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…
Jasmine says
Good work saving the curtains! I love a good ending. Another thought for curtains down the road would be to use the patterned fabric (say you only had two panels) as either an edge or a couple of feet of contrast bottom (or top) on a pair of plain coordinating curtains. You wouldn’t have pattern all over, but it would give you a little hit if there was no other answer (like, they weren’t ‘gangked’ up to begin with). Something to think about later on too-I find that after drapes have hung for a while, they can look less perky. If you line them (something cheap or a plain pair of ready-mades) they have more body and the light doesn’t pass through tem if you don’t want the airy look.
Kristin says
I am loving the more neutral, soft colored pillows. I love everything you guys do (except the green rug…sorry, I want to love it, but can’t :) ) but I wasn’t feeling the pillows. NOw I love what you’ve got going on! You’re such an inspiration to this wannabe novice decorator newbie.
Nevin says
To me, curtains are like finger nail polish, they just add a finishing touch to a room. Love the subtleness of the print! I too have found fabric on sale and cut the width in half to make 2 long panels, despite the guy at Calico Corners telling me “oh, don’t do that!”. I did and they look great! Like yours, mine stay put! Thanks for always making me think outside the box!
Megan Brewer says
Beautiful fabric! I LOVE the graphic design on them! I just blogged about loving graphic designs on fabric this morning. We are so in sync!
Hope you all are having a great Monday!
Megan
http://cottagebluedesigns.blogspot.com/
Kate says
Speaking of your diva dog, have you seen these cardboard chihuahuas from d-torso? http://www.wtv.co.jp/com/dt5700110.html
YoungHouseLove says
Obsessed!
xo,
s
Allison says
The room looks great! Just a tip on the hydrangeas…if you dip the tips in boiling water right after cutting, and then place in fresh cold water, they usually last a week or more.
Allyn says
The fiance and I just had this done to some curtains! It was some old panels Ive had for years, carrying them from apartment to apartment. We tried hanging them in our new office, and they were just too big for the window. Major bummer. My smart man suggested we take one to our dry cleaners and have them split one down the middle. Bingo! They’re perfect.
And now I really need a sewing machine.
Elizabeth says
I know I could look back through volumes of posts to find this but, well I am a slacker…Where did you find the artichoke candle holder? I love it, I need it, I cannot exist without it!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s from TJ Maxx for like $3. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Julie says
FYI – z gallerie has something very similar for 10 bucks. I’ve seen it in store, it’s very cute. 3x the price of the TJ Maxx version, but if you can’t live without it :-) http://www.zgallerie.com/p-4044-fleur-tealight-holders.aspx
[email protected] says
Oh! I totally know the bummer feeling! I just went to Ikea a few days ago, only to find out that these amazing metal, sculptured desk/table legs I wanted had been discontinued a few months ago too! BUMMER! I have been planning on building a simple side-table, and now I totally have to rethink how I want to do it. :(
As for splitting curtains, SCORE! It makes things cheaper and we get to feel resourceful! I’ve been planning to do that to one of our Ikea curtains in my home office: http://designbuildlove.co/?p=513
LOVE the curtains you guys picked! Tonal grey with a natural patter… definitely a good choice!
bostonadrianne says
Hey Sherry, window treatments look great, well done!! There are a lot of comments here so forgive me if this has already been mentioned above but regarding Hydrangeas – they need to gulp down a lot of water so try using a vegetable peeler on the bottom 4-5 inches of the stem and cut off the outer barky stuff before you put them in a vase so that they can really soak in the water. That should help keep them from looking wilty too quickly. (My mom just got a job at a flower shop and she learned that trick from the owner -yay!) Again, sorry if that was already said but we totally just talked about this yesterday with my family so it seemed timely to share. :)
Best, Adrianne
Emily says
The curtains look awesome! I agree that the neutral looks great…the rug is enough color.
I am having a curtain conundrum myself. I have been wanting to make curtains for two windows in the corner of our living room. I am finding it difficult because the windows meet at the corner and one is wider than the other. (36 inches wide, and 72 inches wide). I can’t decide between putting two curtain panels on each side of each window, or two curtain panels on just the large window and one on the smaller one. I’m worried it is either going to look too bunched up in the corner, or too unbalanced.
I am also struggling to find good fabric at an appropriate price and had considered cutting up the middle. I am in love with the Annie Selke Links in Slate http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=zprd_02316784a
but even with the 50% off sale Joann’s was having last week it would have cost a ton.
