Easy Diy IKEA Curtain Hack
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This easy DIY IKEA Hilja curtain hack dresses an oddly-shaped triangular window that no ready-made solution — stickers, blinds, or a standard curtain — could handle.
Dress an odd-sized window with this easy DIY IKEA curtain hack. This tutorial only needs very basic sewing skills, and the goal is a customized, inexpensive IKEA Hilja curtain that transforms a difficult window with minimum effort — enjoying a bit of privacy while still letting the light filter through.
Almost every window in this home has a standard size, dressed with day curtains for privacy without blocking daylight, plus night curtains and strong outdoor blinds to filter out artificial light completely at night. Sewing all of this alone would have been a lot of work, so it was outsourced to a professional for this house — unlike previous homes, where curtains were always self-sewn. Every window here has curtains, except the panorama window in the office, and as the photos show, sewing a curtain as tall as 3.5 meters in such an odd shape would have been close to impossible.
Table of Contents
Why Easy Options Failed
Window stickers were tried first on the lower part of the window for some privacy, but they started peeling off after a while. The upper half was next to impossible to cover due to its triangle shape — and besides, the view from that part of the window is genuinely liked. Blinds were difficult to fix too. This window is a real feature of the home, but on its own it offered far too little privacy, so dressing just the lower part with a curtain turned out to be the easiest solution — and this DIY IKEA curtain hack solved it, while staying well within budget.
Tools You Will Need
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- Sewing Machine
- Sewing Threads
- Transparent Translucent Net 2 Pleat Tape, 25mm Width
- Ceiling Track or curtain rod (also available at IKEA)
- Curtain rings (also available at IKEA)
- 2 IKEA Hilja curtains
How to Make This Easy DIY IKEA Curtain Hack
Ingredients List
- Sewing machine & threads
- 2 IKEA Hilja curtains
- Transparent pleat tape (25mm)
- Ceiling track or curtain rod
- Curtain rings
Cooking Instructions
Find the Length and Cut the Fabric:
Since these curtains come with stitched pleats already, cut those pleats out to customize as needed — switching height to width and width to height as required. For a window 290cm wide and 96cm tall, both pieces in the package were used after cutting out the given pleats, leaving 4cm for the side hems. For the height, a double fold hem was used, leaving 20cm for a bigger fold long enough to reach the floor. Hilja measures 145 x 300cm and was used the other way round from how it’s meant to hang.
Important: if using a pleat tape, double the measurement of the width.
Sew the Hem:
Fold over the long sides about 1cm for the top hem and press. Fold over another 1cm and press, tucking in the raw edges for a clean finish. Do this on both vertical sides. Use pins to hold the fold in place while sewing — especially useful with synthetic material, since cotton or linen holds a fold more easily on its own. For the bottom hem, fold over the bottom edge 4cm and press (7cm was used here for a bigger hem), then fold that over again by another 7cm to hide the raw edge. Press, pin, and sew.
Sew the 2 Pleat Transparent Net Tape:
After folding the first hem where the rings or pleats will sit, fold a second hem measuring the same size as the transparent pleat tape. Either sew the hem first and then sew the tape onto it to keep it in place, or pin and sew both together at once. Sew both length ends of the pleat tape, not the width ends.
Finish:
After sewing the pleat tape, pull out the thick thread at the curtain’s edge and draw the pleats together. Adjust for any creases, tie off the thick strings, and trim any extra. Fix the curtain ring into the given slot between the pleats.
How to Hang the Curtains
For smaller windows, a tension rod can work with the existing curtain pleats IKEA already provides, making it easy to hang without much extra work.
For walls made of concrete, drilling a hole isn’t always an option — especially with frames made of a mix of metal and plastic, which can get damaged badly by a drilled hole for a rod. In that case, a double-sided 3M strong glue tape works well to stick the curtain track below the window sill instead.
Tips to Make This DIY IKEA Curtain Hack
Start cheap if you’re new to sewing: choose the least expensive curtain to experiment on — IKEA’s Hilja curtains work well for this.
Use tracks for solid walls: if drilling isn’t an option, tracks below the window sill make hanging much easier — plastic window frames can even take double-sided glue tape instead.
Buy tracks at a DIY store, rings at IKEA: track rings are easy to find at IKEA specifically.
Measure before cutting: test with some tape on the window first to check the cut is right before committing to the fabric.
Measuring and Cutting Tips
If using cotton or linen, wash and dry the fabric first, then iron it before cutting for an easier, cleaner cut. Washing with cold water and hanging to dry before sewing helps avoid shrinkage after the curtain is already sewn.
Always double-check measurements, sticking them onto the window before cutting — nothing is worse than cutting the wrong size and having to go back to the store for more of the same fabric. Duplicating the first cut panel as a template for the next one also makes the whole process easier.
Health Benefits
This same triangular window is part of the minimalist home office makeover shared in an earlier post, if you’d like to see more of the space it belongs to.
Recipe Card
Easy DIY IKEA Curtain Hack
- Total Time: 180
- Yield: 1 curtain set 1x
Description
A simple, beginner-friendly way to customize an inexpensive IKEA Hilja curtain to fit an odd-sized window — no advanced sewing skills required.
Ingredients
- Sewing machine
- Sewing threads
- Transparent translucent net 2 pleat tape, 25mm width
- Ceiling track or curtain rod (also available at IKEA)
- Curtain rings (also available at IKEA)
- 2 IKEA Hilja curtains
Instructions
-
Find the Length and Cut the Fabric:
Since these curtains come with stitched pleats already, cut those pleats out to customize as needed — switching height to width and width to height as required. For a window 290cm wide and 96cm tall, both pieces in the package were used after cutting out the given pleats, leaving 4cm for the side hems. For the height, a double fold hem was used, leaving 20cm for a bigger fold long enough to reach the floor. Hilja measures 145 x 300cm and was used the other way round from how it’s meant to hang.
Important: if using a pleat tape, double the measurement of the width.
-
Sew the Hem:
Fold over the long sides about 1cm for the top hem and press. Fold over another 1cm and press, tucking in the raw edges for a clean finish. Do this on both vertical sides. Use pins to hold the fold in place while sewing — especially useful with synthetic material, since cotton or linen holds a fold more easily on its own. For the bottom hem, fold over the bottom edge 4cm and press (7cm was used here for a bigger hem), then fold that over again by another 7cm to hide the raw edge. Press, pin, and sew.
-
Sew the 2 Pleat Transparent Net Tape:
After folding the first hem where the rings or pleats will sit, fold a second hem measuring the same size as the transparent pleat tape. Either sew the hem first and then sew the tape onto it to keep it in place, or pin and sew both together at once. Sew both length ends of the pleat tape, not the width ends.
-
Finish:
After sewing the pleat tape, pull out the thick thread at the curtain’s edge and draw the pleats together. Adjust for any creases, tie off the thick strings, and trim any extra. Fix the curtain ring into the given slot between the pleats.
Notes
If using cotton or linen, wash and dry the fabric first, then iron before cutting — this avoids shrinkage after sewing. Always double-check measurements against the window before cutting, and duplicate the first cut panel as a template for the next to save time.
- Prep Time: 60
- Cook Time: 120
- Category: DIY Tutorials
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
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