Home Decor

Make Your Own Drop Cloth Curtains For Your Porch

Want to take your patio decor up a notch? Add a polished look to your porch with these easy, budget-friendly DIY Drop Cloth Curtains.

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In two of the past homes we lived in, I wanted to hang curtains on my back porch.

Unfortunately, I never went through with my idea. Womp! Womp!

We sure could’ve used them on our west-facing porch at our home near Fort Hood.

Curtains would’ve added some much-needed shade for those warm spring and summer afternoons and evenings.

However, when I decided to give my back porch a little upgrade here, drop cloth curtains were high on the list of must-dos!

back porch curtains in the background of a back porch with grey and white rug, brown chairs with yellow seat cushions and a black outdoor coffee table. drop cloth curtains

Did you follow along on my One Room Challenge Back Porch Makeover?

If not, you can get caught up by going to this post where I share where the porch started.

Turns out, hanging drop cloth curtains was a fairly easy process, once I quit overthinking!

Supplies To Hang Drop Cloth Curtains on Your Porch

Supplies:

Drop Cloths (I used these from Home Depot)

3/4 inch PVC Pipe

Spray Paint (for PVC Pipe and hooks if necessary)

Hooks large enough to hold 3/4 inch PVC Pipe (I used these from Target)

Tea Cup Hooks

Curtain Tie Backs

Curtain Clip Rings

Drill

Hack Saw or Pipe Cutter

Let’s Hang Some Back Porch Curtains

1. Determine Your Measurements.

Decide how long you need your PVC curtain rods to be.

You can run your rods the full length of the 3 or 4 sides of your porch.

I chose to make my rods shorter so that they don’t span the full length of my porch covering.

One of the reasons I did this was the weight caused by the number of drop cloths necessary to cover the full length of my porch.

Also, I realized that I was going to need a special drill bit to drill the hole for my tie back on the two sides that would’ve been closest to the Hardee plank on the back of my house.

You will also need to know how high you want to hang your rods, based on how long you want the curtains to hang.

2. Cut your PVC pipe to the length that you want each of your rods to be.

Use a hack saw or PVC cutters to cut the PVC pipe.

You may need to sand the ends of each cut pipe because they will have some sharp pieces sticking out.

3. Paint the PVC Pipe and Hooks.

I used black spray paint to paint my PVC Pipe and hooks.

The hooks I bought were a minty green color so they needed to be a darker color to blend in with my brown porch wood.

4. Screw Hooks Into Porch Beams.

Secure hooks to the porch at the desired positions based on your measurements for your rods and your desired drop cloth curtain length.

Since I chose to use shorter rods on 3 sides of my porch, I was able to only use 2 hooks for each rod.

If you have longer rods or want to keep your rods from bowing in the middle, you can use additional hooks to hold the rod in place.

Black hook with silver screws holding a black PVC pipe secured to brown wood.

5. Attach Curtain Clips to Drop Cloth Curtains.

I did this really un-scientifically!

I folded my drop cloth in half and put a clip on each end and in the center.

Then I attached a few additional clips at somewhat centered points between the original 3 clips.

These can be adjusted after the curtains are hung.

I think I used 7-8 clips on each of my drop cloths.

6. Place Curtain Clips on PVC rods.

Thread your PVC pipe rod through the circles attached to your curtain clips.

7. Hang PVC Curtain Rods, with Drop Cloth Curtains attached, on the hooks attached to the Porch Beams in step 4.

This may require an extra set of hands!

cream colored drop cloth curtain fabric attached to black curtain rings on a black curtain rod

8. Make any adjustments to the curtain clips to create even pleats.

I ended up rearranging my curtain clips on almost all of my curtains.

Turns out my eyeballing center wasn’t very accurate!

I even added a few extra clips on a few panels since I had some extras.

9. Decide where to place Tea Cup Hooks to secure Tie Backs and screw them into the post.

Gather Curtains to the side to figure out the best place to secure the hooks so that you can keep your curtains tied back.

Mine are placed about 36″ off the ground.

My Tea Cup Hooks were really easy to screw into my posts by hand.

Drop Cloth Curtain with black rope tie back attached to small gold hook

10. Secure Tie Backs to Tea Cup Hooks and wrap around your Drop Cloth Curtains.

This is the easiest part of the process!

When I first hung my curtains, I hadn’t ordered Tie Backs yet.

I just used some strips of fabric knotted on the Tea Cup Hook and then tied around the curtains.

I love these big knotted Tie Backs I purchased a few weeks ago.

They really provide a finished look to the curtains!

back porch curtains on brown wood structure with grey love seat, potted plants and stone fireplace on the left.

I’ve really loved the softness that these curtains have added to my porch.

The good news is if they get too dirty from the rain and our grass-less backyard, I can purchase more from Home Depot or try to wash the ones I have hanging currently.

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4 Comments

  1. Paula@SweetPea

    August 25, 2021 at 3:15 PM

    What a great addition to your porch!

    1. Jen Wade

      August 31, 2021 at 9:08 AM

      Thanks, Paula! I love the softness they add and the shade on a sunny day!

  2. Carol Karl | Living a Real Life

    August 26, 2021 at 3:25 PM

    This is such a great idea, lots of useful information. I can’t imagine having curtains on my porch – where I live it’s so windy they would spend all their time vertical to the house. Thanks for sharing though. It’s so interesting to learn about things that others do and what can happen in other parts of the world.

    1. Jen Wade

      August 31, 2021 at 9:08 AM

      I keep mine tied back all the time in case of wind!

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