Skip the Panel-Ready Dishwasher—This 5-Minute Curtain Hack Does the Trick

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Domino Reno: Before + Afters, DIYs, and Advice From the Pros

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On her Instagram account, Reserve Home, Mallory Fletchall documents the gradual layering of character and warmth across an unassuming Brooklyn rental. Her feed is a wellspring of ideas—styling tricks, antique scores, and curated finds that weave together Victorian, Regency, and Midcentury notes. She’s tackled her share of bigger builds, among them a dining nook with built-in banquette seating, but her most recent undertaking—concealing her kitchen’s weathered dishwasher—came together in under five minutes flat.

Since moving in three years back, Fletchall has hunted for ways to mask the dishwasher’s signs of age. In a kitchen where every detail—from antique accents to deliberately placed ceramics—is weighed with care, a scratched stainless front reads as a discordant note. So when she set out to inject some much-needed charm and warmth into her “very beige” space, she knew the time had come to retire the painted ivory beadboard that had been hiding the appliance. “When I saw another creator post about this curtain hack, I knew I had to try it,” she recalls. After a few quick measurements, she had the dimensions in hand to shop for a magnetic adjustable curtain rod and a set of easily swappable cafe curtains, then hemmed the ready-made panels to a custom length.

The rod reads as delicate, but “the magnet is strong,” Fletchall says. “As long as you place it directly above the dishwasher handle, you can grab both when opening and closing the dishwasher.” The project is proof that working smarter, not harder, pays dividends: “I love that the curtain style can change up the look easily depending on if you want something more English Cottage or perhaps something more minimal to fit with a modern kitchen,” she shares. These days a miniature landscape and an Art Deco–style antique mirror round out the kitchen’s dreamy coffee corner—not a tired appliance in sight.

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