Make a cornice for curtains from improvised materials. DIY wooden cornice

It is difficult to imagine a modern home without curtains on the windows. Long and short, transmitting light and creating a cozy twilight, heavy and almost weightless - the curtains organically complement any interior. They are usually attached to cornices, which differ in device and material of manufacture. Often there are home-made cornices for curtains, especially in private village houses or summer cottages. Since the need to make a cornice with your own hands can also arise in a city apartment, it is better to know in advance what is useful for this.

Wooden cornices are quite durable and are often decorated with rich carvings. They are made from pine, beech, oak and redwoods.

Quality materials to get the job done

Improvised tools that can be used to make cornices: cuttings for garden tools, boards and their trimmings (for making sidewalls), parts of a metal pipe, wire remnants. Of course, plastic pipes are also suitable if their strength allows them to be used for such purposes.

You will also need:

nails;
self-tapping screws;
sandpaper or grinder;
saw;
roulette.

Cornice options

The easiest and fastest option to perform is a fishing line (wire) stretched between the studs. Above the window at the desired distance (equal to the width of the frame or a little more), 2 carnations are driven in. A fishing line is attached to one of them and stretched to the second, for which it twists. The curtain can be hung by threading the fishing line into a specially stitched “pocket” (the edge of the curtain is bent and sewn), or hung on any not too heavy clips or hooks.

There is another option for homemade cornices - a steel pipe or a piece of reinforcement. The edges of the pipe are treated with a grinder to get rid of irregularities. In addition, you can put tips on them, rubber is best, but plastic or wooden ones will do. Next, rings with clamps are put on the pipe, with which the curtain is attached.

Wood cornice

You can not ignore the most common option - a cornice made of wood.

For light curtains, you can even adapt a processed tree branch (it will look very original). Add another 10 cm to the desired length - to attach the cornice. Any stick or branch needs to be sanded - for smoothness. Then treat with varnish or wood paint.

Options 2 and 3 require wall mounting hardware. The easiest way is to use blanks cut from boards for this purpose.

The longest side is attached to the wall using self-tapping screws or special shelf mounts. The recess at the top serves as a support for the cornice. All corners can (sometimes even need to) be rounded - so they will look prettier. The diameter and radius of the recess must correspond to the same parameters of the handle (sticks, pipes).

How to make a cornice for curtains with your own hands? To ensure comfort in the rooms, windows are often curtained with curtains. They darken the room, which creates comfort and protects privacy from prying eyes. To hang curtains, you must use a cornice.

Curtain rods can be of various shapes and made of various materials.

Many homeowners, when decorating windows, prefer to make a cornice with their own hands.

The most popular materials for making cornices are wood and metal. Plastic has also gained popularity, which has a low price and low practicality. Elements for fastening the eaves are made only of metal, since this material can withstand heavy loads.

Execution of a string cornice

This design option is inexpensive, like its appearance, because this option may not fit into every interior. But you can find a way out of this situation: a decorative strip is made for the string base, which can close the eaves.

To perform, you will need a piece of chipboard sheet of the required length with a width of 10-15 cm. The thickness should be approximately 1.5 cm. The advantages of this material are that, if necessary, it can be reduced in length with a hacksaw or increased by attaching an additional piece with glue and staples from metal. It must be taken into account that this can be done if the element will be used only as part of the decor.

When the cut of the required dimensions is selected, it is necessary to work on the appearance. If quality wood is used, then beautiful carvings can be made. If you want something simpler, then you can cover the cut with varnish or paint.

Next, the assembly of the cornice itself is carried out. If necessary, a string base is attached to it. Then you need to screw 2-3 metal corners, which have a rectangular shape and have holes for hanging on self-tapping screws or nails. The placement of the corners will depend on the type of element fixation. With wall mounting, it will be possible to remove the element if necessary.

The advantage of this method is simplicity and functionality, when the plank can close the unattractive part of the cornice and defects on the wall.

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Mechanism for roman blinds

To make a mechanism for Roman blinds, you first need to purchase rings for it. Their number is calculated as follows: multiply the number of horizontal folds by 3. There are often enough ears for the upper fastening and 4 pieces.

You will also need cords and textile Velcro. One curtain requires 3 identical cords. To determine the length of the segments, you need to multiply the height of the canvas by 2, add allowances for the knots that will be on each ring. First you need to sew on the rings (the gaps between them should be equal). The work is done from the inside of the canvas, the rings are attached to a textile tape. Velcro will have two functions at once: its hard part, which is attached to the beam, will become a cornice, and the soft part needs to be attached to the cornice, turn it face down to fix the ears. Three of them must be placed opposite the rings, one more should be attached in the place where the cords will be output (on the side of the canvas).

