DIY Pearl and Crystal Curtain Ties

If you've been a fan of the blog for a long time, you may remember these curtain ties I did for my bedroom at my parents' house. They were inspired by some ties from Bed Bath and Beyond.

Well, those ties were darn expensive! They were $20 each. I had two windows in my room so four ties would have been $100. That's right - $100 for curtain ties! No, thank you. The Bed Bath and Beyond by my house is located right next door to Michaels so I walked over there and bought my own beads.

With my new apartment, I finally got my curtains hung and I knew I needed to make some pretty curtain ties again. These are more like the BB&B ones I saw originally. I decided to go with crystal and pearl beads.

Here is what I used:

-2 strands of 18mm crystal faceted beads from Bead Gallery purchased at Michaels for $4.49 each (originally $5.99 with 25% off everything coupon)
-1 strand of white glass pearl 14mm round beads from Bead Gallery purchased at Michaels for $4.49 (originally $5.99 with 25% off everything coupon)
-28 gauge beading wire (already had)

So that's a total of $13.47 versus $40 for two Bed Bath and Beyond ties. So a savings of $26.53 for two curtain ties. Not bad!

I laid by beads side by side on the floor and made sure I liked the pattern. I just decided to repeat crystal and pearl.

Then I strung the beads onto my 28 gauge beading wire. Once I had strung them all on, I made a loop at the end like so.

Then I wrapped the wire around itself until the tail was gone. These beads had an extra large hole and could easily slip out so I had to make sure the wire was thickly wrapped.

Repeat on the other side of the tie and you're done! Repeat for the second tie. I put a small nail in my wall hidden behind the curtains and hooked one wire loop around it. Then I wrapped the tie around my curtain and hooked the opposite loop on the nail. Here's how it came out.

Here's how they look close up.

Soon I will be sharing more of my apartment with you now that I have settled in. Stay tuned next week!