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…
Sarah K. @ The Pajama Chef says
beautiful! i adore hydrangeas…they were in my wedding bouquet. so gorgeous!
Kasandra says
I’m a wedding florist and I use Hydrangea in almost everything I make. Try the hot water trick but use water just off the boil (like from a kettel) and always re-cut the stems. It also helps to shave off little slivers of stem near the end cut because those babies need to drink a ton. Like it’s going out of style, really. When I have them around my house I try to cut them every 2 days and I can have them healthy and nice looking for upwards of a week and a few times even for 2!!!
Julia says
They look really great. And a good reminder that prints/patterns can still be neutral.
Christina says
They look perfect. I adore them. I’m so happy that you were able to use the org 4 and hack them up. Aren’t you so glad you’ve taken the plunge with the sewing machine? Totally opens up a new can of worms when decorating.
your place is looking incredible- is it feeling more and more like home these days?
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! It’s amazing how coming into the half-year zone has really made it feel like, well, home. Yay!
xo,
s
Ainsley says
wow, i am loving the neutral pillows on the sofa WAY MORE than the colorful ones that were there before. i hope they are there to stay.
Heather says
Three things:
1) I love Burger. Seriously. Coolest dog outside of Charlotte (because my Boston Terrier Matty wins the title of Best Dog Ever). But Burger is a very close second.
2) I miss the bright pillows.
3) Your living room transformation is amazing. I look at the before and afters and I am just blown away. And it’s been so much fun watching the trnasformation.
I discovered your blog late in the game with your first house, so I’m really lovong reading about your decorating adventures with this one.
Tiffany says
I definitely agree with you on the pillows….oh, and the Burger thing too. :-)
Hanna says
You’ve inspired me to finally cut up some fabric of my own and do a project I’ve been meaning to do for a while now.
Tell me what you think!
(if you have time, of course…if not I totes understand)
http://passiontravelbeautydesign.blogspot.com/2011/06/babys-first-upholstery.html
YoungHouseLove says
GORGEOUS! Seriously, I love it.
xo,
s
Nicole says
I love the curtains. They remind me of your style from your old house… if you ditched the rug and the colors blocks in the frames on the wall. I think you should take this room in a completely different direction (away from bright, multicolor pops) and get rid of the rug (just don’t like the color) and get rid of the colored blocks in the frames. Then use that hydrangea blue and the domino book blue as an accent color in the room (see how soothing that combo is in the picture where you focus on the books?? It totally inspired me). Keep the new, white pillows and it would be gorgeous. The new curtains just don’t seem to go with the rug/patterned pillows/color blocks but I’d be obsessed with the room if you axed those details and made a few tweaks and brought in that blue. The green rug would look great in the playroom I think! I know you’ll just say it’s what you love and everyone has their own taste, but just putting in my two cents since you’re own photo inspired this thought for your room!
Julie says
Team Curtains FTW! I just hung some IKEA Hilda curtains this weekend that I have been hungering after for years. Now that I finally have a house that will take curtains, I realized I needed to hurry over and get a pair before they go out of production.
KatieV says
I’ve done blackout curtains before, lining regular drapery fabric with the blackout fabric. They probably block the same amount of light as the faux-wood blinds (maybe a little more). The issue I found was that, since the curtains were on the outside/around the window, leaving an inch or two between the curtain fabric and the wall/window, light still came in around the tops and sides of the curtains.
Jo says
I used to work at a textile store and I casually mentioned one day that I put up single panels (it was an expensive fabric, even with my employee discount) on the sides of my wide windows just to dress them up. A really famous drapery designer who shopped at my store almost had a heart attack when she overheard this. She said it’s decorative heresy to not have enough fabric to actually close the drapes, even if you plan on leaving them open all the time. She obviously said this partly for self-interest (the more curtains she puts up the more $$$ she makes) but I could never shake off her comment. Now, my curtains are always double (sometimes triple) the width of the window. Go figure.
Candace says
UGH! Ikea’s curtains bring nothing but heartache, I tell you! One of my first window treatment buys for the house were striped curtains from Ikea (seen here:http://candyskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/04/living-room-update-its-about-time.html) that worked PERFECTLY. Then, I realized I should get matching ones for the dining area since it’s really one big continuous space…. only to find they discontinued the striped curtains in my color. And then a few months later, axed all together. This was after I went to 2 or 3 Ikeas and searched everywhere online!!
