Sheer Inspiration

These lovely sheers were included with the house.

And we’ve done our fair share to the room before tackling the curtain issue.

I’m happy to report the room is no longer yellow. We painted it Martha Stewart’s Whetstone Gray.

We got a rug and recovered some chairs.

Hung some art.

Photoshopped some art.

Freshened up some lamps.

Even painted that little table there.

But the curtains. Oh the curtains. Synthetic sheers hung on tension rods in the windows. They needed to go.

So we debated a few options. Canvas drop cloths, for one. When we stayed at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, the entire room was draped in canvas and it gave the nicest glow.

Layla and Kevin from The Lettered Cottage used them beautifully.

But after I got the table skirt, I was worried that they would be too similar in color.

Then, I bought (and promptly returned) these gray velvet drapes from World Market.

Too dark. Too heavy looking. (But decent quality if you’re looking for velvet drapes.) And perhaps the biggest problem—we still needed sheers, as we live on a busy street and must have them for privacy. To make matters worse, the sheers I bought for the dining room:

…have OF COURSE been discontinued by Target. They were 100% cotton and have the prettiest natural linen pattern in them. I wanted the exact same ones for the living room, but no dice.

And then I realized that white, sheer, linen curtains were really ALL I wanted. As in the only thing. No drapes. There is enough color going on in the room without needing the extra punch from drapes. So, on a trip to the much hated but occasionally necessary Bed, Bath and Beyond, I found just the ticket in the Beyond deparment. And after a trip to a SECOND BB&B location (because going to one wasn’t punishment enough), I rounded up six panels. AND, had a 20% off coupon to use on each of them.

As for the curtain rod, the window is a triple window. 154 inches long. So, the standard 88″-120″ rod, the longest “off the rack” rod they sell, isn’t quite long enough. But the way they are made, there are 2 fat rods and a skinny rod and they fit together. So, I bought 2 sets and fit a fat to a skinny to a fat to a skinny to a fat. Leaving me with an extra skinny and 2 extra finials. (And zero pictures of that process–sorry.)

And, like the dining room, we hung them as high as possible. Basically as high as I can place the rod and still pull the rod out of the bracket without the finial hitting the ceiling.

A little more drama than we started with. They make the ceilings seem so much higher. Yay!

Now maybe I need to start thinking about the paper shades that have been hanging in the master bedroom and the boys room/office for the last two years.