That’s how many yards I knew I’d need to make eight living room curtains. It generally breaks down to five yards of fabric per window (or sliding door) for two floor-length curtains that I can hang high and wide over each one. So five yards times four windows/sliders = eight panels (two for the big back window, two for each of the two sliding doors to the right as you face the window, and two for the sliding door to the left (that leads out onto this balcony to nowhere). So that’s where the whole 20 yards thing came from. And yeah for those who can’t picture it, that’s a lot of fabric (60 feet of it to be exact). Even at a great price of oh let’s say seven dollars a yard it would have been $140 (not including curtain rods, etc). And it’s hard to find extra wide upholstery fabric for under $15 or so a yard (which is what we usually like to use), and that would add up to a heart-stopping $300 price tag).
Eeeks, eh? (<– that’s my Canadian impression). Anyway, so that’s probably the reason our living room sliders have sat around naked for over six months.
Oh yeah, and those pom-poms from Clara’s party hung around in the sunroom until this weekend when we finally decided to retire them to the playroom. Anyway, back to the curtains (or lack there-of). Originally we thought we wanted something bright and bold for the fabric. Just because we’re having so much fun with color in this house and also because the walls are soft gray, the beams are darker gray, and the sofa is also dark gray. We had a whole lotta gray going on so we thought some bold textile might break things up. But then we tossed up some bright place-holder $5 art (made here) and got Kermit (our big green cushy wool shag) and mixed in some brightly colored pillows, and brought in two big gleaming silver lamps on the back of the console that we built, and – can you see where I’m going with this? – we stepped back and realized we no longer wanted bright curtains.
Our big bright green rug was enough pop o’ color for us (and the bright art might get adapted but the tones will probably stay) so after our little course correction when it came to our fabric hunt we landed here: something with tone on tone texture. Not too bright. And not too expensive.
Then we realized that we had grabbed some fun tone on tone leafy guys from Ikea a few months back (they were on sale for $29 a pair, down from $49, so we tossed two packs into our cart with intentions of hanging them in the playroom someday). So since we already had four out of eight (and they worked out to be just $15 a panel) if we hung the four that we owned and liked them, we figured we could just head back to Ikea and grab two more packs and be done-zo. No more nekkid windows. So we grabbed some oil-rubbed bronze curtains and ring hooks from Target and hung our four panels on the two sliding doors on that right wall. And we liked it. Obviously they needed to be ironed and hemmed, but we loved the sweet and soft leafy sophistication that they layered in. Especially at $15 a panel. Sold. Just needed two more two-packs.
We miraculously heard that John’s mom would be up near Ikea the next day so we begged her to stop in and pick up two more packs for us. Before she left I popped over to ikea.com to find out their names for her. I like to play a game where I make up an Ikea-ish sounding product name to see how close I am to the actual product name (I’m never even close but it keeps me entertained) so I came up with Vika Lund and Skiv Rast as I searched. And searched. And that was the first sign that something tragic was about to happen. They weren’t online anymore. Nowhere to be found. That little know-it-all voice in the back of my head whispered: “They stopped selling them- you almost solved the naked living room window problem but you didn’t buy enough packs and now they’re gone. You lose.” But I’ve seen other things in the store that aren’t online (a bunch of rugs and mirrors for example) so I tried to convince myself that they were just were among the other in-store-but-not-online items.
About twenty four hours later we got the call I had been dreading. John’s mom was standing in the curtain aisle after asking a sweet guy about them and he confirmed they had in fact been discontinued. Hadn’t been sold since April. As the Brits say: majah bummah.
Of course that spurred on a marathon ebay/craigslist/google hunt for any and all available identical curtain packs. I turned up a few two paneled packs for around $75 a pop, but that hardly seemed reasonable when we paid $29 (they’re called Alvine Kottar by the way). So I gave myself permission to mope around and drown my sorrows in Oreos after throwing myself on the floor and telling John that the living room curtains would be the death of me. You know, totally normal behavior for a 29 year old.
Then as I was sitting on the sofa with Oreo crumbs all over my chest and lap (you’re welcome for that mental image), my eyes kept wandering over to the four panels that we had already hung. My one beef with them was that they were too bunchy. Too wide. All ganked up. See? Note: This is a terribly lit shot – sorry. I was too depressed to check my settings.
