you used what?!

Years ago, I was faced with a dilemma.

I needed a curtain rod long enough for my 9 foot picture window, but I didn't have more than, let's say, $10 to spend on one.

So, I thought. And I thought, and I thought, and I thought. . .

Then, I did what any normal cheap, I mean, thrifty, home decorator would do. I headed down to my garage. (Ok, so it was in our Lockport home, cause that's the only home I could head DOWN to the garage.)

And, there I saw some conduit. Yep. Conduit that electricians use. And, some spray paint.

Awesome.

So, that is my curtain rod of choice. And, the great news is that it's only about $2 for a 10 foot piece. Bonus! And, IKEA sells finials ($6-$10 a pair) that fit the ends perfectly and hooks ($2 a pair) that hold it up perfectly!

However, conduit only comes in a 10 foot piece, so, when it came to outfitting my bay window - which needed a 12 1/2 foot piece, I had to get creative again. I wanted one piece for the front window, a seamless piece. So, with the help of my awesome f-i-l electrician, a conduit expert, we came up with a plan. After borrowing his conduit bender, I got to work. I bent the conduit first (centering the piece of conduit with the middle window), constantly checking it's bend angle with the bay window, bending it little by little. Once it was bent correctly, I measured the length I was missing on the ends and cut a piece of conduit (there's an awesome conduit cutter that makes this super easy - it's a must in my tool box) for the each end. Then, here's where ingenuity comes in, I pounded a 2 inch piece of dowel in the end of the bent rod and pounded the short end into the dowel. I did that for both ends. Then, I painted the whole rod with spray paint and allowed it to dry before I hung it up. It's basically seamless, unless you're looking at it 5 inches away, which might be hard to do since it's hung so high. :)

Now I just need to find some "curtains" I like.

I use the term curtains very loosely here.