Any ideas?
P.S. I am also currently waiting/hoping for Ikea to get their Lagan butcher block countertops back in stock so I can replace my ocean blue ones. They’ve been out for months due to manufacture issues.
YoungHouseLove says
Oooh that is so pretty! My only idea would be to go a dicount fabric outlet (maybe google around to see where one is) and see if you can find something similar or identical on clearance. Good luck!
xo,
s
cd says
I totally did the halve-those-puppies on Ikea curtains for our bedroom! Motivated half because I’m, uh, frugal?, and half because the windows in our room – all four – are wayyyy too close to the corners – no high-and-wide for us! Boooo. I’ve been worried I can’t re-sell them, but maybe I can since your post has now made out of production, halved Ikea curtains THE THING! ;)
Jessica says
We are actually looking for curtains for our bedroom. We’ve been in our place for almost a year and almost every morning, we are woken up by blinding sun that makes us move to the couch on weekends! Seriously, I’ve considered putting sunglasses on in the morning.
I have had zero luck finding nice, affordable blackout drapes that measure 8 ft tall and 5 ft across. I priced some online just last night with an adorable Dwell Studio fabric and an opaque liner that came out to……$1600! OUCH! I’m quite intimidated to go the DIY route for such big curtains. Any suggestions on resources?
YoungHouseLove says
I think you can probably google “how to sew my own curtains” or “how to make curtains” for some great tutorials on lining and everything! We have made homemade sewn ones (on a sewing machine with discount fabric) and homemade iron-hemmed ones (without a sewing machine) without any liners, so here are those two tutorials for ya:
https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/06/my-babies/
https://www.younghouselove.com/2011/01/look-how-domestic-my-wife-is/
Good luck!
xo,
s
Jessica says
Thanks, Sherry! I think I’ll take the plunge and try it out. I have a sewing maching and have used the hem tape a few months ago on our gauzy curtain closet “door” (thanks to your tutorial!), which came out pretty good.
As far as fabrics are concerned, do you recommend any type over another? I want to line it with some kind of opaque or blocking liner.
YoungHouseLove says
I prefer things that aren’t too sheer or silky (like cotton, which is easy to work with). Just ask at the fabric store if something you like would work for X (ex: would this work for curtains with liner?). Good luck!
xo,
s
Julie M. says
Hi. This is just an observation, but is there anyway you can duplicate or add another link to the comments at the bottom of your posts. Your posts are fairly lengthy and after I scroll and scroll to read them, I’m at the bottom of the post and realize that I have no way to click in and see what people are saying. I have to scroll way, way back up and honestly most times I just abandon and don’t read. Just a thought, most blogs have the comments link at the bottom.
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry Julie, it’s just the format of our blog’s theme (WP-Remix, which is also what Making It Lovely uses). We’d love to add a shortcut link to comments at the bottom of each post though- we just have to figure out how to code it. Thanks for the suggestion!
xo,
s
Julie M. says
Thanks! Nicole has the link at the bottom of her posts as well. Maybe coordinate with her. That would be great!
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah- we’ll have to shoot her an email if we can’t figure it out!
xo,
s
Sara says
I know people have suggested the boiling water for your hydrangeas, which work… But also, for the ones that have punked out, re-cut the stems and sumberge them in water ( like in your kitchen sink) for about an hour and they will come right back to life. You can do it for a at least 2 weeks every time they start to wilt.
YoungHouseLove says
I’m seriously loving all the hydrangea tips!
xo,
s
Emily says
Ooh love these! Great idea to trim them to size horizontally too. :)
Emma says
Wow! They look amazing! Way to go miss sew goddess. :)
Sarah says
The lightness of the curtains looks fresh, but why such cheap and spindly little curtain rods? I know you’re big into oil rubbed bronze, but those rods kill the room. They look especially cheap and out of place just below those massive beams. Not everything has to be matchy-match and oil rubbed. I think you’re relying too much on the same shortcuts/tricks over and over again: one mirror on this side, the same boring mirror on the other side; one cold and impersonal massive horse picture on one side, and another equally cold and impersonal horse picture on the other side. Back and forth you keep going.
