If you are looking for blackout curtains that you can customize for every season, this post is for you!

My boyfriend, like many people, occasionally works overnight shifts and has to sleep during the day. Since our house is too bright during the day, my boyfriend usually retreats to the basement couch to find adequate sleeping conditions.

Anyone who has ever slept on a couch will tell you that sleeping in a bed is way more comfortable than sleeping on a couch. Sleeping on a couch hurts your back, and as 20 something-year-olds,  our bones are not getting any stronger. We decided to get room darkening curtains for our bedroom to solve this issue, which seemed like a relatively easy task.

Save Money: Make Your Own Curtains with Tassels

I believe in saving money where I can, especially if it gives me an excuse to craft! My last project was creating a custom wall-art, so I decided to try out custom curtains!

While searching and shopping for room darkening curtains, I quickly realized that curtains are grossly and unreasonably expensive. To make matters even worse, you usually have to buy more than one panel, which can double the price.

The only options I had to choose from were cheaper, plainer, solid-colored room darkening curtains or more expensive, decorated room darkening curtains. While I was silently mourning the loss of $50+ for something as basic as curtains, I got an idea.

What if I just decorated the curtains myself? I constantly changed my bedspread depending on the season, so I wanted something that wasn’t permanent. I knew I wanted my curtain decoration to be something that can be easily changed to fit any color scheme.

And just like that, I came up with another idea. DIY, colorful, and detachable tassels. 

This project is an easy, affordable way to make boring, cheap curtains from drab to fab.

Final Product:

• Super Affordable Blackout Curtain
• Easy to Make
• Custom Tassels
• Replaceable & Customizable
• Machine Washable

• 2 plain, inexpensive, room darkening curtains
• Assorted ribbon
• Assorted yarn
• Mini rubber bands
• Scissors
• Hot glue
• A basic sewing kit
• Velcro

I ended up picking out gray curtains because gray goes with any color. I chose the colors of the tassels based on colors from my current bed set.

Prepping Your Room Darkening Curtain Tassels

The first thing I did was lay out a panel flat on a table. For the record, I am an extremely lazy crafter. I’ve never been one to carefully and precisely measure anything. Instead of measuring out my ribbon, I just laid it along the curtain’s bottom edge and cut it to fit. This ribbon would be the anchor for my tassels.

Because the other panel is the same size, I just used the ribbon to measure the ribbon that would go on the other panel. I then put the panel to the side to clear up my workspace.

Making Your Room Darkening Curtain Tassels

Next, I cut the yarn for my tassels. Honestly, I just eyeballed how long I wanted the tassels to be by simply folding a piece of yarn in half and seeing if I liked the length. I then used my cut piece of yarn to measure out the rest of my yarn. After cutting the pieces, I laid the pieces on top of one another.

I ended up cutting and using ribbon and yarn to add more dimension and texture to the tassel.

1. After the strings were layered, I put a pencil at the midpoint.
2. I draped the yarn and ribbon over the pencil and tied both sides together using a mini rubber band.
3. Next, I needed to find a way to make a loop to adhere the tassel to the original ribbon later. I used a decorative string and wrapped it around the rubber band. After hot gluing the string to the rubber band, I used the excess string to create my loop. To keep it in place, I hot glued it to the tassel and cut off any excess string.
4. The first tassel is complete! I repeated this method to make 6 more, which brought me to a total of 7 tassels.
5. Once I made all 7 tassels, it was time to stick the tassels to the ribbon. I laid the original ribbon out flat and marked where I wanted each tassel to go.
6. I chose to sew them on, using a simple backstitch (thank you, 7th grade home, etc.!). However, you can also hot glue them on if sewing is not really your thing.

Attaching Your Tassels to Your Room Darkening Curtains

I decided that velcro would be an easy way to attach the ribbon and tassels to the curtain. Using velcro lets you change out the ribbon and tassels whenever you want.

Be sure to do the ribbon side first! I stuck the velcro pieces together and then cut them to the width of the ribbon. Sticking the velcro pieces together ensures that the velcro on the ribbon will line up perfectly with the curtain’s velcro. I used the seam on the curtain to make sure my ribbon was straight.

Once it was straight, I took off the plastic cover on the other side of the velcro and stuck it down on the curtain. I repeated this until the ribbon was secure.

And voila! You have a newly decorated curtain!

What I love about this project

The first thing I love is the versatility of this project. Since the ribbon and tassels are not permanently stuck to the curtain, you can easily swap the tassels with another ribbon to fit your desired color scheme. The color scheme in my room changes depending on the bedding we’re using. For example, during the winter, I used a thicker comforter on my pink and gray bedroom.  I can easily re-do this project and make the tassels pink this time. When winter comes, I can take off the current ribbon and swap it to match the pink and gray. This means I don’t have to buy new curtains every time I switch out my bedding!

This project allows you to customize your curtains to fit your unique design and style. Don’t like the tassels at the top? You can always put them at the bottom or even sides of the curtain! Tassels aren’t your thing? Try using pom poms or even stringed beads! The possibilities are endless! This project is so easy; even your kids can get involved. This is a fun, easy activity that you can do on a day when you’re stuck inside.

I also love how inexpensive it is. Overall, this project cost me about $30 in total. At Target, the curtain I wanted was about $30 per panel. If I wanted to buy two panels, I would have been spending $60+ just for curtains. Not only did I save money, I also acquired crafting materials that I could use on many projects to come.

If you liked this project, then update an old shelf with a Queer Eye treatment next! Or, add some mason jar floral decorations with the same colors as your tassels!