Living Room Curtains

I love the large picture window in our living room and have been searching for just the right thing to use as a covering without breaking the bank.

First up--hardware to hang curtains. The house came with wooden brackets that were simple and unobtrusive. They were filthy, but usable, so I cleaned and painted them with trim paint (all trim in the house is Olympic Zero VOC, Ultra-White). We bought a super-long wooden rod at Lowes and painted it with trim paint. Total cost: about $13. Going basic with the hardware allows us to spend more money on the actual curtains—they thing that we want to be fun and stand out. At some point, I might find a way to spruce up the rod once we get the perfect curtains in there. But, for now they are a blank slate.

I thought about making my own curtains and went through loads of fabric books from a local store, but the ones I like best were over $40 a yard. No way! So, found these cuties on JCPenney's website for a mere $17.99 per panel (the price has since gone up) plus I had a coupon. I wasn't sure if the Light Jadestone colors were a match, so I picked them up at the store where they they were about double the cost—boo! I decided to take them home anyway and see them in the room. The verdict: we need four panels, 84 inches is too short, I hate the grommet top, when the sun shines through them they look orange and striped. But, the colors are good in the space and they add whimsy to the room, which I am totally craving. Our solution: order the too-long 95-inch curtains and sew them into pocket-top panels, hiding the grommets. I'll look for neutral sheets at yard sales to create a liner for them to avoid the sun/strip issue.

The curtains are ordered (they were back-ordered for a few weeks, now I see it is up to a few months for new orders), yard sale season is coming to find the sheets, and the total cost should come in at about $80, which is not cheap, but is a lot better than $120+ with the stress of sewing uber-expensive material. Could I go cheaper? Probably. But, this seems to be a happy medium of cost, ease, style, and buying new when it fits the bill but incorporating used items as much as possible (rather than buying new sheets or new liner fabric).

Our cheap rod (the grommet top just looks goofy to me) plus the too-short curtains with weird stripes in the sun.

But see the potential for cuteness? I love the rug/curtain color combo.