YoungHouseLove says
We’ve always loved those rods (we used them all over our last house too). I guess it’s one of those personal preference things like eyeliner. Some like it thick, and some like it thin. We also didn’t want big chunky rods competing (or matching) our big chunky beams – we like the contrast of thick and thin instead (didn’t want the room to feel too top-heavy). Especially since we didn’t want to overpower such light & soft curtains with a big honking rod. We also liked the oil-rubbed bronze mirror & the oil-rubbed bronze rods layered into the room with gleaming silver lamps on the console (as opposed to going matchy-matchy with all of the room’s metals). And as for mirrors, we just have one in the room (above the desk) and actually don’t have matching mirrors anywhere in our house. It’s a full on mirror smorgasbord over here. Haha.
xo,
s
rd shugart says
Love the curtains! I think window treatments, or the lack of can really make or break a room.
On another note, Oreos and Pringles are totally my weakness so we never have them in the house. I just cannot control myself! Sad, but true!
Heather - Diapers & Divas says
Love the curtains! They play on the Moroccan / Ikat thing I’m so diggin’ right now. Might have to see if they have any at our Ikea for maybe our living room. I only need 2 packs! Big Money, Big Money, No Wammies!
Beth says
Sherry,
I love all the pillows that you use to bring accent color and texture to your rooms! Thank you for always giving buying info too! How do you store pillows that you are not using? We are in a relatively small apartment and I love throw pillows but can only rotate them to a few places! Any storage ideas/hints?
Beth
YoungHouseLove says
Well our solution isn’t exactly practical but we have a playroom that’s not put together yet full of all of our out of rotation furniture and accessories. But when baby number two comes along in a few years we’ll have to get on that and figure something else out. One great idea is to make or buy pillow covers so you only have to store them (folded in a drawer or basket in the closet) as opposed to storing big fluffy pillows. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
LARY says
How creative Sherry! They look amazing! I can’t believe it has only been six months, the room looks super cozy like you guys have been there for longer.
clieu says
Love the curtains, I got me some Alvine Kottars to un-dull my (rental) living room (beige walls, beige couches) and we use lime green accents too! (along with a turquoise-gray). I just got a clock that I want to paint, I just might have to try one of your other jewel tones :)
aaroohii says
So what’s the name of these curtains?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, now accepting applications. Anyone have any good name ideas? A Swede just told us that Kottar (from their Ikea name) means pinecone. So cute, but not exactly a name like Karl or Ed. Hmm. And I think they’re girls. Maybe Flora?
xo,
s
aaroohii says
oh u’re so cute sherry.. I actually meant the real name.. the name that Ikea gives its products
YoungHouseLove says
Oops, haha. The real name is Alvine Kottar. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Lisa says
I love the curtain cutting idea. I have a pair on my sliding glass door that I got from World Market (Aqua) and added a flowy off white curtain on the inside. The effect is not exactly what I expected and it may be because the aqua curtains are a bit too wide. I’m going to have a closer look when I get home from work to see what cutting them might do. Thanks for all the great tips you give on your blog. My home has transformed into a more colorful, modern place since I started checking out your blog.
DJ says
First, I absolutely LOVE your blog and enjoy all of your great ideas! Ikea did this same thing last April with a coffee table! It was still listed as NEW in the catalog but was discontinued even though the matching side tables were still NEW!??
April showers bring randomly discontinued Ikea items.
I have also cut curtains in half and bought cheaper “shorter” curtains then added fabric to the bottoms to add length and also a color block look. I took tan 60″ish panels and added a dark brown block on the bottom for a nice custom look!
Amy says
Super clever! You guys are going to be done with your house in like 20 minutes! What you’ve accomplished is amazing and inspiring.
Sonda says
Another source for inexpensive material is flat bed sheets. I got a sheet on clearance and made four curtain panels for my son’s bedroom. Sometimes you can come across vintage sheets at Goodwill for $2.99. That is a lot of material for the price!
YoungHouseLove says
Love that!
xo,
s
Christy K says
If you ever get brave enough you could do like The Nester did in her master bedroom and use bed sheets. ;) I actually did for my living room. Right now I’m not sold on them, but then again I didn’t have enough white in the room so they look like little lone wall flowers lol. I’m actually thinking of dying them now that I’ve seen your fabric dying experiences.
Michelle says
Love the curtains!
Jess says
I used the same curtains in my living room. For a twist, I bought long white linen panels and cut about a foot off them, then added a similar length swatch of the gray IKEA fabric to the bottom. I then sewed button along the seam (I sewed the gray over the top of the white). It draws the eye up/down the curtains giving the room some additional height and keeps the room from becoming to stark with the white linen and white trim.
