Friday, September 2, 2011

Bedroom Makeover: Curtain Angst

So I'm trying to remake my bedroom into a cohesive space, not easy when I don't own the furniture and am limited in what I can do to the space. The first element that needs to be addressed is the windows.

I hate the windows in my house- they are barred and open right onto the "street" at the front of the house so leaving them uncovered is not an option. Before I moved in, the whole house had mustard yellow velvety curtains with torn yellowing sheers (they look much better in this photo than they did in real life). These came down when I got the house painted and never went back up!
The paint is "desert beige" and would not be my top choice but was the best of the 8 options I was offered. It looks better now that the carpet is gone and it is a nice neutral backdrop for art.
We got new blinds which was a plus- wide white plantation blinds that I selected for everyone on compound. The problem is that the windows have no trim of any kinds which I hate so the look of the blinds alone isn't doing it for me.
For months after I moved in, I lived with sheets on the windows, sheets provided with the house because my worldly goods had not yet arrived. Don't ask me why the sheets that come with the house have a strawberry pattern- that design decision is one I will never understand.
Finally when home in DC this summer, I hit IKEA (we have one here in Dhahran but the curtain selection is terrible). I bought these white curtains that are supposed to reduce the light. I don't love the tabs, but I hope to make them smaller once my new sewing machine comes from Amazon (free gift that I have to now teach myself to use). The problem is, I had planned to use only one panel per window but I think they look too stretched.
I tried using two panels on the window on the right below but I think that is too full for my taste. Also, ignore the pooling on the floor which will go away once I reduce the length of the tabs.
The last picture shows just one panel but less stretched- I kept all the tabs inside the brackets (at first I had one tab outside the bracket on each side).
I think this is my current preference, though I suspect my ideal would be one panel that was 1.5 times the width of the current panels. If my mom was here, I could convince her to make that happen for me, but I am fearful my sewing skills might not stretch that far (once they are actually developed that is!)

Sigh...still so very not happy with this bedroom...

2 comments:

Kelly said...

If I may opine, I believe your problem may be displacement. You are blaming the curtains for the furniture, so to speak. But the real problem is, in a word, DREXEL.

Signed, six overseas tours, and never had a bedroom I actually liked until I got back to DC.

Colleen said...

*snort*
Kelly- this brand new (delivered only a couple of months ago) Drexel is a definitely step up, but you do have something there. My normal look is more mixed pieces rather than whole sets. I don't know- I may try adding in a rug for some color and I am switching out the lamps for ones I brough with me that had been living in the living room.