Yup, slowly it dawned on me. They were waaaay too wide. Especially since we’re not curtain closers so we always have them thrown open to let in maximum light (that area of our house is wooded and fenced so there’s not a privacy issue anyway). This next thought had me getting a wee bit excited. Picture my pace quickening and my chest rising and falling a little faster (just enough to make those Orea cookie crumbs do a little happy dance). What if I cut them down the middle thereby creating eight curtain panels from my four too-wide ones? Oh man, that would be sweet. The excitement was quickly followed by my good ol’ inner Debbie Downer voice saying: “But what if they look too skinny and you ruin them? Then you can’t even use them in the playroom because they’d be lame little slivers of fabric. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Darn that evil inner voice. She was right about Ikea no longer selling my curtains. Cue more Oreo eating. Then it dawned on me that I could test-drive the half-width by just unclipping them from my ring hooks and folding them in half and rehanging them. That would “simulate” the width that they’d be if I snipped and hemmed them without picking up the scissors (give or take an inch for the new hem). So I ate brushed the crumbs off of myself and gingerly got off the sofa to try it. Lo and behold, they looked pretty darn good. Not super full and mondo wide, but I didn’t like them that way to begin with (remember the word ganked came to mind?). And since they’d never be drawn and would always be smashed all the way open to let in light (and facilitate sliding door function) it was the perfect solution for us because we wouldn’t want anything much fuller anyway (which would just get in the way). And you’d see more of the pretty leafy pattern instead of ten million folds. Done deal.
Out came my neurotic “no John cuts” fabric scissors (more on those here) and I snipped those babies right up the middle. The best thing about the cutting-in-half process was that they had been perfectly folded in the packaging right down the middle, so they still had a center fold that I could just follow down with the scissors to end up with two exactly-the-same-size panels. Then I just hemmed them with my trusty iron + sewing machine technique (no pins required – yay Team Lazy). More on that here. Oh and this time I actually folded over and ironed the hem twice before sewing the hem (last time I folded it over once with the iron and then folded it again on the sewing machine as I stitched).
I must admit that ironing down that second fold made it even easier to slide through my sewing machine. So hemming the sides of all eight panels probably took twenty minutes (once they were all prepped with the iron, which probably took thirty).
Then after stitching that 1/2″ side hem (which looked exactly the same as the Ikea-made hem on the other side of each panel – thank goodness they didn’t do anything too fancy that I couldn’t replicate) I tossed them into the wash on cold (and then tumble dry lowed them) to pre-shrink ’em before hanging & pinning the bottoms.
I grabbed them right out of the dryer (they were still a little damp, but hanging them that way kept them from getting even more wrinkly from sitting in the dryer) and clipped them all up on the four oil-rubbed curtain rods (from Target, along with the ring clips) which we hung 14″ wider than the trim around the sliding doors and the window. Except for the sliders leading to the balcony to nowhere (there wasn’t as much wall space to go as wide on those, so we went 8″ wide on each of those). As for the distance down from the crown molding, we went with three inches so all of the rods would hang at the same height. That felt high enough to draw the eye up without completely crowding the dark beams above. You know I love a good oil-rubbed bronze rod hung high and wide like dark eyeliner on a window. Me-ow.
Then I pinned the bottoms of each panel so they’d just graze the floor…
… and hemmed those bottoms pretty quickly (I gave them a longer base hem since a few folks told us that nice drapes have 3-4″ base hems – yay Team Fancy). Oh but I used iron-on hem tape for the bottoms because I was tired and wanted the thick 4″ hem on each one to be uninterrupted by thread that you can see from the front (I’m still very very not-sewing-machine wise, so I couldn’t figure out how to get such a thick hem without seeing a telltale line of stitching 4″ off the bottom of the panel which I thought would interrupt the flow of the panel). I guess I could have tried to hand stitch them from the back so you couldn’t see it from the front, but I’m not so good at that whole thing. But the hem tape worked like a charm and I ended up with nice extra wide bottom hems in around a half an hour. I even hemmed them right from the rod (as they hung there after pinning them). Didn’t even unclip them and rehang ’em. Yay Team Lazy.
As for the curtain length, we definitely didn’t want our panels extra long and puddled since two of the three sliders are used often and we didn’t want the fabric to get all grungy (even though they hang to the side and aren’t in the path of anyone walking, we worried if they were too long they could drift underfoot).
