The curtains were a two-part project. The question you should ask yourself when designing and choosing window treatments is what do you want the “curtains” to do? Are they to block light or give you privacy or make the window prettier?
I needed one and three to happen in Fiona’s room with this design.
In the first part of the design, the mock Roman shades were my light blockers. But the bay windows still felt like they need some softening while also not covering up the bull’s eye woodwork detail around them. Sounds like a steep decorating hill to climb and it was until I stumbled on this photo from SF Bay Girl’s blog. And I knew what I had to do.
I just couldn’t get over how perfect an idea this was and I began to obsess over the details. How many rings, what rods, didn’t I have this fabric, and how to get the rods hot pink? There used to be a show on HGTV that should have been called Rip Off My Room and they’d take a designer room for a bazillion dollars and recreate it for a mere 15 thousand dollars. So I said I can recreate this curtain design for under $10 and I did.
Thankfully, I already had the vintage brass hardware for this project. The sheer fabric I used was from our wedding. I had draped it between the columns on the porch and put twinkle lights inside. But those curtain rods? They had to be just the right width and thickness and hot pink. Then it hit me. Hot pink duct tape. No mess and easy to cover wooden dowels with.There are a few more fun things one can do with hot pink duct tape but I’ll save those for another post. So I got my husband to cut dowels or I cut them, can’t remember, on the chop saw. Then came the installation which isn’t so easy because Old House doesn’t really like any screw you use. This crappy picture below was hastily taken to document “real progress”.
Long long dry wall screws work well to go past the horse hair plaster into the lathing unless you hit a rock hard stud. There are studs in that bay window. Once I figured out how to level the dowels out, and then make sure they visually accommodated the slope of that left window and the ceiling decline toward the river, they looked great.I just clipped the fabric up, again after panicking that I didn’t have enough fabric and deliberating on having to cut it lengthwise. That was nerve wrecking considering our littlest cat Chessie really wanted to be playing with the fabric every time I touched it. On the floor, while I was on the ladder, anytime.
I get points for the moving furry obstacle course with claws.
And there you have it, the completely winded story of those curtains. I can not tell you enough how beautiful they are. I love them and am very impressed with myself for pulling them off. Next up is the painting of the wooden dresser.
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Ah! So pretty!! I love your hot pink duct tape solution. As for cats and curtains….my sister is trying to figure out window coverings because of her “curtain-surfing” fur buddy. Glad you survived the ladder!
Thank you Dawn. Just wait and see how else I made use of my duct tape. Tell your sister I’d be glad to talk options with her as I’m both cat and curtain savvy.
Love,
Shalagh
“I get points for the moving furry obstacle course with claws.” I give you SO MANY points. Puns not intended. But also free.
Ya sistah. A
It was quite nerve wrecking Sister A. And she’s so cute so you don’t want to scold her. She snagged it once or twice but you’ll never be able to tell. Thank you for hanging out.
Love,
Shalagh
I am considering covering my curtain rods with duct tape too, to match the color needed. I have one question to you: do the curtain rings stick at all now?
Thank you for reading Lyana and no since the sticky side of the tape is stuck to the rod and the smooth part is outward.