Making curtains for a minivan

I’ve had several people ask me how I attached the curtains in my van. I struggled with this and searched the Internet for hours before I came up with a solution.

I found this fabulous post:

This gave me the idea of attaching parachute cord to the headliner to use as “curtain rods.” Then I saw a post where someone suggested using cubicle clips to attach fabric to the headliner. Together, they work just fine.

That took care of the side and rear windows. But the curtains behind the seats presented a special problem. I ordered a tension rod, hoping I could make it tight enough that it would stay up, even though the van walls are curved. Nope. Didn’t work. I thought and thought about the kind of bracket I needed and spent quite a bit of time walking down aisles at various stores, but I couldn’t find what I needed. Then I thought about strapping, the kind they use to hold wood together. I went to Lowes and found a small piece of strapping that I could bend. That worked perfectly. I used velcro to hold the rod onto the brackets.

I bought some cheap flat sheets from Walmart to use as fabric. The outside is black so they’re less visible behind the tinted windows.