Anyway, enough chitchat. Here they be:
I should mention that sometimes bright sun + window = blown out curtains. Oops. But in person you can see the leafy goodness from across the room, even on a sunny day. And as that over the top dude on Million Dollar Decorators says in his intro: it’s delicious.
Like this:
Only further away (so the leaves look smaller). Ok, now I’m giving you a little primer on perspective. Somebody slap me.
Oh but you can see the lesser-pictured sliders on the left side in the photo above (the ones that lead out to that odd patio that we someday want to revamp).
Who noticed that Burger literally gets up and repositions himself to face the camera? Diva much?
We love how the sweetness of the almost sheer-like curtains contrast the big chunky rustic-ish wood console we built:
And they play so nicely with the big round mirror too:
It was fun to add in a few pops of blue thanks to the hydrangeas from our patio and two awesome blue decorating books that I love: Domino and Decorate (the latter of which is Holly Becker’s new book that I got on Amazon – it’s great).
Hydrangeas = so pretty. But also pretty quick to wilt. I clipped these guys five days ago and some of them already look kind of… spent. Oh well. At least they were free.
See the curtains in the background of the pic above? That’s pretty much how they look from across the room in real life (the sunlight just blows them out in photos so they’re harder to read in the wide shots in this post).
Oooh artsy. Hydrangeas in the mirror:
Here’s Burg-dorf Goodman posing again. And here’s another shot of the lesser-pictured slider across from the two that lead out to the patio/sunroom on the other side of the living room. I love how the soft tone-on-tone curtains don’t steal too much attention from the frame wall nearby. They play well with others.
Oh and did you notice I had some fun switching up the pillows. Zero dollars spent (and proof that I have too many pillows). Pillows are like nomads in our house – they never live in one spot for long. These guys were all in the playroom and the sunroom (originally from Bed Bath & Beyond on clearance) except for the floofy one in the middle (which was originally from Target but has lived in our bedroom for a while) so I brought them out for more of that fun texture-y, layered, tone-on-tone thing.
Now the room is a nice little blend of happy (the shaggy green rug and the bright art that we might just switch up soon) + contrast (the dark sofa, the gray-washed beams, the chunky console, and the oil-rubbed bronze mirror) + softness (the faux sheepskin, the white frames, the white desk, the patterned curtains, the lighter toned pillows). Although I’m pretty sure those pillows will continue to get swapped around (Sue the Pillow and her bright friends are now living in the adjoined sunroom, so I can still see them from the sofa). And when we get around to building/refurbishing a media cabinet and refinishing the floors we’ll really be in business in here. Someday…
Let’s wrap this baby up. We love them. They’re our cup of tea. They add come-on-in-and-flop-down-on-the-sofa-and-eat-Oreos ambiance. And they were just $58 for four curtain panels (that we sliced up the middle to make eight). Which breaks down to $7.25 a panel. Which would mean that we’d have to find fabric that was $1.45 per yard to get this good of a deal if we were to make them from scratch. Pretty crazy how things work out, huh? Wait, I guess if we knew we could have cut our fabric in half (we wouldn’t recommend doing that unless it’s a really wide bolt, like 60″ or more, and you’re certain you won’t want to draw them for privacy) we only would have needed to find $2.90 a yard fabric. That’s still pretty tough though.
One thing’s for sure. This room has definitely evolved over the past six months. Here’s what it looked like when we moved in:
Yowsa. So yeah, we’re thanking the curtain powers that be. The only real bummer is the fact that cutting, ironing, hemming, and hanging my curtains probably only burned about one tenth of the calories from the curtain-drama-related cookie binge that ensued. Oh yeah, and it’s impossible to photograph how cozy this room feels (maybe because it’s so big it looks less inviting than it feels in real life?). Annoying. Anyway, here she blows at night. All glow-y thanks to the lamps:
And that brings us to 2,762 words on our living room curtains. Who do I think I am? I’m calling it. Have you guys ever split curtains up the middle or added extra length to them with banding at the bottom or top? Ever heard of Ikea selling out of things in April? Seems like a random month to decide not to bring stuff back, right? But maybe that’s why the panels we grabbed were on sale for $29 in the first place…
Love the curtains! What a clever solution… and they really make the room look much cozier. The room looks wonderful! And Burger is hysterical. My parents’ dog always poses for photos. She’s such a diva.
