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You know something? It just dawned on me that I haven’t, not once, gone shopping for curtains in the year that I’ve lived in our ugly duckling of a house.
When we first moved in, I promptly ripped down each and every. single. one. of the dusty, heavy curtains that the previous owner left me. She sweetly implied it was her way of helping me keep my neighbors from peeking in our windows, but I really think she just didn’t want to bother taking them down after she nailed them into the wall.
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| The living room, November 2009. Decor circa 1986. |
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| The primary bedroom, November 2009. |
They made the house feel like a crypt (or for you Atlanta residents, the Monster Mansion at Six Flags). I did my part for mother earth and used them as drop cloths. I even have a few to this day, folded away in the garage for future painting use.
As we’ve redone each room, I’ve been removed the ghastly, 20-year-old blinds that had seen better days in exchange for white 2″ faux wood blinds. Seeing the pop of white against the windows immediately brightened every room we hung them in.
And there, each room has sat, curtainless. While the blinds have left each room much improved, I have been avoiding hanging curtains at every opportunity in favor of putting them on a waiting list. Having our new surround sound in the living room, however, is making our little curtain problemo more obvious. And so, another era in the house is soon to end. I’m moving on to the Curtain Age.
Whoa! She NAILED them in?! That's craziness right there. I would have ripped them down too.
I love new curtains, I think they can really change how a room looks. Happy curtain hunting!
Yep, nailed. She nailed the curtain rods up instead of using screws, so you can imagine how much fun it was to repair all of the damage caused to the wall when using a prybar to get them off of the window frame.
She also used packaging tape to shut out ALL of the light when the curtain wasn't doing a sufficient enough job to cover the sides of each window.
People are nuts.
Nailed them to the wall….. hahahaha! Curtains killed me when I went to do them – the rods and the curtains are so expensive!!!
We have been in our house for a little over two years and still haven't gotten around to getting curtains, so don't feel bad. We tried dealing with the ones the previous owner left, but they were a hideous green with a busy floral design that I hated so we took them down and still have yet to replace them.
Wow. Reminds me of the song that goes “…people are crazy.” lol I'm excited to see what you find for curtains! We might be adding some big, bold color to our existing white ones at some point in the future, but they work okay for now. :) If you want to save some money, there's always the option of no-sew curtains (I think that's the approach we'll end up taking).
~Chelsea
I was thinking of maybe going the no-sew clippy type (I'm sure I'm not phrasing that correctly, but whatev) too. I'm really itching to try out some fabric medium to see if I can create my own, unique design. If you see me buying ones, it's either because I got lazy or because I tried to DIY them and they looked terrible. Both are strong possibilities.
Bwahahahahahahaha! Nailed to the wall! That's AWESOME!!!
Brylane Home has some great curtains at really low prices. I did our whole house in faux suede with grommets, and they are light blocking too, so at $14.95 per panel they were cheaper than I could make them.
I actually prefer the clean, simple lines of blinds over curtains.
Ha! We are curtainless AND blindless. We've resorted to trashbags in the bedrooms lol. Guess we just hate the idea of buying something temporary and cannot for the life of us decide on something permanent :0)
We did the trash bag thing too! Or, rather, we used plastic drop cloths that came in a contractor's roll. We taped them all over the windows for privacy while we painted the living room.
I'm in the exact same boat as you! We just now got around to putting white faux wood blinds in our living room (although we didn't have to tear down curtains that were nailed into the wall – YIKES). Now I'm faced with the curtain dilemma as well. Looks like you might try making your own… I'll be sure to stay tuned to see what happens!
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