Cords must be passed through the rings. This should be done from the bottom of the curtain. On all the rings you need to make knots. They do not need to be done on the ears - a bunch of laces will be stretched there. When it is held in the 4th ear, the design is ready for use. To fix the curtains on the window, you need to use a metal bracket.

To create coziness in a room, the window is usually curtained with tulle and curtains. Curtains also perform the function of darkening the room for a comfortable stay and protect privacy from prying eyes. For hanging tulle and curtains, a variety of cornices are used, both open and with a decorative strip covering rings with clips for attaching curtains.

In one of my rooms, curtains and tulle are hung on a Soviet-era steel string cornice, fixed to the ceiling. I wanted to improve the appearance, close the rings and clips, adding a decorative strip to the cornice. What came out of it, you can see in the photo.

For the manufacture of a cornice in a furniture workshop, it was necessary to take a piece from a sheet of laminated chipboard (LDSP) in the form of a narrow strip 15 cm wide and 250 cm long, 16 mm thick.

If such a length suited me, then it would be enough to paste over the ends of the board with a furniture edge, make a mount and hang a cornice over the window. But the cornice was needed for a balcony window with a door, 265 cm wide, 15 cm was not enough. Therefore, I had to increase the length of the chipboard board with what was at hand. A chipboard board of the same thickness was found, it was required from it to saw off the desired piece.

How to cut chipboard with a hand saw

Sawing with a hacksaw is not difficult, but in order to avoid chipping the decorative chipboard coating, a saw with fine teeth and small wiring is required. Chipboard is made by pressing sawdust of different fractions mixed with formaldehyde resin at high temperature. The hardened resin is quite hard, and when sawing a chipboard, the saw teeth quickly become dull. Therefore, a saw with hardened teeth is best suited. When the saw teeth are hardened, tint colors remain on them in the form of blue stripes, and on this basis it is easy to distinguish between an ordinary saw and a saw with hardened teeth.

In order for the saw to turn out to be even, it is necessary to hold the saw blade vertically when sawing, the wider the saw blade, the easier it will be to make an even saw. In no case is it permissible to cut exactly along the marking line, it is necessary that the saw line only touches it. To guide the saw blade when sawing in a straight line, you need to be guided, not at the place of the saw, many make such a mistake, but along the marking line, as far as possible from this point.

You need to cut with a little pressure, holding the saw at an angle of about 30 degrees to the surface of the plate. With a small angle, it is easier to maintain the line of the saw. As a result of the cut, this end turned out. As you can see, the saw turned out to be smooth and practically without chips of the decorative coating.

With a hand saw with hardened teeth, I sawed through more than one hundred meters of laminated chipboard, plywood, laminate, boards and the saw still cuts perfectly. The teeth are as sharp as a new saw. True, there is a drawback with a saw with red-hot teeth, when the teeth become dull, it will be impossible to sharpen them with a trihedral file. You have to buy a new saw.

Extension of the length of the cornice

A piece cut from a chipboard plate for building up a cornice is ready and you can proceed to further work. Since the ends of the cornice do not carry any load, I decided to make the connection using PVA glue and metal brackets. I walked along the surfaces to be joined with sandpaper, generously lubricated with thick PVA, pressed the surfaces tightly and fixed them with staples on both sides with a furniture stapler.

A day later, when the glue was completely dry, with the help of a small hammer on the front side of the eaves, the brackets were drowned in chipboard so that they would not protrude. I puttied the junction of the cornice parts with putty to seal wood defects. I removed the imperfections with sandpaper. It turned out to be an almost smooth surface.

The result was a cornice 265 cm long. Since the color of the decorative coating of the materials is different and not suitable in shade, it will be necessary to paste over the cornice with a self-adhesive decorative film to give a beautiful look.

Pasting the cornice with self-adhesive film

On sale there is a wide range of decorative self-adhesive films for covering surfaces in rolls with all sorts of patterns with different surface textures and widths. Since the width of the cornice is 15 cm, taking into account the edges and the length of the bend, for pasting the cornice, you will need a film with a width of at least 22 cm. There is no such narrow one on sale, and I had to buy a self-adhesive film 45 cm wide, 70 cm long and stick it on the cornice in two pieces .

On a self-adhesive film, on the back side of the substrate, there are detailed instructions for pasting surfaces and a dimensional grid is applied in 1 cm increments for ease of cutting.

Therefore, I will not dwell on the intricacies of the technology for applying a self-adhesive film. I will only note that it is best to roll the film with a wide soft rubber roller. Then air bubbles under the film are not formed and it sticks evenly to the surface after one pass of the roller.