I ended up getting different Ikea curtains (same material and similar color, but a solid: http://candyskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/04/dining-room.html) and, you know? I kinda like that visual distinction! That the dining room is it’s own room with it’s own textile. Let’s pretend I planned it that way, k?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- a happy accident. It all worked out in the end!
xo,
s
Kari says
I did something similar when I made curtains for our nursery. I couldn’t find fabric I liked, but I found some duvet covers at Ikea that were super cute with little green dots on them. They were marked down to $9.99 each, and my mom and I cut them in half and sewed a hem on them and were able to make window treatments for $10 a window, which made me super happy. Plus, my mom used the pillowcases to line the little guy’s Easter basket this year. We might have been able to use just one to get four panels, but we thought it might be too thin, plus I like double-sided curtains anyway.
(You can kind of see them here: http://throughaglass.net/archives/2010/09/08/a-room-with-a-view/ )
YoungHouseLove says
They look awesome- and what a great deal!
xo,
s
Erin says
Clara/long curtain question… I love the idea of curtains that graze or even puddle a little on the floor. However, we have none for I have a toddler (my current two-year-old) and baby (one on the way in early fall) fear of curtains that can be yanked, pulled on, and other wise used for entertainment or for learning to pull up and walk and then subsequently crash or rip to the floor.
How are you managing? Especially with long ones in Clara’s room?
YoungHouseLove says
Clara doesn’t touch any curtains yet (I say yet because every time I say she doesn’t do something she decides it’s fun the following week- haha) but by using those ring-hooks we have tugged on the fabric ourselves to “test” what would happen and just the fabric slips out (instead of the whole rod falling) which is nice. We figure it’s the safer alternative. Here’s hoping Clara doesn’t hang like a monkey anytime soon!
xo,
s
Erin says
OK, I’m getting up the nerve. Thanks for the pep talk!
Alissa says
Have you guys seen Karen’s blog, The Art of Doing Stuff? She has a post on how to un-wilt hydrangeas.
http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/flower-of-the-week-the-wilted-sorry-ass-hydrangea-how-to-bring-it-back-to-life
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- I love that. Amazing how it came back to life!
xo,
s
Jen @ The Decor Scene says
I really love that you guys went with more of a tone on tone look. LOVE IT!!!! You are so right that the rug takes center stage, plus the colorful frames. The room is really coming together. I also love these pillows on Karl. Just the right amount of texture.
By the way, I saw that commerical again on HGTV with Nate in it. I think he might be on Design Star as a surprise desginer or something like that. Or maybe they will tour his home on that new show…..oh what the heck is that show called? I just watched it the other day. Nuts sorry I can’t remember the name of the show. Well here is to seeing Nate on HGTV. Cheers!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man I saw that too. Can’t wait to see where he pops up!
xo,
s
Robyn says
This is apropos of absolutely nothing in this post, but I’m catching up on my SYTYCD fix on hulu, and had to point out that John has a twin in one of my favorite dance choreographers, Christopher Scott. Unless you’re just moonlighting as a home improver and you’re really a dance master! I’m posting a link to his pic so you can see!
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/THE+LXD+After+Party+d1qyymO2w7nl.jpg
YoungHouseLove says
I see it! And miracle of all miracles, John sees it too! He never does. This is big news. Haha.
xo,
s
Maegan says
Okay, I LOVE the curtains, but I am the only one that thinks its strange that you only use them for decoration and not also for function? I know you already touched on the privacy issue, but a great set of curtains can also help out in the heating and cooling department of the home. Hmmm… I’m not trying to be a downer… it’s just interesting to me for some reason. Although, you do live in a different part of the country than I do, so maybe you don’t need additional ways of “insulating” your house.
In any event, I love your blog, and you guys rock!!! :)
YoungHouseLove says
We just grew up with parents who never closed the curtains (used blinds on bedroom windows and front dining room/living room windows instead) so we do the same. I think you’re right- it must be a regional and what-you-grew-up-with thing!
xo,
s
Barb says
BRILLIANT!!!
SPOT ON, SHERRY!!!
A sew-er after my own heart…love the iron on!!
The room is complete and so great. Keep up the good work. KITCHEN next….right?
Love it all!!
B.
Kristin says
Love the curtains! The print is beautiful and doesn’t overwhelm or add craziness to the rest of the room. The house is awesome!
Gaidig says
Hydrangeas last a crazy long time if you dry them. I’m sure there are tutorials online.
Great job with the sewing, btw. pressing twice and then stitching is exactly how I would have done it!
nicole says
i love the bright blue hydreanga’s – try putting them in a pretty glass bowl of water (with the petal’s submerged). they love water. i’ve had some last 2 full weeks like this!
ashley jensen says
I am a big lover of no sew tape. I use it for 99% of the projects I do that involves fabric! I have cut one panel in half once to make 2 one time. I would not be opposed to doing it again!
Mary says
luv, luv the curtains and the whole room transformation -posh & comfy at the same time! Wants some hydrangea advice: Since they’re a woody stem, like rhodies, lilacs, azaleas when you cut them smash the stems with a hammer before putting into water — they’ll suck up the water and last longer!
