Curtains Instead of Closet Doors: Our Simple Makeover!

Hands down the most asked questions about our master bedroom have to do with our closet makeover. We replaced our bi-fold closet doors (which I had a mad hatred for!) with a simple rod and closet curtains. I was pretty leery about how this little project would turn out but having curtains instead of doors on our closet has been a game-changer.

It’s not only way better looking than before but also every inch of our closet is now easily accessible which is huge when you’re living in an older house that’s majorly lacking in storage space!

For those of you have been thinking about tackling this project in your own home, I’m sharing the how-to and all of my sources (includes some affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here})). Let’s get to it…

Why I Hated My Closet Doors

Wondering what’s so bad about closet doors? In most cases, nothing at all. But our closet doors were bifold doors and when you folded them back to open the closet, the doors took up about ¼ of the closet opening. That made it difficult to see and reach the clothes on those ends.

Also, it drove me nuts that we had to close to the door into our bedroom in order to open the bifold door on the left.

Replacing the bifold doors with full doors wouldn’t solve the issue with the closet doors interfering with our bedroom door. And swapping them out for sliding doors wasn’t the answer either. They’re also a pet peeve of mine since you can only see half of your closet at any one time.

Removing Our Closet Doors

Most closets with bi-fold doors simply have two doors that connect in the middle, in which case you can simply remove both doors and the track they attach to, do a little patch work with wood putty, and be done with it.

Our closet had a center support between the two closet doors that needed to be removed so I called in my contractor to tear that out (after making sure it wasn’t a structural support), add a new header, and patch the hardwood floors. I was already loving how you could access our whole closet!:

As you can see, there was a weird raised portion of hardwoods in the center of our closet that I ended up having them remove and patch too. Once that was done, I removed all of the previous closet hardware and painted all of that yellowed wood a new crisp white (Farrow & Ball’s All White):

New Closet Rods & Wallpaper

Since I had to take everything out of our closet to knock this closet curtain project out, it was the perfect time to pretty our closet up! I added {this} paisley wallpaper) to the back wall of the closet and new closet rods and hardware.

For the closet rods, I used 1 ¼″ cell cast acrylic rods from Curbell Plastics, which is the same source that I used for the acrylic curtain rods in our home office. They offered the convenience of cutting the rods into the exact length pieces that I needed prior to shipping.

Most of the rod hardware that I used was my old closet hardware that I simply spray painted:

I wanted a finish that would last so I lightly sanded the hardware and sprayed it with primer first, followed by several light coats of spray paint. Be sure to use a respirator while spraying (such as {this one}) and read the application instructions on the spray can because they’re a little different than for most painting jobs in that you need to apply a second coat within 1 hour or after 24 hours.

The specific paints I used are {this spray primer} and {this metallic brass spray paint} (not to be confused with their metallic gold finish that is in an identical can).

Update! Rustoleum came out with a primer + paint spray in brass that you can find {here} – it allows you to knock out both steps at once!

I sprayed everything this way – the rod brackets & flanges, the curtain rod and rings, the curtain rod brackets, and even the screws. My trick for painting the screws is to just stick them in some styrofoam before spraying:

The end caps that is used for the two rod pieces that are held up with brackets were {these 1 ½″ brass end caps} but they were actually too small to fit on the rods (the 1 ½″ measurement refers to the outside diameter – the inside diameter unfortunately is smaller than the 1 ¼″ diameter of my rods) so I hot glue gunned them to the ends. It’s worked fine but I’d try to find something that was a better fit if I do a similar closet in the future.

Adding a Curtain Rod For My Closet Curtains

My closet opening was 70″ wide which is too wide for a lot of curtain rods to span without having to add supports. So I ended up buying a 0.5″ copper plumbing pipe from Lowe’s to get the job done. It works well for my 70″ closet opening with very lightweight drapes but you might need to go with a solid rod if your opening is wider or your drapes are heavier.

I found my curtain rings & clips at Lowe’s too. The hardest thing to find was supports for such a small curtain rod but I eventually found {these brackets} and they worked beautifully.

Of course the pipe and brackets were an ugly color so I spray painted them gold just like I had with my other closet hardware.

Choosing Closet Curtains

The closet curtains I used are inexpensive, lightweight AINA linen drapes from IKEA. I actually had a pair of these that I bought for another project and never used. I was all excited about not having to buy new curtains until I realized that they looked quite yellowy against my crisp white walls. I didn’t think that bleaching linen was the best idea so I gave {this Rit laundry treatment} a try and it worked awesomely! You can see the before and after change in color here:

I simply filled up our large basement sink with hot water, added my drapes and the Rit treatment and stirred and soaked them for about ten minutes, after which I threw them in the washer. Super easy and I got the exact shade of white that I wanted. The final step was to simply hem them to the length that I needed (which I did using {this no-sew option}) and then fold little pleats at the top (you can see them in more detail two pics above) and clip the drapes to the cafe rings.

My pair of curtains was wide enough to cover my entire closet opening when I pull them closed:

but my closet curtains have actually stayed open since the day I installed them because who minds looking at all of this prettiness?!

And I’ve found that having the wallpaper in the back of the closet has been great motivation for keeping my wardrobe pared down so I can still see enough of that pretty pattern 🙂

Update: Did I Like Having Closet Curtains?

After using our closet with curtains for several years, I can give a resounding YES to the question of whether I liked my closet curtains. I never had any issues with the curtain rod sagging, loved being able to easily access everything in my closet, and I thought it looked great too. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat!

I hope I answered all of your questions but if I missed any, just leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you! Be sure to also see my post on closet door ideas that has several ideas for making your closet doors more beautiful and functional without spending a ton of money!

Hope you all have a great week!