Good Questions: Source or Ideas for Laser Cut Curtains?

Katrina writes: Can you please tell me where I can find curtains similar to the orange ones featured in the "Inspiration: Alissa Hunsaker Photography" post? I have bay windows in my living room, which lets in a lot of sunlight- a good thing! However, I live on the first floor and am close to the sidewalk so I don't want people to be able to see everything in my home!

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These curtains seemed like the perfect solution to let in enough sunlight and have the privacy I'm looking for. Please help!

Got any ideas for Katrina? Please let her know in the comments...

Comments (13)

weren't these from ikea? i can't find them on the website but i swear they were... or they had something very similar.

they do have other types of panel curtains in their textiles section though so you may wanna check that out.

I think these are from IKEA... I think they were originally long felt panels, and were cut into shorter pieces.

Maybe you can DIY some with hole-punch/awl/other tool and a fabric that doesn't run, like faux-suede. I don't sew much but I know there are some types of fabric that can be cut where the edges will not run or unravel, so picking a fabric like that would probably allow you to create a pattern of punches without needing to sew up all the little holes' edges. Just cut the fabric to the size you want, draw the pattern on the fabric, punch away.

Depending on what type fabric you use, or how much you care what the curtains look like from outside you could iron some interfacing on the back of the fabric panels before you cut them. This would stop a lot of unraveling and make the curtains stiffer and hang straighter.

these are from ikea, I bought them a few years back. They were designed to be used with the Kvartal system.

Yep, it's Ikea. We have them in our bedroom and office. Our cat loves to grab them. I used some of the extra fabric to make a coffee sleeve. Felt is a wonderfully easy fabric to work with.

Elizabeth
http://emblemorstain.blogspot.com

You could have these custom made pretty easily. A few years ago I worked briefly at a custom-flag making shop and we used a laser plotter to cut the pieces of fabric to be sewn. The plotter software took any vector (ie. EPS or AI) file and would then cut the fabric. We used nylon material, so the laser melted the edges to prevent fraying. Any sign shop will have a similar plotter and the material is cheap.

I may be off-base here, but there was a similar idea in Martha Stewart Living in February. Try marthastewart.com/scalloped-shade

If you got some fabric with nylon in it, you could probably make a version using a cigarette!

Step one: Buy some felt

Step two: buy a screw punch (google!)

Step three: punch away!

Just a heads up -- felt often fades SEVERLY. Like a bright colored felt can fade all the way back to cream over time. (On the sunny side of the curtain.) So you might want to know this before choosing to use the material, or at least to ask where you buy it about sun-fastness. (Maybe there are some newer felts that don't fade. Don't know.)