DIY Outdoor Curtains and Screened Porch for Under $100
How to protect your porch from bugs using this quick and cheap solution for DIY outdoor curtains.
If you’ve been following along on my Instagram Stories, you probably already saw this post coming.
I love it when a light bulb moment ends up working out even better than you could have imagined! For the past year, we’ve slowly been working on sprucing up our back porch.
This is where we left off a few months ago after limewashing the brick and painting the doors this winter:
Curtains as a Screen Porch Alternative
One thing we always battled were the bugs in the summer, especially at night. But we didn’t want to go through the expense and labor of adding screens because we really loved having the space feel open and be a part of the backyard.
I was in IKEA a couple of weeks ago though and discovered these mosquito net curtains for $5 per pair. And it hit me… outdoor curtain screens!
Supplies
(Some affiliate links are provided.)
The grand total came to under $100 for 6, roughly $16 each.
Steps
Step 1 – Spray Mosquito Net With ScotchGard
I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t yellow and turn gross in the rain and sun, so it was worth spending an extra $10 on two bottles of Scotchgard Heavy Duty Water Shield and spraying them down to make them weather-proof.
Fingers crossed it works! But considering it’s designed to protect fabrics outdoors, I’m really optimistic on this one.
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Step 2 – Hang Tension Rods With Command Hooks
I picked up 6 tension rods at Walmart for about $6 each, and Robert and I hung them up as high as we could, close to our porch ceiling, using Command hooks. It was super quick and causes no damage at all, so if we ever decide to take them down, we won’t have to worry about any screw holes to patch.
I cannot believe how elegant and luxurious our back porch looks now! We have the freedom to open and close them as we need to so that as the bugs start swarming onto our porch in the evenings, we can just close them.
Step 3 – (optional) Secure Panels
If you didn’t want them blowing in the breeze, you could even loop ties to the corners of the panels to secure around your porch posts. Or you can sew fishing weights into the bottom curtain hems. (That’s a trick some brides use to keep veils from blowing too much in the wind at outdoor weddings.)
Our porch looks bigger now! I’ll be sharing more of this space with all of our decorating sources tomorrow, but I had to share this trick with y’all because it’s seriously one of my favorites ever.
Have you used any other great money-saving ideas in your outdoor spaces? Or have solutions for combatting the creepy crawlies? I’m convinced the state bird of South Carolina is really the mosquito.
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Wow – that’s gorgeous!! I’d love to see a photo of your deck at night with the lights on!
Ingenious! They look very luxurious and high-end. I love how the porch feels so cozy. A great inexpensive fix!
I’ve used these IKEA curtains on my screen porch for years. I use them to soften the corners, hanging 2 panels in each corner for fullness. Love the way they gently blow in the breeze. I didn’t spray mine with anything, just wash them every spring and re-hang. They look as good (and white) as the day I originally hung them. Sure can’t beat the price!
Thanks for the share. We were going to screen our porch this summer but realized it was going to darken our house even more. I have sat on the porch all summer thinking about what to do but was unsure. I had seen pictures on Pinterest of sheers and liked the look. I love the way it looks on your porch. I think I will be making a trip to Ikea. Did you spray them once they were hanging or before hanging? Thanks again.
Yay! Glad it might help! I sprayed them before hanging but you could really do it either way.
This is such a smart and pretty idea. Thank you for sharing. I’m wondering….when you wash the curtains, will the waterproofing wash off? Also, did you just have to spray one side of the panels or did you do both sides? Thank you and Have a Blessed Day.
Love this. We used a thinner drop cloth to close off ours and they work beautifully.
That’s a great idea too!
Lauren, do you have a suggestion for a light, breezy curtain to add to a pergola to shade the setting western sun?
Hi! We have these curtains on our pergola.
https://rstyle.me/cz-n/fid68ab5ky7
Marty, I am interested if the material (curtains) you used helped keep the sun out or are they too thin?
Thanks,