By the way, I feel your IKEA pain. Sometimes it’s hard to track things down. I had found a chair at IKEA (the Karlsvik) which was technically out of production- and not even online- but I called and they had 8 in our nearby store. We had run over real quick to grab one. Thankfully, we got lucky!
Woah- I never even thought of calling- so good to hear that can work out!
xo,
s
They were extremely helpful when it came to tracking down the chair’s location (we just got lucky that it was at the nearby IKEA). If you need to find anything else in the future, you should definitely give that a shot!
Yep, I’ve had luck too by calling to track some stuff down even though it showed up as out of production. We are lucky that we have 3 Ikea’s nearby ( San Francisco bay area ). One about 20 mins away, another 45 mins away, and another about an hour and a half away when desperation sets in!
Glad you guys ended up going with a more muted tone – it looks awesome!!!
My head would explode if I had three Ikeas around. Wow. Lucky lady.
xo,
s
I absolutely love both the pattern and the colour, great job!
Looks awesome! I love ikea textiles. We have tons of duvet covers from there and love that we can switch up the feel of the bedroom so quickly.
So in love with the gray tones and gorgeous rustic wood! The blue was a lovely touch as well – the hydrangeas are gorgeous! I actually learned this weekend while planting bushes of them in the backyard that you can change the color of them every year by influencing their pH. Maybe I’m the last person on the bus with that info, but I thought that was freakin’ awesome!
Yeah- isn’t that cool? My mom read some murder mystery when I was growing up about cops knowing where someone hid the murder weapon because one of a bunch of hydrangeas changed colors so they dug under it and there was a rusted gun. Nature is pretty awesome- especially when it works its way into a murder mystery. Haha.
xo,
s
Love the curtains! You make me want to go out and buy a sewung machine. Its funny I’ve never really played with curtauns other than hanging some above my closet instead of a bifold door now I might go mess with my living room one! Thanks for all the great inspiration!
~Blair
The simple curtains look great! And, it’s awesome that you were able to cut the ones you had in half to get the look. Wahoo for cheap projects. And, strange that IKEA sold out and didn’t bring them back. Then they have other things that have been in their stores for years. Hmm. We don’t have an IKEA nearby, but I wish we did. I need some frames!
I’ve never added length to curtains, but I have to for our basement: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/just-hangin-around/ I’m thinking about using Velcro to attach to the bottom. That way, if I feel like changing things out, it would be so easy. Though, I’m wondering it the velcro would be too stiff? Hmm, decisions.
OOh that’s a cool idea. Maybe little eye hooks? Although I don’t know if that would mess with how they drape…
xo,
s
Buttons could look awesome, you could make them part of the style rather than trying to make it invisible.
I love that idea!
xo,
s
Ooh, I love the idea of buttons. That would be such a fun touch. Now, I actually have to do this. :)
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-buttoned-tab-top-curtains/2010/03/01/
Here’s a link to a tutorial that I used as a reference when making some tab top curtains with button embelishments. Might come in useful. It also shows how to line a curtain.
(Note – you have to click through to the actual tutorial.)
My dining area curtains are an IKEA hack. They are white with black outline leaves and tiny orange berries – they were a great subtle design for the space, but my sliding glass door, including moulding, is 104″. Unfortunately, the curtains were about 8″ too short. So I enlisted the aid of my friend, who has mad sewing skills, to lengthen my curtains. She added a 2″ black satin ribbon to the bottom of one set of curtains, then cut an 8″ section from another set of curtains (I had to buy an extra set to do this project, but they weren’t expensive) and added that to the bottom of the ribbon. They look beautiful, and it looks like they came out of the package that way. It’s definitely an option to consider to lengthen curtains, and can probably even be pulled off with hem tape. In fact, to hem the bottom edge, she used the hem tape that came with the IKEA curtains in the package.
I luuuuuuvvvvvv them!
I love them! Good work!
It’s probably good I don’t have an IKEA near us, because I would be there all the time! Looks really great!
nice! just the right touch of subtle pattern to complement the room.
Have to say, I’m pretty surprised you went in the more neutral direction. Love the curtains but miss the Sue the Napkin pillows!!!