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh those sound really pretty! Feel free to post a pic over on our Facebook page!
xo,
s
Laura says
The room looks great! We’ve done the EXACT same thing with curtain panels from Ikea! The windows in our living room are weird and skinny & don’t fit any normal curtain panel sizes, so we cut Ikea panels in halves and hung ’em up! We actually hang ours so that they’re completely flat when closed (we’re curtain closing/opening people) which works out even better when you’re cutting up panels because it means you get more out of each panel :)
Skooks says
I’ve totally done the chop down the middle trick before. And on windows that are only one windowpane wide, you can still even draw em closed when you want to. I found some in the As-Is bin at IKEA and they now live in our play room. :)
Oh . . . and what you’re looking for (in sewing terms) with regard to that bottom hem is a blind hem stitch. Your machine probably has that stitch built into it (it’s fairly standard I think) and you may even have the foot too. Check it out. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much Skooks! I thought it would be all hard- looks like my machine might just do the work for me. Haha.
xo,
s
Amy @ This DIY Life says
I read a couple of the other ideas for your hydrangeas and they are true! We have a white Annabelle out front and last year I dried some of them. In order to arrange them after they dry, you just dip them in water then they won’t break apart everywhere. And since I know you have a knack for dyeing things, dried hydrangeas can be dyed too! Works splendidly. (Not sure if someone already mentioned that.)
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh never heard of that- might be fun to try!
xo,
s
Kristin says
Lookin’ good! I love when things work out so well.
I’m having my own curtain issue in our family room as we speak. I bought 3 sets of white panels from Ikea for our windows in the living. I tried to dye them Royal Blue, but they came out looking Denim Blue. Yuck, definitely not the look we’re going for. I’m going to try to dye them Navy blue and HOPE it works out. I’m sick of looking at the sad curtainless-windows. It’s like they’re missing eyebrows.
Wish me luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Luck!
xo,
s
KatieV says
The room looks FANTASTIC! I love the tone-on-tone choice for the curtains.
Someone might have mentioned this, so don’t be annoyed if this is a repeat, but it’s best to sew on the top/right side of the fabric (not on the back where you can see the fold). This stitching usually looks better and this’ll also help ensure your stitch line is as straight as possible. You just have to make sure to measure your fold (let’s say it’s 5/8 inch) and make your stitch line a little closer to the edge (say 1/2 inch). :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip!!
xo,
s
Stephanie says
Love the new curtains! After painting several rooms in our new house, I am ready to move on to curtains and decor. Looking forward to using some of your ideas to make my own curtains!
Mel Heth says
The curtains look great – and what a bargain!
I did my own wedding flowers a couple months ago and I read online that if you dip a clipped hydrangea in hot water before putting it in a cool water-filled vase, it’ll last longer. Apparently sometimes their inner sap/flower juice clogs up the stems and they aren’t able to properly drink. The hot water shock is supposed to open the pores and get the sappy stuff out of the way so they can properly absorb water. Just thought I’d share the tip! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for all the hydrangea tips everyone!
xo,
s
Chrissie says
Beautiful curtains! You can try rehydrating your hydrangeas by soaking them petals down in some water for twenty minutes or so, and then giving the stem a fresh cut and putting them back in the vase. Sometimes they need some extra love =) Haven’t tried this on hydrangeas from my garden, but it works on the commercial ones.
Kate says
Like the new curtains! We just moved into a house that did not have one single curtain when we got it (but luckily it did at least have those not-extremely-attractive honeycomb shades on most windows). Finding the right curtains can be difficult!
Have you had much experience with black out curtains! We currently have some very pretty ones from Target in our bedroom but the scarlet red won’t go with our new medium blue bedroom, and I’m having the hardest time finding curtains that actually block out the light and aren’t really ugly! The fairly nice looking ones all have reviews saying they don’t block light well, or they’re insanely expensive. My husband currently works nights, so blocking out the sun is a must. I think I might resort to getting a double rod and layering pretty curtains over the sort of ugly black out ones. Have you ever dealt with this, or are you both embrace the morning sun type of people?
Kate says
Also, I’m totally stealing the idea of the Ikea white curtains/bamboo blinds combo for our living room. I’m going to be thinking of you guys when I hang them up!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw good luck!
xo,
s
YoungHouseLove says
We use white faux wood blinds for privacy and light-blocking so we’re not curtain experts when it comes to the blackout variety. Anyone have any tips or links for Kate?
xo,
s
Kate says
Do the white blinds block out light well? I had considered those wide white or dark brown blinds as well, but wasn’t sure if they really blocked out light.
