Family Room Curtains~

Another hard hitting post about drop cloth curtains!

We moved into our new house last January :)

I'm a bit slower than I would like in getting everything settled...but I am getting around to more of the decorating that makes this house our home.

I recently got the curtains up in our family room...and I love them...I simply love them.

New curtains~

I wanted the curtains in our family to room to feel light and airy...I didn't want them to limit the light...yet they had to cover large windows.  I turned, once again, to drop cloths...yes, drop cloths...the kind used in painting...yes, the kind you get at a home improvement store.  And most importantly...yes, the kind that only cost $10.98 per large panel at Lowe's :)

These "linen" curtains are made from a 9 x 6 drop cloth.  I washed them, ironed them, sewed a rod pocket, and hung them on the rods that Steve made for me.  Yep, Steve made the rods using electrical conduit and attaching my antique glass doorknobs as the rod finials.  If you're interested in how to make your own inexpensive and very cool rods, you can read about how he did it here.  Steve, you're awesome!!!  And I love you!!!

The walls and the curtains are almost the same color...generally it's not my style to have this much neutrality...but those walls are big and it will be a long while before they get any paint.  I knew I wanted to bring a touch of color to the curtains and a touch of boho style as well.  My Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, so I showed her online the kind of thing I wanted to use as tie-backs for my curtains and she found these perfect silk bird fabric hangers at World Market...I mean, they are P.E.R.F.E.C.T!  They are even better than what I had originally showed her and envisioned when I thought about these curtains.  She also found the bells at World Market and I love the extra interest they add :)  Thanks, Mom...they make the curtains!

I love the colors~

I tucked the pleats into the tie backs and simply pinned them in place~

Boho bells~

Gypsy style~

Antique doorknob finial and gypsy bells~

Also, do you like my tall turquoise-ish shutter against the wall?  It's part of a folding door that Steve and I bought at an antique shop in Pittsboro, NC way back when we were first married.  Supposedly, it came from an old hotel ballroom from somewhere in the Shenandoah Valley.  I've been dragging them around with us every time we've moved and now they finally have a place in our home.  I say "they" because I have another one that I'm going to put in the entry way.  Those babies are 9 feet tall...it's nice to finally be able to display them :)  The wall that the shutter rests against is opposite the antique windows Steve and I hung last summer...they complement each other nicely.

Perfectly distressed by age and weather~

You know I love the old hardware~

As a funny side note...we had nowhere to store these tall doors at our little rental house in PA.  They were too big to fit down the stairs to the basement and we already had so much stuff stored against all the walls that they had to stay outside stacked against the house for 8 months until we moved.  They were already distressed by age, but the weather perfected the distressed look...so no, I have not done one thing to distress them.  

Our ceiling in our little cape cod we purchased in PA was only 7 1/2 feet tall...it was built in 1951 after all.  There was nowhere for the doors to be displayed.  I thought about turning them into shelves, but they are pretty heavy...plus I would have had to cut them because we didn't have any walls that were long enough.  At least we had a garage now, so they got stored away from the weather :)  That little house had some nice mid-century charm as well as some quirks.  I grew to really like that house, but I am enjoying having more space in this home.

Anyhoo...back to the window treatments.

Here's the approximate cost breakdown...because I love a bargain:

Rod hardware to hang.............$4
Electrical conduit.....................$1.50
Antique glass doorknobs.........$10 per pair
9 x 6 drop cloth........................$11
Fabric tie-backs.......................$7
Gypsy bells..............................$10
Hook to hold tie-back...............$1.50

Grand total per window...approximately $45 ($17 of the total for the bells and tie-back)...not bad, not bad at all :)

What will the next project be?  I have some ideas...

Rach