I finally made my own café curtain after coveting the adorable bistro trend for years – it cost less than £35 and has transformed my open-plan kitchen

I've long admired café curtains - a half-height curtain that originates from the 19th century, with tonnes of antique appeal to match. Aside from their practical purposes, café curtains are, quite frankly, an adorable window treatment idea that adds a great deal of character to a home, so I've been on the hunt for somewhere to try out the trend.

With most of the windows in my Victorian flat being Velux, there was only one window that could be used - one that sits between my open-plan kitchen and living room. After stripping out the crusty curtains that came in my rental flat, the window was embarrassingly left empty for over a year, so I knew it was time for a weekend DIY project.

If you're also interested in creating your own cafe curtain, this is how I made mine in under an afternoon. If I can do it, so can you!

How to create a cafe curtain

There are so many ways to make your own cafe curtain, but I knew I needed to opt for the path of least resistance. This is partly because I live in a relatively small flat with not much space for DIY projects, and also because I don't own a sewing machine. This meant a ready-made curtain panel and WundaWeb were about to be my best friends.

I started out by sourcing my inspiration, most of which consisted of East London Cloth's collection of gorgeous linen panels and brass poles that have been haunting me on Instagram. Unfortunately, however, this was way out of my budget at around £150 for the size of curtain I needed, and another £100 for the pole.

So it was down to me to find what I needed.

Dunelm's Marley Linen Slot Top Curtain was my top choice, as it's a lovely semi-sheer cream curtain that looked to be the right weight and thickness for a cafe curtain. This was out of stock in the size I needed, but I would have purchased if I had more patience.

Instead, I opted for this tie-top voile panel from La Redoute, which was handily in the exact width I needed and only £20. The hunt then began for a curtain pole, which was harder than I anticipated. I landed on this extendable cafe curtain pole from Amazon, which comes in brass, silver and black, depending on your interior style.

It has a super slim profile, which is perfect for a half-height cafe curtain, as it sits subtly close to the window frame, plus it's extendable, so I knew it would definitely fit my window width.

While I handed the pole resurrection over to my willing partner, from watching, I can attest that it was easy to put up with a drill. It simply screws into the window frame and you can slot the extendable pole on top.

Then it came to hemming the curtain. I tied to the curtain pole to check the correct hanging height, marked it with a pen and then cut along, making sure to leave a few inches excess. I then folded the edge and used WundaWeb between the material to hem it - all you need is a damp cloth and iron, so it's very easy.

And, voila! All that's left to do is attach the curtain to the pole - in my case, tying the bows around it. For just a few hours of work, I'm super impressed with the results and it looks especially lovely wafting in the breeze when the window is ajar.

Everything you need

Quite frankly, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. For a few hours on a Sunday night, my open plan kitchen and living space feels so much softer and characterful. If you aren't up for a DIY - Dunelm's range of cafe curtains are affordable and can be used on cupboards too.