Lauren says
Love love your blog! I have been a serious lurker for almost a year and finally commented for the first time like last week and actually started my own blog today. So thanks for all the inspiration!
Katrina says
I needed a super-cheap curtain solution for my two nursery windows in our rental. I bought two flat sheets from Walmart for $9 each, cut them in half, hemmed them with hem tape, and hung them up for the cheapest curtains ever! They look great and I don’t think I ever would have braved them if it wasn’t for you!
Katrina says
The curtains looks great!!! :)
Jessica C. says
Love love love the curtains!!!
Have you ever regretted purchasing something for a room once the whole room came together? Like the green rug for example, do you think it still fits with what you guys have done to the living room?
YoungHouseLove says
We love our green rug! It’s shaggy & cozy & perfect for the bean. Everyone who comes over plops right down on it – and four (not exaggerating) people who have seen it in person have actually ordered their own (including John’s sister Emily). Since we have green ikat curtains in the dining room (along with a green runner) and will be blowing out a huge doorway connecting the liv/kitchen/dining room someday (and plan to bring green into the kitch as well) it’ll all have a nice flow thanks to the rug, the green color in the kitch, and the runner/curtains in the dining room. At least that’s the plan!
As for regretting things we purchase in general, it definitely happens. Don’t we all do that sometimes? John and I just try our best to retrofit things so we end up liking them (by painting them, dying them, adding a slipcover, moving them from room to room, etc). Or we admit defeat and return them or craigslist them so they’re not taking up space or making us cringe. Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn, and course correct as you go!
xo,
s
Suzanne says
This is why I think you should really do more videos, even the shaky hand type (ha, yeah, I remember that Blair Witch one LOL) – back to point – so that we can all recall the green in the other rooms, and see how it can or will all tie together better than a straight photo shot can. JM2cents.
YoungHouseLove says
We love a good video house tour- we’ll have to do one of those again soon! It requires the baby to either be napping or quiet so she’s not squealing away over whoever is filming. Haha.
xo,
s
Lauren Jaramillo says
When your hydrangeas look like they are getting a little wilty, throw some ice in the vase and watch those babies perk up! I was able to keep mine alive for a long time by throwing sa little ice in the vase everyday.
Vivianne says
I love the look you created and am so glad it worked out for you guys!! We were just at Ikea last weekend and saw the exact curtains for 8 bucks/2 panels in the “as is” section. I almost picked them up for my own living room but decided to pass on them since we have 3 windows to decorate. I wish I was as brilliant as you, they would’ve looked awesome!!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh my gosh. My mouth is agape. Eight bucks for two panels!! Imagine all the pillows/runners/baby dresses someone could make with those! Haha.
xo,
s
Hilary says
i adore the curtains – they are perfect, and i’m glad you went with something softer instead of brighter.
on another note – your experience dyeing your living room slipcovers has inspired me to dye something of my own (a formerly blah bathing suit cover up, just in time to go to hawaii tomorrow). i will tweet you a before and after!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! Good luck. I keep looking around for something else to dye.
xo,
s
Meg B. says
I recently had amazing curtain luck with some deeply discounted Target curtains. The super heavy “thermal” kind even! They were originally $30 per panel but I just happened to be in my local Target a couple weeks ago and saw them on clearance for $7 each (SEVEN DOLLARS!)! I ended up getting the 4 panels I needed for two bucks less than the original price of one!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- such a steal!
xo,
s
Lindsay says
I love how your room is coming along. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
As for the hydrangeas, try drying them out. I have a bunch in my apartment from my parent’s house. I bet I’ve had them for 18 months. They keep their look when they are dried, unlike some flowers.
Hallie says
Just put the same curtains up in our dining room! Love them!
Becca says
Oh, I love those curtains! We were just at our “local” (re: 3 hours away) Ikea in Atlanta, and they were still in stock, but I didn’t get them because of the $50 price tag. :(
Tiffany says
I have to confess, as a custom window treatment fabricator I kind of had an “egads!” moment when you mentioned splitting the widths of the curtains. I had visions of these skinny little slivers of fabric hanging pitifully off to the sides of your windows. Thankfully, your project turned out beautifully and I think they are just the right size. I give them a big ol’ professional thumbs up!!
Oh, and as for the 4 in. hems…most professionals do a blind stitch. This can be done by hand, or with your machine. Although, your no-sew method would work just fine for the average D.I.Y.er (and truthfully nobody except for a curtain expert would ever notice the difference). My only suggestion is dropping a little weight in the corners of the bottom hems to keep them from flipping out. An oversized washer works really well for this purpose.
