DIY projects

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We live in beautiful Arizona and love it.  But summer can be brutal.  And our current home has the back patio facing directly south so in summer, we could not enjoy the patio at all as we had direct sun.  We tried different approaches and finally settled on hanging curtains.

What you will need:

1/2" wide and 10' long conduit pipe
1/2" conduit hangers
screws
drill and drill bit
curtain hangers and curtains

Start by locating your studs in the ceiling of where you'd like to hang your curtain rod.  On my home I had to move in about 1.5 - 2 inches in from the edge of the stucco to locate my studs.  This will be completely different for other styles of homes.  Then hold your conduit hanger up to the area you'd like it to be and mark a spot for the hole.



If your area is less than 10' long, you will need to cut your conduit pipe to size.  This is easily done with a hacksaw.  Take your drill and predrill a hole and then drive the screw and hanger into place.  Repeat this on the othe side too, making sure it's not farther away than 10' and at the correct length.  Measure twice, drill once.  ;)

   


Then once you have them drilled into place, put up the conduit. 

* Before you attach the pipe, slip on all of the curtain rings first.

The pipe will sit in the rounded part of the hanger and it will come with a screw that you will put through the bottom holes and twist it until it's tight around the pipe.

 

Once you have the conduit pipe tight and in place you can attach your curtains to the clips of the curtain rings.  I have 2 sides on my patio that I wanted curtains.  The ones facing straight south I used a little bit shorter ones so I could still see out into my backyard, but keep the sun off of the windows and out of our eyes when we sat on the patio.  The ones on the side of the patio are longer and are used mostly as privacy curtains.

These sames curtains have been hanging in place for 4 years now and they were just typical indoor curtains.  Yes, I live in Arizona where we don't have snow and a lot of rain, but we do have the intense sun that can do just as much damage, so I would say they've held up well!

diy projects