DIY West Elm Mid Century Curtain Rod Knock Off

It’s been a while since I did this DIY but I wanted to share it with you because it was so easy and they turned out looking great if I do say so myself.  I made curtain rods for our bedroom and spent maybe $10 to do so. *before we get started, this post contains affiliate links.*

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

When I saw these West Elm curtain rods I knew I could get the look for way less than the $109 + tax that it would have cost to have them adorn our 2 windows.

Because we already had curtain rods in our room, I reused the wall mounts and went to the hardware store for the rest.
I bought 3 48″  dowel rods (because I wanted at least 55″, I needed so I cut one and joined a section to each remaining dowel.) Maybe you’d have better luck.
A box of dowel pins to attach the extra length to each one.
I already had this metallic spray paint.
and then I bought 4 PVC reducers (3/4 to 1/2 size) for the ends of each rod. P.S. I had no idea what I was buying, I just went to the plumbing aisle because PVC is cheaper than copper or whatever else might have worked.
My favorite stain color for the dowels.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

First I spray painted the reducers and the old curtain rod hardware, gold.

While all of that was drying, I cut the extra length I needed for each curtain  rod. It ended up that I needed about 7″ added to each one. To join the 2 dowels together (the 48″ piece with the 7″ piece) I used a 1/4″ drill bit and drilled down into the top of both dowels. I used a little wood glue in each hole and pushed the dowel pin into the hole on the long dowel and pushed the short side down over the pin.

Once the wood glue had some time to dry, I stained the dowels the warm brown color to match the West Elm ones.

I had intentions of using the gorilla glue gel to glue on the reducers but ended up just using hot glue. I squeezed some into the inside of the reducer then lowered it over the end of the dowel.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.
I love how they turned out! $10 for all of it as opposed to $200+? Um, yeah, I win.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

These are pictures from back before I switched up some things. I made the rods in October so things have changed.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

It worked out that the joint in the wood, hides right behind the rod hardware perfectly. Happy accident.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.
These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

I love our bedroom and I’m so happy with our updated, knock off, DIY curtain rods.

These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

Shop our master bedroom look here:

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These west elm curtain rod knock offs were such a quick DIY and gave me just the look I wanted for WAY less.

Thanks for reading, friends!

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