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.
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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These curtains look so elegant and beautiful! What a fabulous idea. Could you please share specifically which 5-pound Command Hooks you used? I’m looking at them online and there are so many types, I want to be sure I get the right size for the curtain rods. Thank you very much and thanks for all of your fabulous posts!
I linked the exact ones we used in the post! Hope that helps!
Hello from Ontario! Love your porch! Great job with decoration! I have a 12′ X 16′ porch and ordered 5 pairs of the sheers, just wondered how big is your porch and how many pairs did you have to get? I think I might have to order more…
Hello!! We have a fairly comfortable sized porch. We have six sets and when closed they do not have a lot of gather in them. I think you may find how great the five pairs will do the job.
What is the length of the ikea panels? TY
Hi, Gena. Each panel is 110×98. The link to the product will give you texture details as well.
So glad I stumbled upon your site – – I have tried so many ways to keep my curtains hung on my front porch (double sided tape etc.) but this looks like it might work for me! It adds privacy and elegance!
This is beautiful! Did you find that it provided any shade at all or just bug protection? I’m trying to find a solution for both the bugs and shading.
It does provide shade, but our intention wasn’t so much shade, it was way more mosquitos. I would say more “filter” than shade if that makes sense!