Wednesday, July 4, 2012
One Room Challenge, Week Two: the curtains
The ORC continues! In keeping with the Fourth of July, I will show you my red, white and blue (and yellow and green and pink and teal) living room curtains.
You may recall that my living room has four windows--two on the left wall, and one on either side of the fireplace. The windows are nearly twelve feet tall, so that meant that none of my old ninety-six and eighty-four-inch living room curtains would fit these windows without some adjustment. Also, those hideous vertical blinds are here to stay; the best I can do is hide them with curtains.
Twelve feet is not a curtain size one can buy in stores; you will have to make them yourself or pay someone else to do so. When I calculated how much fabric I would need, I thought to myself--four windows equals eight panels; two per window. That's thirty-two yards. Clearly, I need a very cheap fabric, about $5 a yard.
Except! That L-shaped window on the left really only needed four panels, not six. So....that's six panels total (including the other window to the right of the fireplace) instead of eight. I actually needed only twenty-four yards of fabric, not thirty-two.
I didn't realize that until AFTER I had bought the fabric. Math is not my friend.
And...for some reason, thinking that I needed thirty-two yards of fabric, somehow I bought THIRTY-SEVEN yards of fabric. An entire bolt of fabric, plus an extra yard, just in case. (Just in case the neighbors also needed curtains, and possibly upholster their sofa with the extra yardage?)
Lastly, I realize the math doesn't work out, and I don't know how this happened, but I had over fourteen yards of fabric left over. (Again--math--not my friend. I don't know how it happened! I know my engineer-do-math-crap-for-a-living sisters are going to give me so much grief about how even my numbers from the screw up don't match up.)
Luckily, it turned out that making twelve foot curtains for the stairwell also required twelve yards of fabric, so it didn't go to waste. (Thirty five yards down, two left! Who needs curtains? Anyone?)
After searching around for a pretty but cheap fabric, I decided on the Gullan Blom fabric from Ikea. I love the large scale graphic, and it had a veritable rainbow of colors, all of which worked with the furniture I already own, especially the red leather club chair and bright blue wingback. Best of all, it was $5.99 a yard.
I rolled out the bolt of fabric from one end of the living room to the other, measured 147 inches, and cut the panels. As you can see from this picture, I was working at night, in the dark, in a room without overhead lights, with the one lamp that we had unpacked.
After each panel was cut, I ironed the top with hemming tape to provide a stiffer edge for the curtain rings to grip.
I called many a handyman to install the curtain rods, but no one would do it. In the end we rented a twelve-foot ladder from Home Depot and did it ourselves. This took wayyyyyyy longer than we thought it would. Probably owing to the fact that neither of us likes heights, so our fear kept us firmly on the floor for frequent breaks. I didn't take any pictures of that part.
We installed super-cheap Ikea Hugad curtain rods, Betydlig brackets, and Syrlig curtain rings in white. These rods were a nice thick size, clean-lined, modern and inexpensive. One curtain rod, two brackets, two packs of curtain rings and two finials were $17. While you can find cheap curtain rods at Target, the rod itself is usually very thin and small; this one was thick and had heft. (I fear this sounds like I am making an innuendo, doesn't it?) Plus, like the rods in our dining room, we were able to use the Racka curtain connector to go around the left corner.
The end product:
You can see Week 1 of the One Room Challenge here.
Check out the other participants in the One Room Challenge:
You may recall that my living room has four windows--two on the left wall, and one on either side of the fireplace. The windows are nearly twelve feet tall, so that meant that none of my old ninety-six and eighty-four-inch living room curtains would fit these windows without some adjustment. Also, those hideous vertical blinds are here to stay; the best I can do is hide them with curtains.
Except! That L-shaped window on the left really only needed four panels, not six. So....that's six panels total (including the other window to the right of the fireplace) instead of eight. I actually needed only twenty-four yards of fabric, not thirty-two.
I didn't realize that until AFTER I had bought the fabric. Math is not my friend.
And...for some reason, thinking that I needed thirty-two yards of fabric, somehow I bought THIRTY-SEVEN yards of fabric. An entire bolt of fabric, plus an extra yard, just in case. (Just in case the neighbors also needed curtains, and possibly upholster their sofa with the extra yardage?)
