My Drop Cloth Curtains Part 2

Good morning! Remember yesterday when I decided I would try to make my own drop cloth curtains? If not, you can read about that here. Well, I spent the day trying to figure it out and make it work for my windows, so now I have a finished product to share.

Verdict: I like them! They took some work (more on that in a minute) but they were definitely the cheapest option, and I really just like how they look. I hung them as high as I could to where they would just brush the floor, and they ended up being only four inches from the ceiling. I used the 6' x 9' drop cloths, and I cut them in half. This saved me some money, and they still cover the windows for privacy.

Before we get to the details, let's look back at what I was covering my windows with before:

To be fair, these shades started out looking okay, and they looked great when they were open. But over time, they began to sag, and eventually the springs broke and the rod warped, so you had to take them down and manually roll them up if you wanted to let any light in. My husband, who is a vampire, didn't see the problem with this. However, I needed light.

The drop cloth curtain tutorial has been done many, many times, so I'll give you my short, sweet version along with a few things I learned. My windows are 52" across, and my ceilings are 9' high, so I bought one 6' x 9' drop cloth for each window (at $10.98 a piece at Lowe's) and cut each one in half.  This made my panels 3' across, and each window only cost $11.00 in fabric, which is much better than any of my other options. I don't have as much flowy fabric on either side of the window, but I don't really care about that. As long as they cover the windows at night, I consider that to be enough fabric. 

A few things I noticed:

• I accidentally picked up one drop cloth that appeared to be pieced together from leftovers.  I had to make an extra trip to Lowe's to exchange it, so watch for that.
• I didn't have any fabric softener, so I just washed each drop cloth twice with detergent and put it in the dryer. I think they came out soft enough.
• Iron twice. Once I got into a routine and some good TV shows, this wasn't too bad. The crisp, ironed look definitely makes these panels look so much better.
• Since I cut my panels in half, I used Stitch Witchery to hem the edges I cut. I got my iron hot and steamy, and it was so much faster than I could have sewn it.
• Washing and drying cause some of the original stitching to come loose and fray, so I had to spend some time cutting off the parts that looked yucky. It wasn't enough to need more sewing, but it would have looked like fringe if I hadn't cut it off.
• The canvas color is making my BM Moonlight White walls look much more gray.
• I'm wondering if I should "train" my curtains to fold a certain way (by tying the way I want with ribbon for a while) or just let them fall like this.  I think it's kind of nice and casual.

So that is my drop cloth curtain story. Nothing fancy, but once again, this idea is a pretty brilliant way to get some inexpensive, nice looking curtains.  And this means I'm almost ready to share my living room tour!

My Drop Cloth Curtains Part 1

It's time to deal with those giant windows in the front of my living room! And I think it's going to have to be curtains. Honestly, I'm not really a fan of curtains.  Especially with two cats who shed a lot.  I prefer cleaner, more minimal window coverings like shades or blinds.

What I really want are those fancy Ikea ENJE shades all the bloggers have.  But the nearest Ikea is 7 hours away, and shipping is ridiculous with Ikea. I tried some comparatively priced privacy shades here at Lowe's, but they fell apart in no time.  So instead, I have those plain white aluminum blinds all over my house, and I love them. They can be pulled up and you don't even see them against the white trim. They offer complete privacy, and they're cheap. Plus, I actually like the way they look down and open. They break occasionally, but so what?  They're $5 to replace.

Except for one problem. They're only cheap up for up to 48" windows. They cost between $3-$7 for most windows, and up to $13 for $48" windows (at Walmart). We have two 52" windows in our living room, and suddenly, the price for the same blinds in a larger size jumps up to $30 per window from some places. That would be ordering from some shady place online. I went to a blinds store in town and was quoted $96 per window.  Oy.

So I came back around to the curtain idea, and I reluctantly went to the fabric store to see what fabric would cost to make some curtains myself. The cheapest drapery fabric I could find in plain white would have been nearly $10 per panel, and I need 2 panels per window. Pre-made curtain panels were also too expensive, and they would have been too short for our 9' ceilings.

With every option I was looking at about $80 minimum to cover my three windows (we have a 48" window in our living room, too, but I want it to match the others).

Now, I know $80 for an entire room of window coverings may not sound like much to some, but for me, that was way too much. We're working on some other life goals at the moment, so I can't justify spending very much money on this relatively low priority problem. I say low priority because we already have those broken Lowes shades up there now. They just look awful and don't open. So technically we have window coverings, but I would like some sunshine in my house every now and then. :)

After all that, I'm back to that drop cloth curtain idea I've seen all over Pinterest. At first, I didn't like this idea, because I thought it looked too "shabby chic" or DIY. I like DIY, but not for my house to look DIYed. Does that make sense? And shabby chic/country/cottage charm is just not my style AT ALL. So I started searching around the internetz for some images of modern, minimal homes that can pull off curtains. Here's what I found:

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I like those. So what keeps them modern and safely away from country cottage? Well for one, these curtains don't have any frills, ruffles, or addition fabric accents. They're not really supposed to draw too much attention to themselves.  And I think it's just what else is in the room. The furniture in all these rooms, although not all to my taste, are still modern and not at all "distressed" or "shabby." 

I'm hoping the same thing will happen in my living room, because as you can see above, I bought one panel. It should be big enough to split into two panels and cover one window. I'll be back later to report on my drop cloth curtain success or failure. Stay tuned!

Unfinished Business

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I'm on break! I have a whole week off from school. Sort of. I had to go to the dentist yesterday, and my mouth was numb and I was drooling and it was miserable, so that day didn't feel like a vacation day. And I'm going to a professional development day on Friday, so really I just have...THREE WHOLE DAYS!

I have big planz for these three days, though.  Here's my list of things I dream of accomplishing today.  Whatever I don't get to, I'll just move onto tomorrow's list.  Positive thinking:

• Run.
• Laundry.
• Paint garage door.
• Sand, prime, and paint kitchen windows.
• Touch up caulk and paint in living room (I just missed a few spots.)
• Touch up bathroom paint (where I've hung pictures over the years, and patched holes).
• Scrape paint from dressing room windows.
• Paint and rehang missing dressing room window.
• Finish painting bedroom dresser and add missing handles.

These are mostly just little touch-ups here and there that are driving me crazy.  I really want to tackle a new project (I'm looking at you, bedroom) but I feel like I can't start something new with all these unfinished projects all over the place.  Even though I've already redone so many of my rooms, nearly all of them are left unfinished because I got tired toward the end.  That all ends today.  Wish me luck!