My lanai gets lots of afternoon sun which can get too hot to enjoy and heats up the house. As my villa is a get-a-way property, I didn’t want to splurge on an elaborate solution such as blinds. So, I found an affordable curtain to filter the Florida sun.
Fabric
This curtain will be exposed to sun, rain and wind so I was reluctant to invest in expensive outdoor fabric. I chose drop cloth as the fabric after seeing many lovely curtains made from this fabric. And, (1) it’s inexpensive; (2) the edges are finished (I didn’t have a sewing machine with me); and, (3) there is weight to the fabric allowing it to drape nicely.
The drop cloths were purchased from Harbor Freight. I was mostly interested in the length of the drop cloth, aiming for 1.5 times the width of the space to be covered. I purchased (2) 9 x 12 drop cloths for ~$15 each and washed them prior to hanging.
Curtain Rod
The rod needed to be sturdy enough to support a lot of fabric and endure the outdoor elements. After some Pinterest research, electrical conduit was a solution used by another blogger (who I can’t find now). I purchased two 3/4 inch x 10 ft conduit. Each section of the lanai was 8 ft so the conduit needed to be trimmed to size.
I spray painted the conduit using Rustoleum spray paint in bronze. I was trying to disguise the rod by having it blend in the material (a gutter) running with width of the lanai opening which is also bronze. I should have taken greater care while painting and moving the conduit around as the paint scratched off. (Although, not from the rings holding the curtains.)
Rod Hardware
We needed to be creative in finding a solution to hang the curtain rod. The lanai ceiling was made from a panel board and not durable enough to support hanging a long rod with curtains. In the end, the rod was attached using a flange which was screwed into the gutter ( sealed with silicone to prevent leaks.)
The middle was attached with an L bracket which was screwed into one of the screen braces. An electrical conduit hanger (3/4 inch) was suspended from the L bracket. A connector was used to connect the two pieces of conduit.
Curtain Rings
I purchased basic rust resistant curtain rings from Amazon. Initially, I purchased one inch rings and this size did not allow the drapes to slide along the curtain rod. The 2 inch rings worked well. The “pinch” part of the ring made it easy to adjust the curtain length as needed. The rings are spaced 4 to 6 inches apart.
In the end, this was easy to assemble and hang. It took some thinking on what to use and how to hang!
