EMMIE RUTA DUVET COVER CURTAINS

We recently repainted our entire house in Sherwin Williams "Agreeable Grey". It has changed the feel of the whole house, making it feel light airy and clean.

I was almost ( well let's be honest...almost) afraid to make the nail holes in the wall to hang things back up.

I did however want to change up my curtains after the painting was done. This became a little bit of a challenge, because I had a small budget, and needed a total of 6 curtain panels. I have loved gingham curtain panels for a long time. It's a very classic pattern that goes well with the design style of my home. Here are a few of my favorite gingham curtain pins on Pinterest.

Although Pinterest is a great source for inspiration, I still could not find anything that was in reach of my budget. I would cringe whenever I found a curtain panel I liked, because, I seem to only have a taste for things way out of my budget.  This is when I switched gears and knew I had to get creative. On a recent trip to IKEA I saw the most darling duvet cover in a grey and white gingham pattern. It's called the Emmie Ruta Duvet Cover.

I immediately thought this would be an easy solution for my curtain panels. After some quick measurements, I decided that 3- Queen/Full duvet covers could potentially turn into 6 curtain panels, that would be the right length. Each duvet cover cost $39.99, which means that my curtains would cost $20.00 a panel....SCORE! An even bigger SCORE was that the reverse print is a grey and white stripe. It's like getting 2 curtains for the price of one. Double bonus for someone like me who loves to change things around often.

When I got home I laid one of the duvet covers out. Then I marked the middle and cut it in half length wise. I made the cut on the reverse side of the duvet, where it is grey and white striped, because I knew that I wanted the stripes to run horizontal not vertical.

Then turning the duvet cover inside out. I sewed the cut and the opening of the duvet cover closed, except for a small section to allow me to turn it right side out. I finished sewing the small section of the cut by sewing close to the seam. It's not perfect or professional by any means, but because the seam is so small it's not really noticeable.

The hardest part of the whole process was ironing each panel. After my arm fell off from ironing, I used curtain clips I bought from Lowe's to hang them on the curtain rod.  I LOVE the way they look, and can't believe how relatively easy this project was from start to finish.