Make Outdoor Drop Cloth Drapes & A Porch Warming Party Idea

I’m so excited that I can finally post about this project here – our internet has been down for almost a full week, and the hubs and I are just going nuts! ALL of our entertainment, accounting for our businesses and research for projects is online (we ditched satellite TV a couple of years ago), so it was a really tricky week. Thankfully, we were able to use our cell phone networks here and there (with the spotty country reception we have – ha!) and the available free WiFi when we were out. I had to submit my entry for stage 2 of the Western Canada’s Next Home Stylist competition right in the middle of our outage, so that was an interesting challenge. Today I’m finally able to share with you the details of my entry for stage 2, and explain one of the fun DIY projects we made for it – some beautiful outdoor drop cloth drapes & a plumbing parts curtain rod for our porch.

Our design challenge this week for Western Canada’s Next Home Stylist competition (you can read more about it in my last post on the topic) was to create a housewarming party design. I chose to design a party on our porch! Our porch was almost finished, and we needed the final kick in the bum to get it done anyhow. What could be more lovely than dining al fresco on a pretty porch with your friends anyhow?

The theme I went for was French farmers’ market inspired. You can see my Pinterest board of inspirations here.

My hubby and I finished cladding and painting our porch beams and our porch floor (which was FAR more work than I imagined it would be), and then I went to work styling a little party with Urban Barn pieces.

I used lots of black, white and splashes of fuschia inspired by the flowers I already had on hand. The setup included a table covered in kraft paper and DIY runners out of black & white pinstriped fabric. My moms almost-faded peonies made a casal but pretty centerpiece, and I used one of my husband’s electrical spools in the corner as a food table. I really love it, and I’m totally keeping it on our porch. Other details include this DIY chalkboard art and an ice bucket filled with ready-to-drink sangrias.

You can see more details here on the Next Home Stylist site, and I would LOVE your votes this week for my design if you enjoy it. You can vote for it until Sunday right here. Thank you all SO MUCH for your outpouring of support!

Now for the outdoor drapes. I’ve been wanting to make outdoor drapes out of drop cloth and a curtain rod out of plumbing parts for quite some time, and I used this opportunity to get ’em done! They turned out great. This post from Simplicity in the South was what inspired me to make the plumbing pipe curtain rod.

Here’s how I made them:

For this project, you’ll need a cotton/poly fabric drop cloth (I found mine at Home Depot and used one 9×12′ piece), some ribbon or curtain clips to hang the drape (I used ribbon, but you could also use curtain rings with clips as long as they fit over your pipe curtain rod), some trim (if desired) for the drape’s edges, a sewing machine and/or fabric glue and some black metal plumbing pipe fittings (I found mine at a plumbing supplier and I’ll describe which parts I used in step #4 below). Ensure that your drop cloth is at least twice the width of the opening you’d like to hang it over so that you’re creating a nice, full drape. You could also do what I did and cut and hem the drape in two vertically to make two panels. If your drop cloth piece is too long for your opening and you’d like to shorten it without hemming, you could fold it over on the top to create a shabby chic ruffle.

For ribbon tabs, cut 7 pieces of ribbon per panel that are about 9″ long. Fold them in half and sew them to the top of the drop cloth as shown. Alternatively, you could clip on some  curtain clips with rings – just make sure that they’ll slide over your curtain rod!

If you wish, you can decorate the edges of your drop cloth panel(s) with ribbon or trim. Here I’ve used fabric glue, but you could also sew them on with a sewing machine.

To make the industrial pipe curtain rod, you’ll need the following pieces of black metal pipe: 2 floor flanges, two 90 degree joins, two 4 inch joining pieces, and a piece of pipe long enough to hang within your drape’s opening (minus the 90 degree ends and floor flanges). You can get pipe cut to size and threaded at a plumbing supply store.

Screw the floor flange, 4” joining piece and 90 degree piece together as shown to make the end bracket pieces.

Screw the center pipe piece into the end pieces as shown to make the complete curtain rod.

Attach the curtain rod to  your porch/patio beam with screws through the holes on the floor flange pieces.

Tie or clip on your drop cloth drapes, and you’re finished!