They’ll be back I bet! Right now that are in the adjoined sunroom and look fun and festive through the slider (I can still see them from the sofa). Haha.
xo,
s
OMG I am so happy to have lost the “Sue” pillows. MAybe they don’t translate well on my screen, but they looked too loud for my taste.
Thumbs up!
I love the curtains! I do miss your old pillows though, since they were colorful and pulled in the colors from the rug and place-holder art (and Sue inspired the whole thing). Don’t get me wrong, I like the new pillows, too. It’s like Karl went from wearing his party outfit to a tux (expecially with his oil-rubbed bronze legs–ooh la la).
Haha – I’m sure the pillows will change every day (well, probably every week) with my mood. Haha. Sue and her bright friends will be back I bet! Right now they’re in the adjoined sunroom (so I can still see them from the couch). Haha.
xo,
s
For the hydrangeas, after you cut the stems, try dunking them in really hot (like boiling) water. It somehow melts some kind of gunk that keeps the flowers from drinking water and your flowers will last a lot longer.
Never heard that one- I’ll have to try it!
xo,
s
I was just going to suggest this! I promise it works. Dipping the last couple inches of the stem in boiling water draws out the sap that would otherwise clog the stem and prevent the flower from “drinking.” Just needs a quick dunk and then you arrange in a vase as usual.
I’ve had these curtains in our guest room for about a year and still love the tone-on-tone pattern it gives the room. Great choice!
The boiling water is such a great idea! I was going to suggest recutting the stems every couple of days. I usually trim the stem once, then cut vertically up the stem about an inch, and finally, a last vertical cut up the stem perpendicular to the first. This helps stretch them out for close to two weeks.
You are meant to burn the end with a match before you place them in water FYI. :)
You can use that hot water technique with Dahlias too! I didn’t know Hydrangeas were the same!
Just perfect! Love the subtle texture, the leafy pattern, the price-tag. Good job!
love them! so subtle.
also – best burger nickname ever? Burg-dorf Goodman.
genius.
Too bad those curtains are sold out! They are so nice.
They look a lot like the West Elm panels you also didn’t get, just more leafy. If you had wanted to close the panels, and you had enough panels, you could make them look less “ganky” (?) by adding more rings to the top of each panel (more rings= tinier folds).
You reminded me it’s time for another IKEA run. We love thier beech wood chairs and like to recover thier plain white seat covers with fun and kid friendly fabrics!
LOVE the light/neutral curtains. even though they are so light, they definitely warm the room up. the bright colors are great, but i find too much color tends to make a space feel not-so-cozy. they coordinate with the console perfectly!
The curtains look great! I think these were the perfect choice!
Really love the curtains. It’s amazing how much they can complete a room.
Hydrangeas are my absolute favorite plant/bush/flower but they DO wilt so fast. It’s unfortunate really.
Dip your hydrangea stems in not quite boiling water for 30 seconds and voila, they will last a week or two with no wilting.
The curtains really do a lot to finish the room.
You’re the second one to tell me that (and I’ve never heard it before). I’ll have to try it!
xo,
s
Your curtain choices are stealing my heart lately! First the dining room, now this.
But stealing my heart even more? Your love of Oreos. Hands down my favorite food of all tiiiiiime!
ps- I went out with pasty legs this weekend and was all pale and proud knowing there are so many others like me out there :)
LOVE IT!
Love you guys! The drapes are really nice similar to the West Elm Silk Paisely panels. This makes me want to take up sewing :)
I thought so too! And much cheaper. Whew. Although I haven’t seen the WE ones in person and I bet they’re gorgeous.
xo,
s
Love them.
I probably won’t be the last person to write this, but depending on how fancy your machine is, there are a couple of ways you can do a blind stitch.
This video shows how to do it using a fancy foot (which I’ve never had): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdKe9crSHac
I don’t think the foot is crucial (obviously, since I’ve never done it with one), though I can see how it would be helpful. Anyway, check your machine out to see if it has such a stitch.
Oh my gosh a fancy foot! I love the name. Better check if mine has one. And watch that vid. Thanks!!
xo,
s
(It’s not actually called a “fancy foot”–that was my own description. It probably has a much more utilitarian name like “blind stitch foot.”)
