I Tried Leanne Ford’s 7-Minute Curtain Hack: My Kitchen Looks 5x Brighter

I always love a quick and easy DIY, and I’m also an avid collector of vintage textiles — so when I saw Leanne Ford’s “minimal effort” curtain hack a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try it. Ford says that with a few hooks, twine, and vintage lace she can create the easiest and chicest makeshift curtain in just a few minutes. Sign me up!

I even had the perfect spot in mind to test out this trick: the windows over my kitchen sink, which (unfortunately) face my neighbor’s unsightly makeshift roofing-shingle siding. 

My kitchen has gone without window treatments since I moved in six years ago, but I felt it was high time to find a way to distract from the aforementioned “view” — and also from the layers of dust and grime that my garden-level Brooklyn windows quickly and constantly collect. The afternoon sunlight over the sink also gets pretty harsh, which isn’t ideal for all of the plants I’m propagating on the windowsill. 

Traditional window treatments just always felt too fussy, so I was extra thrilled that Ford’s curtain hack really did take me just 5 minutes to install. First I simply measured down 7 inches from the top of the window frames (to let a little light come through the top); then all I had to do was hammer in a nail on either side, and tie the clothesline to each end. 

That was the easiest part; deciding how to layer my textiles was a bit more of an aesthetic challenge. I ended up trying two different looks. First I took some vintage table linens I’d recently found at an estate sale, and draped them over the clothesline. Following the example in Ford’s Instagram post, I played around with draping the fabric in different ways until it felt just right. 

Next I tried out a more colorful look by safety-pinning together a collection of hand-dyed 12×12-inch silk bandannas and fastening them onto the line with clothespins. The result almost reminds me of stained glass — it was lovely, but I just found myself more drawn to the lightness and airiness of the first look with the white linens. 

I imagine I’ll switch between the two of these looks throughout the spring and summer, though. The clothesline isn’t just easy to hang — it also makes it so much easier to swap out the linens when one needs to be laundered (or when I just need an extra pop of color in my life).

As the article says, Ford’s philosophy is that windows should help maximize “sunshine and air” in your space — and I must say that my kitchen does feel a lot brighter and lighter! Not only does this simple window treatment make my kitchen feel that much more whimsical, but it also blocks out any eyesores and helps provide privacy in my garden-level apartment. And when I take it down, all I’ll have to do is fill two little nail holes. 

So if you’re considering window treatments of your own, I encourage you to try out Ford’s “minimal effort” curtain hack like I did; with 5 minutes and a trip to the linen closet, I totally transformed my kitchen!