Ritva Curtains Transformed

Materials: Ritva curtains, Lummig curtain rod, gold spray paint, 12 yards of ribbon, fabric glue

Description: I saw another hack and thought I could do something similar to spruce up my apartment. I bought two sets of Ritva curtains for my living room and two Lummig curtain rods.

I took off the finials and spray painted them gold. While they dried, I measured the length of the curtains from the floor up and when they were just touching the floor, I marked the walls to put up the wall fixtures.

Once the finials were dry, I threaded the curtains onto the rod, added the finials, and hung the curtains.

To add the ribbon, I bought 12 yards of red, 2 inch grosgrain ribbon. I put a strip of fabric glue at the edge of the ribbon and folded it over about 1/4 inch to finish the edge. I put glue on about 1 inch of the ribbon and folded it over the top of the curtains.

Doing about 8-10 inches at a time, I put strips of glue on the edges of the ribbon and carefully (and gently) pressed it to the curtains. At the bottom, I did the same thing with the ribbon (finishing the raw edge and wrapping it around the curtain).

Now they look great and certainly nicer than plain Ikea curtains!

~ Sybil, New York

Bold Striped Curtains

Materials: Ritva curtains, paint, paint brush, tape measure, pencil

Description: Samantha of Crafty Texas Girls did a 'make-over' on her husband's office with one of the biggest changes being the drapery. Out naked window, bold black and white striped curtains.Yes, you could probably sew stripes onto the curtain but she chose to paint instead and the results are impressive.

Here's what you need to create your own painted curtains:
- Ritva panels ($30 each)
-curtain panels
-tape measure
-pencil
-drop cloth
-paint and paint brushes

Quite a bit of math and planning goes into it. The stripes are 4.5 inches wide each. Measure and make a tick mark on each side. Then use a straight edge to connect them with a line.

The whole thing took about 4 hours to paint and Samantha hung them using her 3 Curtain Rules.(Hang them high, have them touch the ground, put them wide on the outside of the window).

Sometimes painting just seems more fun that sewing!


See more of the painted striped Ritva.

~ Samantha of Crafty Texas Girls, Texas

Ritva Curtains and a Band of Ribbon

Materials: Ritva Curtain Panels, Ribbon, Glue

Description: Ikea Ritva white curtains hang along my living room window and after a little hack, they look amazingly stunning (and much more expensive than Ikea prices). To update the plain white curtain panels, I added a 2-inch wide, black, grosgrain ribbon along the inner edges. The process was quick and painless (only about 30 minutes).

Here's how they looked before the hack (and the much needed hem) and then after the ribbon was applied...

For this project I used ribbon from M&J Trimming and Fabri-Tac made by Beacon Adhesives. Here are the steps I took to attach the ribbon to the curtain panels:

1. Apply glue to one edge of the ribbon.

2. Fold the ribbon over about 1/4 inch and press until the glue holds.

3. Position a ladder to reach the top of the hanging curtain and with glue and ribbon in hand, climb to the top (let the ribbon unroll as you climb). Apply glue on the ribbon, beginning at the top of the folded edge and continue down about 2 inches.

4. Press the ribbon to the back topside of the curtain panel, glue side down (I glued along the seam on the curtain, about a 1/2 inch from the edge).

5. Fold the ribbon over the top of the curtain panel (to the front) and apply more glue to the ribbon.

6. Press the ribbon onto the curtain panel and continue down, all the way to the bottom of the curtain... glue, press, glue, press, glue, press...

7. Once the ribbon is glued all the way to the bottom of the curtain panel, roll out 2 more inches of ribbon and cut.

8. Apply glue along the bottom edge of the ribbon and fold over 1/4 of an inch and press until the glue holds.

9. Apply glue to the folded edge of the ribbon and continue to apply the glue until you reach the bottom edge of the curtain panel.

10. Place the ribbon on the back of the bottom curtain panel (glue side down) and press to hold.

11. After the ribbon is glued to both panels, double-checked any gaps in the ribbon. If there are any loose areas that are not completely glued to the curtain panel, apply a little extra glue. Squeeze a small dab of glue on a popsicle stick (or something of similar size).

12. Slide it under the ribbon where it's unsecured. Then press the ribbon against the curtain panel until the glue holds.

See more of the ribbon-trimmed-IKEA curtains.

~ Kristy, Houston, TX