Haha, oh man. I was hoping that was the type. I was going to walk into the sewing shop and ask for a fancy foot. Hilarious!
xo,
s
I was just about to suggest this! I’ve never done a blind hem without a foot actually, but if you have the foot it is super fast to do. You just sew a long basting stitch, sort of flip it, do the blind hem and rip out the basting. The hem is virtually invisible on the right side.
Yeah I was going to suggest this too. Just like Kari, I have never used the special foot, just the sewing machine stitch. Personally I don’t do it unless I really want to hide the hem stitching because it’s a big ole pain. You have to do a bunch of fancy ironing, (i.e. TWO folds!) and it always requires me to turn my brain into a pretzel trying to remember how it works and what fold should be where.
So… if I hem MY pants they get the special treatment, but my hubby’s pants get regular stitching. :P
Wow- love them! These strike me as a perfect balance between your former house’s curtain style (breezy, simple, light), and current house style (patterned and bolder)— perfect blend in these!
I’m sure you’ve covered this question before, but what are your plans for behind the TV? We have a similar sized TV-with-giant-wall-behind-it situation going on at our house.
We’re eventually planning to build or refurbish a larger cabinet (not sure what type yet) to better fill that space (it’ll not only be wider but also taller). Our TV is also kind of tough to “read” from the sofa since it’s on the small side (we can’t read weather forecasts and subtitles sometimes, haha) so John wants to sell ours on craigslist and upgrade to something a little bigger (we’ll have to see where we end up with that though).
xo,
s
Love how the room looks…especially with the softer tone on tone elements you’ve added! great curtains too….they would go perfect in my bedroom too bad they quit selling them!
love your blog :)
i love these curtains too- we have them in our grey and white bedroom with our dark furniture- i remember putting them up and just swooning, it felt like we had an “adult” bedroom finally (only married 10 years!). WHY does Ikea (and every other store!)discontinue good things?!?! But good job on cutting and hemming, mine are still pooled at the ground, haven’t gotten around to hemming them. I’m calling it a “dramatic look” although it’s really more lazy :)
oh, and on the hydrangeas, you can dry them out and they retain most of the color- we do that every year with our lime/ pink ones, and they are just as pretty in the winter- do a quick google search online, but I think it’s just as easy as let the water dry up as the hydrangeas dry up :) that way we always have some color in our house through the long winters here…
That’s a great idea! I’ll have to dry a little bouquet for winter.
xo,
s
Love it. Re: the pillows, probably the best piece of decorating/shopping advice I’ve ever heard, from (I think) the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, is not to buy anything that won’t work in at least two rooms.
Ooh that is really good advice! Like not buying clothing that doesn’t work with at least two other items in your closet already. Love it.
xo,
s
I love the curtains! They are seriously amazing. They look great with everything! Also, can I just say how much I love you for using the word “floofy”? I started calling our little dog floofy, and now we call her floofers. Dumb, but it cracks us up.
I remember reading in Martha Stewart once that you can take cut hydrangeas and submerge them in a bucket of cold water (I can’t remember if it was for a few seconds or a minute) and it will revive them. I have never tried it, but if Martha says it works….
Hmm, must be something with temperature extremes! Others have mentioned flashing them into hot water too. So interesting.
xo,
s
Ames,
You aren’t on the current season of the Bachelorette are you!? ;)
Yeah, I have no idea if you would dip the stems in boiling water and then submerge the whole flower in cold water, or how that would work. Science project!!
Julia- Nope! Is there an Ames on the bachelorette? Or just someone running around calling their dog “floofers”? Maybe I should start watching….
It works! You can turn them upside down in a bucket for a couple of minutes. Hydrangeas can drink through their petals too. Just make sure the water isn’t freezing cold. Also, misting the head right in the vase can perk them up and makes them look all fresh and pretty!
There IS a guy named Ames. You gotta check it out. That show is totally a guilty pleasure of mine.
Julia, I officially love you for that Ames-Bachelorette comment. I wish I could like that comment, facebook style :)
Julia I love that you tried to connect the two! As soon as I read it I quickly scrolled down to see his reply! :)
And it’s totally a guilty pleasure of mine too — so entertaining.
Happy Monday, Sherry! I love the pattern on your new curtains. They look great and the room is really coming together beautifully. Thanks for sharing your story with us!
