My favorite, budget friendly, linen look curtains from Amazon after testing out three different curtain brands!
Our newly painted accent wall, for my son’s bedroom makeover, has an arch window, which needed a beautiful window treatment to go with it.
Because this wall is such a focal point of the room, I really wanted to get a beautiful, pinch pleat curtain with a linen look.
As much as I would love 100% linen, pinch pleat curtains, I knew that was not going to be in my budget! Especially, since I needed an extra long length due to our vaulted ceilings.
Further I also needed blackout curtains since they are for my son’s bedroom. Ideally, I would have liked to pair the curtains with my favorite bamboo blinds too, but with the arch shape, I had to just stick with curtains that had a true blackout liner.
All of these factors: pinch pleat, linen, blackout, and extra long, makes curtains much more expensive. Custom window treatments were not going to work with my budget.
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So, I spent way more time than I wanted reading reviews and searching Amazon for a budget friendly option that met all of these features I wanted, but that were more of a linen look to help keep costs down. Further, I needed them in a short time frame, I didn’t have a month to wait.
I ended up finding 4 good options and I knew I was going to have to order them and test them out to really see how they looked and what the quality level was.
I ended up finding two great options out of the three I ordered.
Here are the four options I considered, the final three options I ordered to test out, and the final winner, my favorite linen look curtain!
- Option 1 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain: Considered – These TwoPages curtains (with 10% linen in the fabric) are very popular. I’ve heard great things from many creators, but they take a month to ship, so I did not order these, but will test out in the future on another window!
- Option 2 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain: Ordered – The cheapest option, but had small holes in the fabric with light peeking through, I returned these
- Option 3 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain: Ordered – The 2nd cheapest option, a great value and made it to the final top two, more details below!
- Option 4 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain: Ordered – The most expensive option, but was the highest quality, made it to the final top two, and was the winner! More details below!
Top two linen look pinch pleat curtain options
Option 3 and Option 4 were my final top two options! They both came in many color and size options and had the pinch pleat, linen look, plus good reviews.
Note, the blackout version of option 4 had no reviews when I ordered it, but the room darkening version and light filtering version both had great reviews.
Here is a look at both of them side by side, with option 3 on the left and option 4 on the right. Note, option 3 (108″ long) was not hemmed to size here, whereas option 4 (102″ long) came already in the exact length I needed.
Option 3 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain (Runner up)
I was very impressed with Option 3 for the quality of them and the much lower price.
Pros:
- The fabric had a linen look
- Was totally blackout with no holes
- Defined pinch pleats
- Great, budget friendly cost for a pack of two!
- Many size and color options
- Great reviews
Cons
- Not as heavyweight as Option 4
- Did not come in exact size I needed, so I would need to hem to size or use fabric tape
- I didn’t like pinch pleat hook as much, it wasn’t as nice and easily adjustable as Option 4
- Hemmed edges not as nice of quality as Option 4 (see comparison photo below, option 3 on left)
Honestly, though, the cons were minimal and only stood out more due to having the higher quality Option 4 right next to it! If these had come in the 102″ inch length I would have likely kept them for the cost savings!
These are a good, budget friendly option!
Option 4 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtain (Winner)
These Option 4 Linen Look Pinch Pleat Curtains were the winner out of all 4 options! I love how they look! I paired them with this curtain rod and these curtain rings.
Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- The fabric looks beautiful and has the most linen look (contains 20% real linen)
- A high quality curtain
- Was totally blackout with no holes
- The most heavyweight fabric
- Although the most expensive option, it’s still an incredible value for what you get and a third less of the cost of similar curtains made from all linen or linen/cotton blends (like these)
- Many sizes and color options (including the exact length I needed)!
- Shipping only took a week (even though listing said 2 weeks)
- Easily adjustable pinch pleat hooks, allows you to adjust length up or down as needed to get it perfect!
- Great reviews
Cons
- We had to install heavier duty wall anchors due to the increased weight of the curtains (we should have done this no matter what curtain we picked)
- With the blackout liner and heavier weight fabric, the pleats were not as defined right out of the package and I had to iron them
- Each end of the curtains was about 1/2″ shorter than the rest of the curtain, no idea if this is intentional or not. It’s not obvious, but didn’t make sense to me
Curtain Details:
Here is a look at the easy, adjustable hooks and curtain rings:
I also added these clear, curtain wands to make opening and closing them much easier, especially with them being so tall!
And here is an up close look at the linen look curtain fabric!
Also, here is the linen look blackout curtains closed, the only light coming through is at the top and where the two curtain panels meet. If I overlap them more, there is even less light.
Watch my Video Testing the Curtains Out in Action
You can see me testing out the 3 options and more details for each curtain in action in my Part 2 bedroom makeover video!
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These curtains are beautiful and provide the softness and refinement this feature wall needed, along with the functionality of being a blackout window treatment. I really love them and all of the research and testing out was worth it!
We aren’t finished this room makeover yet, but here is how they look with our new DIY headboard!
This is an instance where you really do get what you pay for!
What do you think of these linen look curtains? Do you have any favorite go-to curtains? Make sure to check out my favorite bamboo blinds too for more window treatments!
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