How to Make a Decorative Curtain Out of Corks and Beads

Children love making things for their rooms. Giving them an opportunity to make things for their rooms is also an excellent way to keep them occupied during long indoor stretches in winter. The following project involves using plain corks, cord, and possibly optional items such as beads to make a decorative bead curtain for a child's window, room or closet door. This project is highly customizable allowing you to keep several children occupied making curtains to match their own tastes.

To begin procure corks, you can save them from wine or other bottles if you can find ones that have not been cracked or stained. An easier way to get them is to buy them in bulk from craft, hobby or discount stores. They are inexpensive and you will need quite a few for this project. I use roughly 1 to 2 corks per foot length of cord, but how many you use is up to you as you can use other items such as beads or charms to decorate the cord.

Once you have procured the amount of corks that you would like to use (plus a few extra, just in case) use a power drill to drill a hole, running from top to bottom, through each cork. Use the lowest speed you can that will still get the job done and proceed slowly to avoid cracking the cork.

After you have drilled the hole through the corks, decorate them any way you see fit. You can use markers, stickers, stamps or paint. One of my favorite mediums is spray paint, and with such a wide range of colors it adds a lot of possible variations to the project. My daughter has a metallic pink cork and bead curtain while my son has a royal blue one. If you choose to use spray paint I suggest you lay out newspaper or plastic on a flat surface outside (or at least in a very well ventilated room). Lay the corks out and spray them with an even, thin coat of spray paint making sure to cover the whole exposed surface of the cork. Allow to dry for about one hour then turn the corks and repeat the process for the other side.

Once the paint has dried string the corks, one at a time, onto nylon or other types of strong yet fairly thin cords. Knot the cords beneath each cork to secure it. String whatever beads (feel free to spray paint the beads with colors that complement the corks if you wish), charms or other spacers you would like on the cords between stringing each cork.

The length of cords you will need depends on the length of your window. The number of finished cork and bead strings you will need depends both on the width of your window and your personal preference concerning the amount of space between each string. When you are finished with your cork and bead strings simply tie them onto a curtain rod and the hang the rod up just as you usually would.