazebo frame and the curtain and found the right length.  Then I cut a total of 14 lengths, seven for each side.

I twisted seven strands around a few times until it looked like a rope.  One was tied around the curtain panel and the gazebo frame.

Moving to the other panel I made sure the other one had the same drape at the top so they were visually even.

All done and pretty nice!  I added some yellow mason jar rings for a little extra color and stood back to admire my work.  There you have it, no-sew drop cloth curtains in less than 15 minutes.

Don’t forget to check out my Patio Refresh Part 1 and Patio Refresh Part 2  and be sure to Pin this project to your favorite Curtain or Drop Cloth board.

You might also enjoy some tips on creating a Relaxing Retreat and how I turned our old Old BBQ into a Patio Cart.  And even more ideas for Painting a Rug.

Pin it for later!!

Until next time,
Toni