Forgot to mention in my earlier comment — the “Deerfield deadbolt” is a great lock for sliding doors (one of the weakest security points in a house): http://www.amazon.com/Deerfield-Sliding-Glass-Deadbolt-Aluminum/dp/B0040BEHCW
Oooh thanks! We have a pretty crazy alarm system (we call our house Fort Knox sometimes) but we’ll have to look into those!
xo,
s
Looks great! I haven’t split them up the middle, but I have cut them in half to get cafe curtains for half the price. :)
I just love your house. You have soo much fun with it, and I can’t wait to do the same with mine some day. Just a little tip with the flowers. For hydrangeas if you mush the bottom of the steam so that its open, and all…well mushy like. (A hammer always work for me to open up the end) And you place the stems in hot water, I’m not talking warm here, hot to the point that there is steam coming off, they should last you a few weeks. Or at least in my experience anyway. Hope that helps you out. And keep up all your hard work :)
Caitlin xoxo
Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Good call on the curtains! And for your little Hydrangea isuues: When they start to wilt all you have to do is trim the stem and change the water… and within Minutes (!) they will return to normal(that is if they haven’t already bitten the dust). Pretty crazy. :)
Got to LOVE it when a plan comes together!! Who knew Oreos could be the source of such inspiration.
RockStar living room – it looks really great :-)
Nicely done! And the hot water trick on the hydrangeas works beautifully. Got a couple on my counter perking up my kitchen right now.
I LOVE THEM! Capital L O V E. Can I have them? Pretty please? With a cherry on top? :)
As I was reading this I was thinking to myself that you didn’t go bold and you went white, but these are soo much better.
what did you do with all the curtains from your first house? have you thought about dying them and using them in your new house?
Those conveyed with the sale of the house (the new owners got them). We were happy to leave that house looking nice for the new people (didn’t want to strip it bare when we left). Dying them would have bee an awesome idea though!
xo,
s
Probably my favourite post of all I’ve read… esp since reading your ‘I’m not perfect’ post published today-ish…
http://www.the-brick-house.com/2012/01/makeover/sony-dsc-559/
its the same curtain rt?
Yes! Love it!
xo,
s
I actually cut some Sarita curtains from Ikea in half the other way to get four panels total. I am amazed at how long they still are!
Love that!
xo
s
Just another reason why Ikea is the greatest place in the whole world. The curtains look great!
You saved the day! They look awesome. And so jealous of those hydrangeas, we live in colorado so they don’t grow very well here, which is heart breaking. Enjoy them!
I have the SAME curtains from IKEA in my guest bedroom! I bought them last fall and I love them so much! I’m glad I got to see y’all using the curtains against gray walls because I’m planning on painting the guest bedroom gray this week. What color gray did you end up using on your walls? I want something on the lighter side like what you did. We have white-wash (french country chic) furniture in the room now and I want something to make the furniture pop without making the room too girly.
We went with Moonshine by Benjamin Moore (color matched to Olympic’s no-VOC paint). Love it!
xo,
s
Maybe it’s the light in the picture, but it’s hard to see them. What about doing a band in charcoal color along the top or along the hem to help anchor them and give some more contrast?
Yup, I mentioned in the post that it’s a light thing with the camera (not in real life thankfully). In person it’s really easy to see the leafy tone on tone texture from across the room- even on the brightest day. So far I love how subtle they are, but adding some trim down the road is always a possibility!
xo,
s
Oh, dear. I have a pack of the Alvine Kottar curtains hanging out in our guest room waiting for me to go back to Ikea and get them a mate. Looks like I may be doing some creative cutting and sewing too. Yours look great, so maybe I’ll brave it!
I’m glad you took a picture with it darker so we could see the curtains better. You rock on the sewing machine. I liked the colored pillows better. Send them my way until you’re ready to use them again. HA HA!!
They look great. Thx for the Burger pics ;)
“Even at a great price of oh let’s say seven dollars a yard it would have been $140 (not including curtain rods, etc). And it’s hard to find extra wide upholstery fabric for under $15 or so a yard (which is what we usually like to use), and that would add up to a heart-stopping $300 price tag).”
OK, either someone studied up on their math skills or they used a calculator. Which is it, Sherry?
Calculator! Thank goodness for “the dashboard” feature on my mac. Haha.
xo,
s
I love the dashboard feature on the mac! It’s amazing. I converted to a Mac on December and everyday still it makes me happy! :)