I used grommets to turn this IKEA linen curtain into a shower curtain.
When I was helping Becky decorate her rental apartment on a tiny budget, I found some great linen curtains at IKEA that we purchased for her bathroom update. I couldn’t resist buying some for my place as well. It’s hard to find pretty fabric shower curtains that don’t cost a fortune, so I decided to make my own. If you have a sewing machine, you can just buy some great fabric by the yard and start from scratch. But an easier DIY option is to buy a regular curtain and turn it into a shower curtain by adding grommets at the top.
My bathroom isn't big enough to get a shot of the full curtain, so here's the bottom half!
Punching the grommets into the fabric is easy.
I bought a grommet punch & nickel-plated grommets at my favorite local craft store, Brooklyn Mercantile, for a total of about $20. The IKEA curtains were $50 for a set of two. So, Becky and I each got a custom made linen shower curtain for $35. Not bad for an afternoon’s work!
Of course you will still likely have to hem the curtain, but that’s an easy job with Steam-a-seam and a hot iron. The IKEA curtains came with a roll of 1/2″ Steam-a-seam. It would be easier to stitch the hem with a sewing machine, but the steam-a-seam works perfectly for low-tech crafters like me.
My shower curtain is now hanging around the vintage clawfoot tub in our “outhouse chic” guest bathroom. This work-in-progress room also recently got a second coat of milk paint on the mushroom wood wainscoting and some vintage iron hooks were hung under the chair rail. I’m still on the hunt for a tiny vintage medicine cabinet and the walls and tub exterior will eventually be painted some lovely shade of ?…. (Suggestions welcome!)
I’m taking it slow with the outhouse decor and letting it evolve eclectically. What do you think of the progress so far?
One last shower curtain tip: Ditch those plastic shower curtain liners post-haste! Yuck. You can get a washable, white, lightweight nylon one at IKEA for about $5 and it will change your life. I’m going to hang a few inside the clawfoot once we start using it for showers.
