So last week I wished for ways to bounce light around my house… this week seems a little opposite of last week. This week I’ll wish for ways to keep light out of my house. Let me rephrase. During the day, we like our windows open, but at night we don’t like the neighbors looking in, so essentially I guess we are still talking about “keeping light in” in a roundabout way… good, glad that’s settled, let’s move on!
During the summer it is not much of a concern, seeing that it doesn’t get dark until later… but during the winter months when it is dark outside before we even get home from work, our lives are on display for whoever wants to see (for the most part). We have white wood blinds on all the windows, with the exception of the big picture windows… and it’s been this way since we bought the house over a year ago. So our goal is to get some window treatments up before the darkening winter gets here, and all of our neighbors get to watch our “morbid” tastes in TV (FYI - True Blood is amazing! And we can’t wait for the next season of Walking Dead to start!)
Our biggest hesitation is the darn price tag on curtains! Mylanta, they are spendy… I have looked at all that my small town has to offer, and I’m just not happy with the solid colors offered by Walmart… so I hopped on the internet as usual, only to have a severe case of sticker shock to follow. Let me share my wishes, and ideas that I’ve come up with to get the nod of approval from the hubby.
During the summer it is not much of a concern, seeing that it doesn’t get dark until later… but during the winter months when it is dark outside before we even get home from work, our lives are on display for whoever wants to see (for the most part). We have white wood blinds on all the windows, with the exception of the big picture windows… and it’s been this way since we bought the house over a year ago. So our goal is to get some window treatments up before the darkening winter gets here, and all of our neighbors get to watch our “morbid” tastes in TV (FYI - True Blood is amazing! And we can’t wait for the next season of Walking Dead to start!)
Our biggest hesitation is the darn price tag on curtains! Mylanta, they are spendy… I have looked at all that my small town has to offer, and I’m just not happy with the solid colors offered by Walmart… so I hopped on the internet as usual, only to have a severe case of sticker shock to follow. Let me share my wishes, and ideas that I’ve come up with to get the nod of approval from the hubby.
I have been going lots of thinking about curtains in the guest room, and at first I feel in love with these beauties from Z Gallerie (Mimosa Panels in Aquamarine) but they were $59.95/panel. That means that for the one guestroom, it would be $239.80... so I moved on.
I still couldn't quit dreaming... I found these Allegra Hicks Palm Print Window Panels at West Elm for $64/panel. Then I made the mistake of staying on the West Elm site and discovering these...
The Khadi Blockprint Window Panels for $49/panel and these... 
The Cotton Canvas Faux Bead Window Panels for $44/panel... Now these are all gorgeous, but most of all they seem simple. Essentially I am loving the patterns, there is nothing extremely unique with their shape... so I am now hunting fabrics that I like and considering just sewing some up myself! Sounds easy in my head - that probably means it will make me frustrated.
For the living room/dining room/den windows I immediately fell in love with these! The Deux Ruban Linen Panel from Ballard Designs. The more I looked at it... they are cheap (maybe not at Ballard, but I could possibly find at JoAnn Fabrics and use a coupon) linen fabric with ribbon sewn on! I can do that! At least I think I can...
Lastly, came the issue of what to do in the kitchen... I love roman shades! They seem uber expensive and I can never seem to find ones that I adore top to bottom... I like how they show the trim around a window and think they would work great in our kitchen, as well as both of our bathrooms (I would also like to snatch that light fixture up, very.... gourd like!?)!
Like this! And I'll take that tub to go!
So I've decided that I might just have to whip some up myself, ala Martha Stewart and her tutorial HERE. That way I can pick any fabric and details I'd like!
Like any of these from Ballard Design where they sell by the yard, these four range from $18 - $38 per yard... but I think I could get away with only one yard per window.
Or one of these Amy Butler designs, available on fabric.com for under $10 per yard! Lots of ideas keep following, so I just pin them away to bring up later. Hope everyone is having a great week, I'm off to find us another distrubing TV show to watch once our curtains go up! Happy Wednesday!
4 comments:
I can't wait to see what you come up with - I love that aqua example. Another thing to consider is making curtains out of printed fabric shower curtains - depending on the length you need you'd get at least 2 panels from one curtain.
Have you looked at Ana's Linens? or Ikea? These are beautiful, but they are all just straight lines, that you could easily stitch up, or if you're not too sure of your sewing skills (really, you can do straight lines!)you could purchase the fusible hem stuff and just iron up your hems and edges. Same for the ribbon; put it on with the fusible stuff or with fabric glue. Looking at your site and the things you've tackled, these would be a piece of cake for you!
So much fun to plan! I can't wait until we get a house of our own--it's just not worth the investment if we're still renting.
Hoping to make it home to MN sometime during the winter. Can we come over and see all your house improvements???
I love the blue ones! I sympathize with your problem completely. My boyfriend I have a home with very modern interior and our biggest dilemma is how to block out all the windows at night because we too feel that our whole lives are on display. :/
-Rachel
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