YoungHouseLove says
I love the washer trick! I’ll have to add some.
xo,
s
Ambierre says
Very cute! I’m just curious though, was this your longest post EVER? It took me forever to scroll through on my iPad lol! You are awesome at fully explaining things , it’s like a mad skill of yours haha, way to go!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha quite possibly. It was up there for sure!
xo,
s
Lindaroo says
Great look with the new curtains, and I’m totally impressed by your problem-solving skills! My mom’s house has a huge window wall. I took three curtains and split one down the middle, then added one half to each of the two whole curtains, to end up with two really wide curtains that could close over the entire wall. Then, because they were too short, I lopped off the bottom 12 inches and added a 5 inch wide strip of accent fabric before sewing that bottom section back on. It looks fantastic, if I do say so myself!
Ana Silva says
Wow the room looks great! What a difference the curtains made. I love the color and pattern. So glad you went this route. A bright loud curtain would have been too much. You guys just think of everything! And the size is perfect. What a great idea. I might end up doing this at some point. Girl you got skillz (yup with a z). By the way I laughed out loud to myself reading your Oreo story. Too funny.
Mary says
I think what I love the most is that the curtains are still hanging while you are cutting and ironing the bottom hems! Too funny!
justy says
The curtains look great and I giggled all the way through the post- great bit of writing!
Patti says
Lovely! And as a sewer, I totally get the NO JOHN CUTS scissors. My husband couldn’t care less and uses any scissors that he can get his hands on. Perhaps I should invest in this?
http://www.shopfonsandporter.com/product/Quilters-Scissors-Lock-Over-8/fabric-and-notions
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- that would be pretty hardcore. But well worth it if the man can’t keep his hands off them. Haha.
xo,
s
Maggie says
Curtains look great.
Question time. By not closing curtains in winter doesn’t it allow the cold in? I know if I don’t close them I can feel the cold seep in and need the heating up higher(and higher costs) to keep it warm. Do you guys not have this challenge too?
YoungHouseLove says
We love good ol’ brick ranchers. They’re so sealed up it’s crazy! Not a draft to be felt. Actually our first house had some old windows that were a little drafty come to think of it, but we got all new windows there. In this house a lot of them have already been replaced and those that are original are nice and weatherstripped so there’s no lost heat or anything like that. If you have that issue nice lined thick curtains would be great energy savers for sure!
xo,
s
Belinda says
Hi guys!
I absolutely love your house and the amazing colours you are using in this house.
I particularly love your living room and shamelessly want to copy it in my own home. Do you think it could work with a dark brown couch until we can afford to upgrade?
YoungHouseLove says
Totally! Dark brown sofas are like dark brown furniture (a total neutral in a space). We say go for it!
xo,
s
jess says
love, love, love!
Jen says
We have the same curtains in our master bedroom, but we use them in the place of sheers. We have dark gray ones on the outside and these we pull closed at night for a bit of privacy. Love them! I hemmed mine on my sewing machine and it’s hardly noticeable.
Joanne says
I am loving this room a whole lot more just from simply changing the cushions. I’m definitely feeling those whites one a lot more. I love the contrast of dark sectional and light pillows. I’m also excited to see what you will add to your frames.
Meg says
Lovely curtains. I checked, and they are “most likely available” at my nearest Ikea. A bit pricey, though, as they aren’t on sale. So the next time you are planning a trip to the Tokyo area….
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- they’re also available in Australia too I think! You lucky international folks!
xo,
s
keri says
no way! i hate to say this…but i just bought those curtains at the Atlanta IKEA last weekend!!! only to return them a week later after i saw on my receipt that they were $49!! (i thought the sign said $29). all that to say…i guess they aren’t totally sold out of them! but i’m thinking you solved your problem just fine anyway!!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s crazy! They must be in some stores still! Someone else mentioned that they saw one set of them in the as-is bin for something like $8! How amazing would that be?! Thankfully it all worked out in the end.
xo,
s
Tania says
This post causes me physical pain so traumatic are the memories of a similar experience. About a month before we moved, we went to Ikea to get a sense of what we wanted for the new apartment. We decided that various roller blinds (Enje and Tupplur) were perfect for different rooms but we wanted to hold off on getting them until we were in the new apartment so it’d be once less set of stuff to move. Well, about six weeks later we go Ikea to get our much anticipated window coverings and wouldn’t you know it? Ikea discontinued every single one of their roller blinds! I thought I might actually cry in the store. Great job in improvising with the curtains, would love some thoughts on what else could sub in for inexpensive yet stylish roller blinds.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man that’s so sad! I feel for you Tania! Anyone have a link or a suggestion for inexpensive clean-lined roller blinds?
xo,
s