Home DIY Curtain rail - saving money

A very different post for you today. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but for those of you who like DIY and like me are forever trying to find ways to save a bit of money I hope you'll like it. As myself and Stu have moved into someone else's home, long story short we are only here for about a year, I didn't want to make too many changes. Plus we are here to try and save money so we can eventually get our own place.

 

The back room is my new office/Stu's chill out room and I want it to have a modern look. I like to theme my rooms and every room in the house is different. When we moved in though the curtain rail was a hideous blue and didn't match anything. Now I could have gone out an spent £10-£20 on a new rail but I thought why waste the money when I could just repaint this one? I searched the house and came up trumps with all the materials I needed to do the job so I didn't have to spend any pennies.

 

Materials

 

Fine grit sand paper

Screwdriver (for getting the rail off the wall)

Non drip gloss paint in white

Newspaper

Paint brush

White spirit (for cleaning hands and brushes)

Boyfriend with a power tool ;)

 

The first thing to do is to take the rail off the wall. This is suppose to be the easy bit but I didn't have the arm power to get the brackets down (Stu helped after work). To prep the rail ready for painting the gloss needs to be taken off with sand paper or the new paint won't adhere to the wood. I took as much as I could off but as it was such a bright blue I still needed 2 coats of paint to cover it. It took a couple of days while the paint dried between coats so patience was a virtue. I was a little cheeky as I went to Wilkinson's and bought some more modern brackets but still they were cheap. 

 

Once Stu and his dad had the brackets on the wall I could start adding my final touches and I am over the moon with the result. The brackets cost £3.30 for 3, curtains were from The Range and lamp shade I already owned but was originally from Argos. I'm looking forward to doing more DIY projects now :D