Ideas for Old Drapery Panels

It happens often. Your husband grabs an old curtain from the closet in which you’re saving them for other things. He uses it to lie on the driveway as he drains the oil from the car or slides under it to repair or replace something important. The kids snatch an old curtain whose pattern you love but you’re thinking of something to make out of it. They use it as a rug in their tree house. Two things stand out from this scenario. One is that you should hide your old curtains and two is we can help you make something from them immediately after you take them down. Most everyone knows about upcycling their old stuff. Helping the planet is number one on people’s list of important things. They turn old drapery panels into padding for a headboard attachment on their bed, they make draperies for that same bed or they use old panels as upholstery on chairs and throw pillows. However, inventive people have been coming up with some totally cool items from upcycled curtain panels. Try these ideas on for size:

• Cut the panels in strips. Make medallions and bows out of them for home decoration or on boxed gifts
• Got an old coffee table you were about to give away? Make a padding for it and turn it into a bench
• If the family has irreparably stained or torn clothing or other material, cut them into strips. Enclose them in the old drape panels and use the entire recycled result as a pet bed
• Hang panels over a sheer shower curtain and then draw back with tiebacks
• In older homes, use old curtain panels to hide plumbing in bathrooms with no vanity or Discover More about the local plumber right here and get your bathrooms fixed.
• Stuff them with batting to make a comforter for your bed. They’d make a great dust ruffle
• Make a braided rug out of old curtain panels
• Make them into cloth shopping bags to keep more plastic from going into landfills
• Hem them and use them as curtains in the garage or basement
• Make a floor-length robe from them with draping arms
• Slap a liner on them and make a jacket from them
• Make like Julie Andrews and make play clothes out of them. Singing optional
• If the panels are pale colored, cut them in strips and make lampshades of them
• Cut the patterns out and use them for quilt pieces
• Cut puzzle pieces from cardboard. Cover the pieces with old panel pieces. Give the puzzles to kids in the hospital
• Make stuffed animals out of old curtains and give them to kids in the hospital
• Make baby blankets, baby pillows and crib bumpers out of old drapery panels
• Throw together a diaper bag and changing pad made of old curtains
• Add buttons, ribbons, bows or other imaginative things to a picture frame once you’ve used old curtain panels to re-frame it
• Cover an old serving tray to use on your dressing table