Our home is plagued by ugly blinds. Every window has them - the white (plastic?), horizontal slats with the cords hanging down one side, cords that are in a perpetual state of knottitude. I've managed to live with these blinds for nearly a year and a half, but I never made my peace with them. Recently, when I was at Target I happened upon some cheap-ish curtains (not cheap, curtains are never cheap in the United States, are they?) and a reasonably priced curtain rod. I called THO and had him quickly measure the window in our guest bedroom. A short while after I traipsed in the front door with 4 curtains and associated hardware. THO humoured me and hung them up post haste while I stood around, hopping from foot to foot in eager anticipation. They looked lovely. Don't take my word for it, see for yourself.
That did it. I wanted curtains everywhere. Now, if I had a curtain budget of a few thousand dollars, this would be a piece of cake. I did not, so I set off to the mecca of those of us with modest budgets - Ikea. My goal was to transform our living room window from an Ugly Sister into Cinderella. Here is the before pic, taken in poor lighting to make it appear even worse than in actually was:
Make a note of the aforementioned homely blinds. Also note the sad-sack skinny browny-grey curtain panel (there are two of them, one on either side of the blinds) that some well-intentioned, but possibly partially blind previous owner of my home had hung on either side of the blinds, ostensibly to improve aesthetics, but in reality serving only to highlight the ugliness.
Ikea did not disappoint, though one does wish that the unwashed masses did not pick the exact same time as one to procure their giant couches and shelving units. I found curtains that did not demand an arm, leg and first born in payment, but they were very long. This, to me, was an obstacle of insurmountable proportions. I can't sew. I stood around the curtain area, despondent, possibly looking like even more of a sad sack than did my skinny brown curtain panels back home. Bobbing around my sea of sadness, I reached for the one raft of hope, the internet. I entered, rather hopelessly, 'no sew curtains' and behold! these were a real thing. What I needed was apparently something called 'Stitch Witchery. I love the internet. I headed home with a dual curtain rod (ooh fancy) and six curtain panels.
I procured the stitch witchery from Michaels, and then let everything sit around for about a week while I got over my fear of ruining the panels and/or burning my fingers with a hot iron. This tutorial from the Young House Love blog helped boost my confidence. When I was once more the master of my emotions, I got started.
It was really pretty easy. THO hung up one of the curtain panels for me from the existing sad sack rod. I marked how long I wanted the curtain to be. Folded it to the mark and measured it out on the tape. Heated up the iron. The stitch witchery is a roll of thin, wispy white tape. It isn't sticky at all. I placed it in the fold of the curtain, ironed over it with a steam iron and ta-da my curtain was hemmed. The heat dissolves the witchery tape into something gooey that bonds fabric. Truly magical stuff. My ironing board isn't as long as my curtains were wide, so as I went along I used the marked out length on my tape to make sure I wasn't going crooked. The only thing to be careful about is do not, DO NOT, get any of the stitch witchery tape on the iron. I touched an edge by mistake and then had to spend 15 minutes scrubbing the goop off the bottom of the iron. Nail polish remover helped. Each panel took me between 10 and 15 minutes to 'hem'. Most of this time was spent making sure my fold was straight and re-measuring it about eleven thousand times. Oh and I spilled a pool of water on one of the panels from my iron. I held the iron sideways for a bit while I briefly day dreamed. Ten thumbs remember?
THO got the rods up the next day with just the right amount of cursing. Now for the big reveal:
One last thing. In my moment of euphoria at Ikea, when I discovered witchery, I may have gone a tad overboard. I didn't just buy curtains. I bought fabric. Yards of it. We're putting together the nursery for our baby due in April and in that moment I decided that I would make her curtains. But that is going to be a whole other story.
That did it. I wanted curtains everywhere. Now, if I had a curtain budget of a few thousand dollars, this would be a piece of cake. I did not, so I set off to the mecca of those of us with modest budgets - Ikea. My goal was to transform our living room window from an Ugly Sister into Cinderella. Here is the before pic, taken in poor lighting to make it appear even worse than in actually was:
Make a note of the aforementioned homely blinds. Also note the sad-sack skinny browny-grey curtain panel (there are two of them, one on either side of the blinds) that some well-intentioned, but possibly partially blind previous owner of my home had hung on either side of the blinds, ostensibly to improve aesthetics, but in reality serving only to highlight the ugliness.
Ikea did not disappoint, though one does wish that the unwashed masses did not pick the exact same time as one to procure their giant couches and shelving units. I found curtains that did not demand an arm, leg and first born in payment, but they were very long. This, to me, was an obstacle of insurmountable proportions. I can't sew. I stood around the curtain area, despondent, possibly looking like even more of a sad sack than did my skinny brown curtain panels back home. Bobbing around my sea of sadness, I reached for the one raft of hope, the internet. I entered, rather hopelessly, 'no sew curtains' and behold! these were a real thing. What I needed was apparently something called 'Stitch Witchery. I love the internet. I headed home with a dual curtain rod (ooh fancy) and six curtain panels.
I procured the stitch witchery from Michaels, and then let everything sit around for about a week while I got over my fear of ruining the panels and/or burning my fingers with a hot iron. This tutorial from the Young House Love blog helped boost my confidence. When I was once more the master of my emotions, I got started.
THO got the rods up the next day with just the right amount of cursing. Now for the big reveal:
There is a marked difference between the "before' and "after" look (with the appropriate lighting)
ReplyDeleteMust try out this witchery tape.
Your buying yards of fabric reminds me of one of the cartoons of R K Laxman, which I remember reading many decades ago.