James’ Room // West Elm Shower Curtain into Drapes

For James’ room, I wanted wide horizontal blue and white striped drapes, and made them from a West Elm Shower Curtain.  The color is called dusty navy and the material is 100% cotton.  Three problems: 1) I prefer a rod pocket as opposed to the way it’s meant to hang on hooks, 2) it’s too short for the room at 74×72 inches, and 3) it’s not lined.

I’m no seamstress, but I figured I could try what Amanda Carol did and buy three curtains, and use the third one for added length.  She chose the gorgeous grey and white for her office.

 

Here are how my blue and white drapes turned out in James’ room after I lined and hemmed them.

For the lining, I figured I’d use a lightweight fabric shower curtain liner so the width would match and it would be less expensive than fabric.  They do not cover the length of the drapes, just about below the window sill.
I simply stitched them along the top of the drapes, just below the rod pocket I made by folding over about 4 inches of fabric on top.

 

I used white rope and an inexpensive wall hook as a tie back so the room can still receive lots of sunlight.  On the picture below, you can also see where I added the extra fabric to the drapes.  I tried to line up the stripes so the width of the stripes would be about the same, but it’s not perfect.  Also, I should have used blue thread so you couldn’t see the seam as well.

 

I ordered these curtains from the store and they were on backorder forever.  While on backorder, we received the canopy, which was way too much horizontal stripe action for the room.  So, the canopy is going to live in the playroom-that-was-intended-to-be-a-media-room (it will fit better in there too) and James will have more room to move around in his bedroom now.

 

This shower curtain also comes in yellow and white stripe which would make a pretty happy bathroom!
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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

35 Comments

  1. I love a stripe in a boy's room!! They look fantastic! The rope tie-back is great too. It gives it a little nautical feel. The yellow striped curtain you showed matches my son's duvet cover. Gotta love West Elm! Nice work, Megan!! 🙂

  2. So clean-looking and smart! I never would've thought to use shower curtains as drapes – very clever! Have you thought about adding red tie-back ornaments (maybe an anchor or something?) to the ropes? My son's room is decorated in similar colors and I love putting in red accents, I see you do too!
    James is one lucky guy!

  3. Target has a navy and white shower curtain for less than $20. My friend was going to turn that into a window curtain too. Great job!

    1. I was thinking that too! I love this look and think its adorable, but I can't afford to spend $120-150 on curtains for my kids' rooms. I might do the DIY drop cloth version with wide painted stripes instead.

  4. I did the opposite for my sons bathroom! I loved the shower curtains but wanted them longer and split into two panels. I had them made from cotton twill and lined them from a queen bed sheet. After I considered pain and suffering from remaking the shower curtains it was worth the cost. I'd love to share a picture!

  5. What a GREAT idea! I'm having trouble finding curtains I like for my bedroom, and I would have never thought to look/use fabric shower curtains. I'm totally going to start looking in the bathroom section from now on! 🙂

  6. I have used shower curtains in the past, but would only use them if they were behind furniture and the short length would not be noticed. Thank you for helping me solve this conundrum and solving this problem and opening a world of faux curtain possibilities!

  7. Beautiful! I love James' new room, it is so perfect for a little boy his age. I just made new curtains for my daughter's room and lined them and it seemed like it took forever, I will remember this shortcut when my son starts asking for his room to be redone.

  8. I love the curtains! You did a wonderful job. I think this is a project I can do because the only thing I can do on my sewing machine is sew a semi-straight line. 🙂 I have been wanting to do this for my son for seriously a year but I keep waiting. I keep thinking about how maybe he won't like navy striped curtains, but he's 2. He doesn't care!

  9. Looks great. Shower curtains are also great to make decorative pillows. I've used them to make a couple for my bedroom and they turn out great. Always on the look out for great pattern shower curtains that are on sale. 🙂

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