Lazy Person’s Guide to Making Car Curtains

When I was getting my car ready to hit the road, it was my goal to make it live-able while putting in as little money and effort as possible. I used what I already had and found good deals for the things I didn’t.

Curtains are a must when living on the road. Whether you’re in your car, van, bus, or RV, you need some sort of curtains or blinds to give you and your belongings some privacy.

I knew I needed to put up curtains before spending a night in my car. However, the idea of figuring out all my materials, spending a lot of money, measuring everything out, cutting everything out with precise lines, and sewing it all together sounded horrid. So I didn’t do any of that.

I spent about $30 total and maybe 15 minutes making my curtains. Read on to learn how I did the absolute bare minimum to make some well functioning and pretty cool looking curtains (with links so you can do the same).

Materials

• Tapestry (I ended up needing two)
• Bungee Chords
• Upholstery Twisty Pins
• Scissors
• Measuring tape if you’re feeling fancy
• Binder clips (optional)

Put up the Bungee Chords

Put the bungee chords along the hard points of your vehicle. I used the back seat grab handles and the sun visors in the front. If you don’t have any hard points in the back of your car then hang tight I’ll explain that in a moment.

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Measure

Once your bungee’s are up, figure out the measurements of your curtains based on the length of the bungee and the height of the window you’re trying to cover. I eyeballed this, but I made mine about 1.5 times the length of the bungee and 2.5 times the height of the window.

Chop Chop

Use those measurements and start cutting up your fabric. I would highly recommend using a tapestry. The one linked above has a super good selection of colors and patterns, it’s cheap, and it’s good quality so you can’t see through it when you double it over. Once you’ve cut them all out, congrats you’re pretty much done.

Hang Them Up

Now, hang those freshly cut curtains over your bungee chords so they’re doubled over. I personally leave mine just hanging like that. This way, I can easily pull them down when I drive. If you want to secure them better you can use some binder clips over the top.

Back of the Car

For the back of the car where there’s no hard points, I used these upholstery twisty pins. They are similar to thumb tacks, but they twist in so they stay secure even though the upholstery is thin. I pinned the corners of the curtain directly into the ceiling of my car. So far, this has worked great and hasn’t torn any holes in the ceiling. Fingers crossed it stays this way, otherwise I will be moving to the duct tape method.

Thats all! Hopefully you find this helpful to make your build as simple and stress free as possible.

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