YoungHouseLove says
They don’t make the room pitch black (once your eyes adjust you could see a hand in front of your face) but I’d say they block 95% of the light. Just a little sneaks in along the sides and stuff like that. Roller shades of all things used to be in our last house before we replaced them and they blocked almost 100% of the light! You could add them under a pretty valance or pair of bamboo blinds and just use them at night to black light?
xo,
s
Caitlin says
My husband and I recently started renting a house and the homeowner had left curtains on all the windows. The windows are rather tall and thin, and have long, flowing white curtains just hung from clips and a curtain rod. I thought to myself that they were rather nice curtains, gave the room a very relaxed look since they were crisp and white and flowing. One day I decided that they really needed to be washed, so I went searching for a tag for washing instructions. To my surprise, the homeowner had used white Mainstays (Walmart brand) bedsheets! They work perfect and look great and I never would have guessed. I checked our local Walmart and they were $10 and came in so many colors. They used two sheets for each window(one for each side) but you could definitely use one, or get one and cut it. But for not having to do any cutting or hemming I might be able to manage $10. I thought this was a pretty creative solution to the eternal “how to buy curtains on a budget” problem, and I couldn’t even tell they were just flat bedsheets until I saw the label.
YoungHouseLove says
Very smart! I love that you figured it out by the tag. So funny!
xo,
s
Amanda says
I love them! I feel like curtains (even if they’re relatively neutral like the ones y’all chose) add so much to a room. Rooms never feel fully finished to me unless they have some flowy curtains! :)
Shari @ Chicago Cuisine Critique says
Looks great!
Erika says
Oh man! This was like reading my own story several months back. I had my heart set on this one fabric at IKEA for the curtains I plan to make for our master bedroom. I got all set to complete the project before Christmas last year and when I arrived they didn’t even have enough left to cover one of the two windows. Plus, no one could tell me if the item would be back in stock…ever. I was teary. Then on another trip to visit a friend in Alexandria I stopped off at the Woodbridge store just to check. I did a little dance in the store when I found a whole, unopened bolt. My 15 month old just looked at me like I was nuts. IKEA can make you crazy, I suppose.
BTW- I pulled a similar window dressing trick with tablecloths from Target. I didn’t want super wide panels for our dining room, so I cut extra long tablecloths from Dwell Studio for Target in half for our two regular and one double window. They came out pretty nice, but the under $22.00 price tag for each cloth made them come out BEAUTIFUL.
http://kitschdesigns.com/post/DIY-ndash3b-The-Dining-Room–Finally-Some-Progress-To-Share!.aspx
Your family room is looking really cozy!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah, those came out so well. Love how the room transformed!
xo,
s
kelly says
you’re so resourceful! you can always line the curtains with some white material if you don’t want them to blow out as much.
Kelly says
I love that you can write 2,700 words on curtains and I still want more. Anywho, we have a gorgeous hydrangea plant too (unfortunately on the side of our house no one goes on) so I go crazy every year cutting them and bringing them inside. If you let them sit in water for a bit and then empty it they should dry and be gorgeous. They usually turn reddish with tinges of green and purple. I toss them after a year but I think you could preserve them too.
Kate @ Savour Fare says
I am a huge proponent of Ikea drapes.
dinah says
Love how brave you were with the curtains to cut them up!
Check out this post if you haven’t already for hydrangea tips from Design Sponge! I know you already got a lot of hydrangea tips but just in case you need them all in one place… :)
http://www.designsponge.com/2011/05/flowers-a-z-m-is-for-magical-coral-pink-hydrangea.html
YoungHouseLove says
Love it! Thanks for the link.
xo,
s
Kayla says
Sorry guys, but I think those curtains are super boring and nearly invisible in the room. I just don’t feel like they add anything! Sounds like everyone else loves them though!
DONNA says
Returned a package of these curtains in May to a local L.I. N.Y store after snagging them on sale in N.J. for $29.99. Decided not to make pillows out of ’em. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking…” hmm…these would be PERFECT for Sherry and John’s living room! ” Things that make you go…hmm!
Lookin” GREAT!
YoungHouseLove says
Hilarious! It was meant to be.
xo,
s