Curtain Call Chapter 2

My shower curtain was my first attempt at window coverings.  My living room has 2 huge windows and I love them.  They make the house so much brighter, especially my navy paint!  While I love the windows, I was not loving the price of curtain rods for windows over 11 ft long.  Yikes.  While I was researching prices for curtain rods and curtains, I came across a tutorial on a blog showing how to make curtains out of drop cloths.

Better yet, these drop cloths are about $10 a pop.  That is crazy cheap for curtains.  Or fabric for that matter.  The tutorial I saw used drop cloths with a stripe of a fitted sheet at the top.  I really liked the way this looked, but my windows were a tad too long for my drop cloths so I decided to add some inches with my stripe of color on the sides.  I found some cute upholstery fabric at Joanns, slapped a coupon down, and got to sewing.

Now that I had the curtains, I needed a way to hang them.  Have you ever priced curtain rods? In a perfect world, things would actually cost what I think they should.  I do not think cheapest (for the size I need) curtain rods should be $50.  Times two.  I realize that might actually be a fair price, but not in my perfect world.  Luckily, the internet came to the rescue yet again.  Turns out, you can make curtain rods out of whatever you want to.  Well, not really, but you can make them out of conduit.  For about $2, you can get 10ft lengths and then connect them together with a conduit fitting for another $2.  I found some brackets at a resale shop, some spray paint, and hung them right up.  Well, actually my dad and my brother hung them right up.  And I am thankful.  I bought some curtain rings and since I didn't feel like sewing anymore, folded over the top to "hem" and hung them right up! I really like the way it turned out. 

                                    

You observant ones might notice a certain dvd hanging out on my little dvd stand, because it has been in my dvd player, iPod and car ever for about a month.

 

Les Miserables!

My aunt treated me to go see it at the Winspear Opera House in December.  Those are my beautiful cousins, my mom and my aunt.  What a fun night.  If you ever get a chance to see this musical, do not pass it up.  I promise it will change your life. 

Anyway, back to the curtains, I think they look great in the room.  They might need one more drop cloth each to make it a little fuller.  When you close them, they just barely meet.  I definitely like them better when they are open and a little bunched.

This is pretty much the view from the front door.  The living room is bigger than you expect, and I'm really enjoying it!  Don't mind my Christmas wrapping paper on the walls.  I've been to lazy to switch it out since Christmas.  Whoops.

This is the other side of the room.  I'm still working on how to get the best pictures.  Please excuse the random dining room chairs in the hallway.

Looks much better than the before picture, right? 

Also, here's the obligatory Thursday shot.  Boy does she know how to work the camera.

Curtains Chapter 1

The project I'm most proud of is not really in a prime spot for maximum viewing.  For guests anyway- it's in the bathroom.  I try to make it a stop on the Tour of Kaylee's House, but sometimes I forget.  It's my shower curtain! As you know, I try to do things cheaply- Most of the time.  I tend to conveniently forget about all my online shopping- whoops! I looked for shower curtains at several stores and couldn't find just what I was looking for.  Probably because what I was looking for was $98 at Anthropologie.

Love the store, hate their prices.  Seriously, $98 for a shower curtain? That's ridiculous.  Also this curtain has an extra flap of fabric at the top to hide the shower rings.  A handy feature, but not for me when I already bought these babies!

I love them.  I love that they add a pop of color and of course I love the owls.  I think they're subtle enough to not be overboard.  So Cute!

So even if I had piles and piles of money to spend, if I bought the fancy Anthro shower curtain, I would be hiding my little cuties!  I read a couple of blogs pretty consistently,  one of them being Bower Power.  If you've never read it, you should.  I just think she is hilarious- and great at decorating on a budget! This is where I got the idea to make my own shower curtain.  I never knew you could just use any kind of fabric.  I always thought it had to be "shower curtain fabric"  Crazy and so simple.  This post gives a much better tutorial than I could give and I followed her instructions for the background of my curtain.

I went to Walmart and Target looking for flat sheets, but apparently here in Texas they only sell sheets as a set, and not a very cheap set.  Bummer.  On my week of vacation I devoted a whole day to thrift store shopping.  I had several things I needed-mirrors, lamps, any kind of odds and ends.  My first stop of the day I walked right past all the sheets straight to the lamps.  Unfortunatly all the lamps were from 1992, not exactly what I was looking for.  On my way back out to my car I took my time making sure I didn't miss anything.  Sheets! there were so many.  I don't know if it's gross to some people using used sheets-actually typing it out somehow makes it grosser (more gross?) - but I figure with several washes, they were good as new! I found  grey and a coral color both for $5.  Perfect.

I cut long strips of the coral and ruffled them.  I don't know a good way to tell you to do this. I'm sure there's a better way than the route I took.  It wasn't hard work, just very time consuming.

Of course I had a little help, as usual.

And a little help from the tv show Parenthood.

Then I just pinned my ruffles to the grey fabric and sewed them right on!

You can't look too closely, as with most of my projects, but I might be the only one who can see all the misakes.  I still think it's wonderful!