After rolling the film onto the plane of the eaves, you need to carefully wrap it around the corners. To do this, you must first cut the film with scissors along the line of continuation of the corner of the front side of the eaves to the very corner, in the photo there is a lower cut. Next, roll the film to the end of the eaves and cut a piece of film a little more than a right angle along the line of the corner of the end of the back side of the eaves.

Then a narrow piece of film is glued, and then all other ends of the cornice are glued. As you can see, it turns out a pretty neat glued corner.

As a result of pasting the extended strip of chipboard with a decorative self-adhesive film, a beautiful cornice was obtained.

It remains only to install fasteners on it for suspension on the ceiling.

Fabrication of fastening the cornice to the ceiling

Since the curtains are suspended on strings attached to the ceiling, the decorative cornice must also be fixed to the ceiling. For this purpose, two steel rectangular corners are well suited. They can be made from strips of sheet steel 2 mm thick, 20 mm wide and 100 mm long by drilling holes in the strip in the right places.

Each corner is attached to the cornice at a distance of one fourth of the length (65 cm) of the cornice from the edge with two screws 10 mm long, 4 mm in diameter. I turned up ready-made corners on one side with grooves ending in a round hole. As it turned out, thanks to these holes, it became possible to hang the cornice without outside help.

First, two self-tapping screws are screwed into the ceiling, and then the cornice is put on the self-tapping screws in turn with round holes in the corners and moves along the grooves. After installing the eaves, the screws are screwed in until they stop. Thanks to the grooves, it also became possible to adjust the distance between the cornice and the curtains.

If you have any questions about drilling holes in walls and ceilings without dust, you can find the answers to them in the article on the site "Drilling holes in the walls". And how to choose a self-tapping screw and pick up a dowel for it, the articles "Types of self-tapping screws" and "Selecting a dowel" will tell.

As a result of the work done, from improvised material, a cornice for window curtains was made by hand, shown in the photograph.

Finalization of fastening on the wall of the old cornice

If a false ceiling is installed in the apartment, then there is only one possibility of attaching the cornice - on the wall. A decorative strip can be made using the above technology, and the mount itself for fixing the cornice on the wall must be of a different design.

I had at my disposal an old curtain rod of Soviet design, which had served successfully for many years. When a suspended rack ceiling was installed in the kitchen and a cornice was required, I decided to install the old Soviet one. Since the appearance of the Soviet cornice did not satisfy the modern design, in order to give it an aesthetic appearance, it had to be slightly modified in terms of the fastening structure so that the manufactured decorative strip could be fixed on the cornice.

Refinement of the design of the fastener was as follows. Holes with a diameter of 4 mm were drilled at the ends of the corners, to which the rail with curtain clamps was attached, and after that the ends of the corners with holes were bent at an angle of 90°. Through the drilled holes with the help of self-tapping screws, a decorative cornice rail was fixed. The photo shows one of the corners of the cornice.

And this photo shows the cornice from the inside, hung on the wall with the help of a regular mount. As you can see, the simplest refinement of a seemingly useless cornice made it possible to give it a completely modern appearance.

What happened as a result of the work done, you can see in the photo. The updated cornice fits well into the interior of the kitchen and, together with the tulle, has become a window decoration.

Some owners, when creating decor for window openings, prefer to design a cornice with their own hands. This is due to several factors. Some do not trust the quality of finished products, others are not satisfied with their price. Someone needs a special model that you can’t find in a store, and ordering from a master is quite expensive. A variety of detailed master classes allows you to get acquainted with the basic recommendations and carry out work at the proper level. Today, at home, you can make not only traditional string cornices, but also holders for Japanese curtains, plastic rod options.

How to make a traditional string cornice?

String or cable curtain rods are the cheapest option for attaching fabric sheets. Unfortunately, such a solution looks quite cheap, so it does not always fit into the interior. There is a simple way out of the situation - a decorative bar is made for the string base, which completely covers the functional part. The approach can be used both when installing the system and when improving an existing structure. The only difference is that with the first option, the entire system is first assembled and then attached to the ceiling or wall. In the second option, work is carried out on the manufacture of a bar, which is simply mounted on top of an already existing unaesthetic cornice.

To manufacture the product, you will need a cut of a chipboard sheet of the desired length, from 10 to 15 cm wide, about 1.5 cm thick. The advantages of this material are that, if necessary, it can be shortened with a hacksaw or lengthened by fixing an additional part with glue and metal brackets. It is worth considering that this can only be done if the part is used only for a decorative purpose.

When the cut of the required dimensions is selected, work begins on its appearance. When using high-quality wood, beautiful carvings can be applied. If you do not want difficulties, painting or varnishing will be enough.

Today there is a wide choice of decorative self-adhesive films that can radically change the appearance of the cornice. Such elements are inexpensive, and as a result, you can achieve design for expensive wood or even metal.

