Forget Curtains Or Shades: Add Rustic Charm To Windows With A Unique DIY

If you're tired of your dull shades and boring curtains, there are more creative ways to decorate your windows and give your space a classic, farmhouse vibe. Surprisingly, the secret to a whimsical window treatment could be sitting in your backyard. For an easy window dressing that screams nature-themed decor, vine or tree branches will help you skip traditional curtains for a rustic DIY way to cover windows. In a fun YouTube tutorial from the Hometalk channel, a DIYer creates bundles of grape vines to adorn the top portion of her kitchen windows. This adds texture and a little neutral color to the window without relying on fabric curtains.

Since the branches only obscure the top of the glass, this window treatment keeps kitchens bright, allowing a lot of sunlight to stream inside. Besides kitchens, this DIY could add a unique, cabin-style flair to living room or bedroom windows, too. To build and install your branch window covering, you'll need to gather a bunch of thin sticks or hard vines. A simple wood dowel, cut to fit the width of your windows, makes a good base for the project. Florist's wire will allow you to seamlessly fix the branches together, and a spool of Flexible Metal Paddle Wire is only about $6 on Amazon. To hang the decor, Closet Pole Sockets from Home Depot are an easy and inexpensive solution, costing about $2 for a set.

This project is fairly simple and shouldn't take too long to complete. First, Hometalk's DIYer measured the window and cut the branches and dowel base to fit. Some of the branches can be a little longer than the window to wedge tightly in the frame, adding tension and helping to hold the treatment in place. Group your sticks together, forming thick bunches. Thinner bundles of vines may only cover a few inches of the window. Make several of these groupings to cover all the windows in the room. Tie the ends of the bundles together with your thin wire, leaving some excess. You can also wrap the wire around the branches to control the shape.

With the extra wire at the ends, tie your natural wood to the base dowel. This dowel is what will hold the dressing in your window. Install the closet rod brackets into the window frame, at the height where you want the branches to sit. Now, simply squeeze the dowel rod into the holders and adjust the branches in the window frame.

If you'd prefer more privacy, you can still use a tree branch as decor to hang drapes. Rather than creating sets of smaller sticks, use one larger tree limb as a rustic curtain rod for each window. Mount the wood directly to the wall, or use curtain rod holders. Consider adding faux greenery to your gathered wood to give this window dressing more color.