Lastly, I realize the math doesn't work out, and I don't know how this happened, but I had over fourteen yards of fabric left over. (Again--math--not my friend. I don't know how it happened! I know my engineer-do-math-crap-for-a-living sisters are going to give me so much grief about how even my numbers from the screw up don't match up.)
Luckily, it turned out that making twelve foot curtains for the stairwell also required twelve yards of fabric, so it didn't go to waste. (Thirty five yards down, two left! Who needs curtains? Anyone?)
After searching around for a pretty but cheap fabric, I decided on the Gullan Blom fabric from Ikea. I love the large scale graphic, and it had a veritable rainbow of colors, all of which worked with the furniture I already own, especially the red leather club chair and bright blue wingback. Best of all, it was $5.99 a yard.
I rolled out the bolt of fabric from one end of the living room to the other, measured 147 inches, and cut the panels. As you can see from this picture, I was working at night, in the dark, in a room without overhead lights, with the one lamp that we had unpacked.
After each panel was cut, I ironed the top with hemming tape to provide a stiffer edge for the curtain rings to grip.
I called many a handyman to install the curtain rods, but no one would do it. In the end we rented a twelve-foot ladder from Home Depot and did it ourselves. This took wayyyyyyy longer than we thought it would. Probably owing to the fact that neither of us likes heights, so our fear kept us firmly on the floor for frequent breaks. I didn't take any pictures of that part.
We installed super-cheap Ikea Hugad curtain rods, Betydlig brackets, and Syrlig curtain rings in white. These rods were a nice thick size, clean-lined, modern and inexpensive. One curtain rod, two brackets, two packs of curtain rings and two finials were $17. While you can find cheap curtain rods at Target, the rod itself is usually very thin and small; this one was thick and had heft. (I fear this sounds like I am making an innuendo, doesn't it?) Plus, like the rods in our dining room, we were able to use the Racka curtain connector to go around the left corner.
The end product:
You can see Week 1 of the One Room Challenge here.
Check out the other participants in the One Room Challenge:
18 comments:
OMG! What an amazing difference. You have true vision - most people wouldn't realize how amazing that big print would be in your room. You did it! I hope you sit in one of your pretty chairs, drink a cuppa and enjoy the view. And P.S. You deserve a prize for figuring out a way to hide those hideous vertical blinds:) Can't wait to see the rest of the room if this is how you start!
OK, now I understand how you ended up with so much fabric. You did not calculate wrong at all. They look great. Can't wait to see what you do next week.
Isn;t it amazing how curtains warm up and brighten a room? The color pop is perfect for this room and your family!!
FUN and graphic! "Been there done that" with measuring fabric...such a pain!:)
Your living room is looking great! Very cute fabric!
WOW! Great fabric - but I have so done that too, bought too much or not enough! Looking good:)
Hi there, I saw the name of your blog and had to check it out! The drapes were a huge undertaking and really emphasize the high ceilings! Enjoy the 4th! You deserve it!
Wow...kudos to you Lisa. I've made curtains before (and romans) and it's a lot of crawling around on the floor, cutting and measuring (don't even get me started on the math part). So i'm super impressed that you made it through this project! And they look fabulous...what a difference in that room!
They turned out great!! I'm always amazed how the pattern looks when it's up. The scale of your fabric print looks huge up there on the windows...such a great choice, and you gotta love the price...My room has some Ikea bargoons too. Great Job!!
Wow! what a pop of color! Looks great! Can't wait to see the next step!
curtains make the room! Too bad if you still lived in NJ you could have gone to the Fabric Warehouse in Rahway great selection of fabric and very reasonable.
Cecilia
That fabric is so happy! Looks fantastic, too! You have been very busy! Math is so not my friend, either! Happy 4th!
Oh they look so pretty, they were worth all the work!
Gutsy! And I don't mean getting up on the ladder, either--though kudos for that!
WHOA Lisa! I LOVE IT! so great, so bold and unapologetic, you really get it :) you should totally enter our giveaway today - one of the prints would look get in this room! so excited for you!
Awww...love the fun color they add! Well done, lady!
What a difference this makes in your room! I love this splash of color. You did a great job on these drapes.
Love that fabric, and wow they really make a difference on those big windows! I have similar ones in my LR and have been on the fence about how to treat them...you've inspired me! :)
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