At the last stage, the cornice itself is constructed. If necessary, a string base is fixed to it, after which two or three rectangular metal corners with holes for hanging on nails or self-tapping screws are screwed. The location of the corners depends on the type of fastening of the product. With wall fixation, it remains possible to remove the part if necessary.

The positive side of the method is its simplicity and the fact that the decorative strip can hide not only the ugly base of the cornice, but also visible defects in the wall. On the other hand, when approaching, strings are most often used, on which heavy curtains and multi-layer curtain structures cannot be hung.

Production of the simplest plastic pipe cornice

For a kitchen or similar household premises, you can independently make a simple and original cornice from plastic pipes. It is ideal for light curtains on rings, loops or grommets. True, this is a temporary solution, but it is perfect for giving.

To carry out the work, you will need only a few pipes (depending on the number of wings), special holders and accessories for fastening structures. You can use screws and a drill for high-quality fixation, after which holes will remain in the frame, or liquid nails that will not leave marks, but will not last so long.

An ideal option for curtains for this cornice would be the hourglass design. It is very simple to make it - you just need to fix the cornices on the upper and lower sections of the sash, stretch the canvas and pull it in the center.

This option can be called work for the lazy: the whole process takes only a few minutes and does not require complex manipulations. It is only necessary to cut the plastic pipes into pieces of the desired length, fix the holders on the wall with screws or an adhesive base, insert the pipes into them. When using glue, it is recommended to first supplement the fixation with ordinary adhesive tape, which is removed after the base has dried.

Creating a cornice for Japanese curtains and the rules for its installation

The most difficult process in the manufacture of homemade elements is the assembly of cornices for Japanese curtains. The best option is to purchase a finished product with all the guides to which you can make a curtain frame, but with a strong desire, you can also make a cornice yourself.

The very design of Japanese panels, consisting of stretched fabric sheets, will look attractive only with the correct installation of the guides, rigid fixation of the grooves and the absence of the possibility of scrolling the elements around its axis. This is achieved through the use of quality materials and specific complementary products.

The eaves for Japanese panel curtains can be plastic or aluminum. Each section is intended for a separate curtain and has a basis for fixing Velcro, on which fabric webs are attached. If you make the design yourself, you can use a double-sided fabric with Velcro on both sides. This will allow you to change the appearance of the room depending on the mood.

The master must think over the number of tracks in advance: it is very problematic to mount additional parts in such systems. There are basic elements that allow you to install not one, but several guides on one track, which will keep the width of the structure small and significantly save free space.

To fix the panels of Japanese curtains, there are several options for the location of parts, which provides a variety of decorative solutions, but can significantly complicate the work of a home master. You need to think in advance how to manage the system. In case of refusal of direct manual control, a special cane is mounted. If there is a need for an electronics device, it is recommended to contact professionals. The slightest inaccuracy in the setting will lead to the fact that any movement of the panels will turn into a complex and painful process.

In the production of eaves for Japanese curtains, you cannot use standard systems; in any case, you will have to purchase specific profiles. As practice shows, independent production of such products is not always cheaper than buying a finished model and its professional installation. It is better to pay once than to call the masters later to dismantle the structure, adjust it and reinstall it.

Conclusion

Designing, creating and installing a homemade cornice is a laborious process, but if all the rules are followed, the result of the work will exceed all expectations. Not every owner can boast of an original product in the decor of his home, so such touches are always highly valued.

Designers remind you not to focus only on the functional side of the issue. Thanks to the abundance of accessories, even the simplest product can be decorated in accordance with the basic style of the room and emphasize its uniqueness.

As for Japanese panel curtains, it is better to trust the masters here, especially since, in the light of growing competition, the cost of such work is no longer so high.

After repairing the water supply, many have extra pieces of plastic pipes. They can be used to make various crafts and household items. Today I will talk about how to make a cornice from plastic pipes.

After the repair, I needed a temporary cornice in one of the rooms. There are many different materials. Using creative thinking, I came up with the idea of making a cornice from the remnants of a plastic pipe.

materials

Remains of plastic pipes.
Holders for pipes.
Glue or liquid nails (if you don't want to make holes in the frame).
Screws and a drill (if you are not afraid to drill the frame).

Embodiment

I planned to hang hourglass curtains on such a curtain rod. The idea was to do something similar.

The beauty of such a cornice is that practically nothing had to be made or painted. Photo holders for pipes, they are different in size, depending on the diameter of the pipe. Pipes are easily attached and removed from such holders.

The pipes and holders were white, I just cut them to the desired length with a hacksaw.

Since I needed a temporary solution to the problem, I did not drill the frame, but simply glued the holders (I fixed it with adhesive tape for the glue to set). Such holders can be mounted on a frame or wall with screws.