It appears that I’m going through an anti-curtain phase. A year ago I thought extra tall patterned curtains were the best thing on the planet, but now I’d be happy to live curtain free the rest of my life. That’s me. Fickle, fickle, fickle. I worry I’ll exhaust my options and a year from now I’ll go head-on into a vicious passion for vertical blinds. Won’t that be fun!
Welp. The dining room curtains came down for painting the walls this summer, and the moment they were off, I realized how much more spacious and bright the room felt without them. So they stayed off long after the paint dried. Me likey. Isn’t it funny how painting a room has a domino effect on everything else?
If I didn’t live so close to neighbors, I’d probably live curtain-free altogether, but as privacy is an issue, I need something. A little something. Café curtains would have fit the bill, but I wanted a cleaner look. I measured the panel the exact width of the window, and stitched two channels along the top and bottom hem, then slipped in the tension rods and BAM. Tight as a drum.
The bottom half of the window is covered, but light can still get in, and the fabric panel is shown off to its best advantage. Plus, I can still open the window whenever I want – I just nudge up the bottom tension rod and the fabric folds over nicely. Nifty huh?
You could do this in any room of the house with less than a yard of fabric, and very little sewing skills. In fact, you could probably skip the sewing and use a roll of iron-on stitch witchery, or fabric glue instead. I’d still use an iron to get the crisp edges, but other than that, it doesn’t take much. Just a little fabric and tension rods. Shazam!
PS: I bought this Marimeko fabric for $5.95 a yard at the Crate and Barrel Factory Outlet in Naperville. Marimekko normally sells between $50 and $100 a yard, so I stocked up good. If you in the area, you have got to get out there. They just put out the Christmas goodies and the getting’ is good!
Not to rain on your “quick” parade, but with it being such fabulous fabric, you probably want to line those suckers with some muslin so the sun doesn’t destroy it!
Good idea in general, but I’m not worried. I picked the fabric specifically to let as much light through as possible. I’ll probably get bored of it long before the fading shows. This speaks to a larger problem…
🙂
i’ve been meaning to make something like that for my front window for a YEAR now. I was just worried it would look like crap. Yours look great though! I think I could make a reasonable copy without too many tears….
p.s. your full articles started showing up in my Feedly reader, did you change your policy on that? I am still clicking though because I want to support your website, and I feel like that helps. (Right? I never know, things change so fast) But I never minded the short blurbs in my reader before.
Hmmm…that is odd. I think some stuff changed when I switched over to wordpress earlier this month. I appreciate you clicking over though. You’d be surprised how many angry emails I get from folks demanding I fix it so they don’t ever have to visit my site. Ha! Guess there is no pleasing everyone! Thanks for the heads up though, Stephanie, I appreciate that more than you know 🙂
Anytime friend! The interned is a big mysterious swirling vortex to me, and I ALWAYS appreciate any help I can get. And internet karma is real. For sure.