Tag Archives: curtains

You See Shower Curtains, I See Bedroom Curtains?

This weekend marked our 1st anniversary in our house (to which I realized I have yet to update my ‘home tour’ section on the blog-on the To-Do list!).

In this entire first year of living here we haven’t had any window coverings in our bedroom. It’s not been fun. Running to our bathroom to get changed, the sun rising directly into our windows…it’s forced creativity to say the least.

You see, for me, buying curtains requires a huge ‘room commitment’.

Curtains give so much to a room.

Curtains are like the ‘I love you’ stage in a relationship.

Sure I could have run out and wasted money on a temporary fix but why bother when I know, when we decide on a ”direction” for the room I’d re-spend money.

So we waited. and waited. and waited, until this weekend.

The reason we were waiting is because of paint.

Paint is like the ”1st base”.

When we bought the house we were ready to have the whole house painted and even had an idea what we thought we wanted in the bedroom but as other projects took shape, the bedroom paint sort of took a back burner. We never hated the paint in our bedroom either, actually we kind of liked it, which I think is why we were having such a hard time making a decision.

Over the past 365 days we’ve grown to like the paint more and more. It’s a nice shade green, neutral enough that we can ‘have fun with it’. If we do re-paint it will remain in the similar green family.

Shortly after we moved in I bought this pillow:

I loved the colors in the pillow but didn’t know how I wanted to proceed.

It already matched our walls too, again solidifying the need not to paint.

But we were ‘stuck’ in the curtain department.

Couldn’t get past 1st base.

Well I guess if you include the pillow as a room additive we were stuck on 2nd base.

Back to curtains.

I went out with my pillow in mind and nothing else. I looked everywhere and didn’t see anything I really ‘liked’.

Then this caught my eye:

Yup, it’s a shower curtain, hanging in my window.

It was the perfect width. It was the prefect price (more than perfect price at 60% off which I didn’t know until the cash!). They were the perfect colors. It stopped the light. For me, it was a no-brainer. It couldn’t hurt to try.

Let’s just confirm that there is in fact a ‘Stitch’ on our bed. He matched the room…

It is quite common of houses our age to have an electric heat outlet under every. single. window. So as much as I like long, to the floor curtains, I don’t want to catch on fire in my sleep during the winter. Those heaters get HOT. Having the shower curtain length allows them to be far enough from the heater hubby doesn’t have to worry about fires when I blast the heat before bed.

I’m quite liking my shower curtain-curtains. We still have to get more on the walls but the room is starting to come together.

I’m almost ready to say ‘I love you’ to my room.

{I should add these were only $10.00 each!}

{Linking up with http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/}

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Filed under Before/After, decorating

No Sew Café Curtains

I’ve been wanting to add some café curtains to our recently renovated (and very blue) kitchen but I couldn’t decide on a fabric. At first I searched everywhere and couldn’t find anything I liked, but a recent trip to the fabric store had me spending 45mins deciding between 3 patterns. I finally decided on a beautiful Robert Kaufman design with great colors and at 25% off it became an easy decision. I decided on a vintage inspired bird pattern. I thought the birds were appropriate for a kitchen window overlooking our backyard and I have a soft spot for birds, specifically hummingbirds as my sister and I would spend our summers with my grandmother watching the families of hummingbirds at our camp each summer. Anyway, here is the pattern cut into the 2 panels:

Two cafe curtain panels

Making them was pretty easy. All that was required for my little friday night project was:

-Hemming tape (I used ”Heat and Bond” brand)

-Scissors

-Iron and ironing board

-Fabric of choice

-Measuring tape (or tape measure)

-Curtain rod and rings

………………………….

Total Time: 1hr

Total cost: Depends on fabric choice, what you have at home etc. For me I spent $15.00 on fabric (and ended up with way more than I needed but will probably use in another project), $15.00 on curtain hooks (sale) and had the tension rod and hemming tape at home, for a grand total of approximately $30.00.

Step 1:

Cut fabric to desired size. The inside edge of my window measured 37” wide and I wanted the curtains to sit approximately half way down the window which was  approx 37” in length so I cut my panels approx 19”x19” giving an little more than an inch on each side for the hem (I wanted a little room for error).

Step 2:

Measure and iron your 1” hem on each side of the cut panels. If needed, also iron your entire panel to get rid of wrinkles because once you place the hemming tape in your seams you have to be careful not to apply too much heat to the seam as you can burn the hem or actually ”un-glue” the hem. I also trimmed the corners on a 45 degree diagonal so the corners weren’t so bulky.

1'' hem on each side.

Step 3:

Once your hem is ironed and you confirm that both panels are the same size and fairly straight, place the hemming tape in the crease and iron as per the directions. My ”Heat and Bond” required me working in sections of 10” or less and pressing for 3-5 seconds on a silk setting.

Step 4:

Once the hems are all sealed you’re ready to add your rings and hang on the rod of choice giving you a finished product! Stand back and enjoy :)

And yes, we have yet to patch the wall underneath the outlet. It’s character right?

Linking up with:

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

http://www.elements-interiors.net/2011/04/whassup-whassup-17.html

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Filed under DIY, Kitchen