DIY: Gorgeous curtain panels for just $7 each

I'm not ashamed to admit I have a nearly pathological inability to pay for things I could make myself or find elsewhere for less. Even so, I'm almost embarrassed to share this find. Why? Because I sort of want to use these glamorous curtains to trick people who come to our house into thinking I've moved passed my pathological ways.

Alas, my condition also makes me feel the need to share my decor secrets with others who suffer from the same affliction. So I'm laying bare my taste for $7 curtains for all to see.

Here are the before photos of our bedroom sans curtains. (These photos appeared in my Design Mom home tour last spring. Still swooning over that experience.)

Here's the room with my $7 curtain panels. Now the dirty little secret is...they aren't actually curtain panels at all. They're these extra-long twin sheets, which come in a pack of six. Their weight is somewhere between a sheer and a traditional drape, so they’re perfect if you want a light, airy curtain but not if you need substantial privacy or black-out shades.

(No sweet models on the sofa this time.)

For the wide window, I paired them with this classic curtain rod.

For the single windows next to the bed, I used this curtain rod. (I especially love this one and will be using it for living room curtains, too.)

While the curtain rods are thin enough to slip through the top seam of the curtain, I chose to attach them using these clips both for aesthetics and to make it easier to slide the panels.

TIPS FOR HANGING CURTAINS FOR MAXIMUM EFFECT

• Hang the curtain rod as close to the ceiling as possible (NOT just above the window frame) to draw the eye upward and add height to the room. I hung these curtains just below the molding, which allowed several inches to piles on the floor for an elegant look. If you don't like the piled look, hang them so the bottom is flush with the floor—not swaying inches above it. If you have low ceilings, consider regular-length twin sheets instead of XL. For high ceilings, consider XL queen sheets for additional height.
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• To avoid losing daylight when the curtains are open, hang the curtain rod brackets 6-12 inches wider than the outside of the window frame. On the large window, we hung the brackets 10.5 inches out, because we had plenty of space. It seems like the ideal width. On the side windows, we only had 6.5 inches to work with, but they look just fine.

• Wash and iron the curtains. My philosophy on ironing is that I'll only to do it if it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. (Not kidding.) These curtains seemed to fit the bill. When the curtains arrived, I washed them on cold, dried them on low, then laid them out flat. I ironed one using spray starch to see if it looked any different than the un-ironed curtains. My kids assured me the ironed version looked way better, so I ironed them all.
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• Use nine evenly spaced clips per twin sheet and two sheets per window. (That's 18 clips per window, in case you're having troubles today.)