Starting Out Savvy » curtains

Behind Closed Curtains

Jamie Lee — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:02:42 +0000

Relationships at work fascinate me. I’m not talking about secret romantic flings–just everyday co-worker relationships and politics. We have this office cat where I work that’s the source of quite a bit of tension. Personally, I love cats, but this little guy’s space was getting a bit out of control. Everyday on our way to the bathroom we had to stare at not one, but TWO litter boxes positioned right next to one another. I completely understand the desire to make your animals comfortable, but this was a bit out of control. Getting rid of one of the litter boxes wasn’t an option, so we turned to good ole IKEA for a solution!

IKEA has some great curtains that work in a variety of spaces. Basically, you buy a metal rope that acts as a curtain rod and you can separate any space quickly and easily. We used these to hide some litter boxes, but you could easily use them to section off room in a studio apartment as well. Just for fun, here are the photos. We went from looking at this everyday…

To looking at this:

So much better right?

IKEA Curtains

Jamie Lee — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:00:12 +0000

True story: When Peter and I first moved in together one of the first things we did was hang the curtains that I brought with me. I hated the curtains to begin with (they had some weird print on them) but Peter was so thrilled to have them because the space looked “homier.” I wish I had a picture of this. Anyway, the curtains were WAYYY too long for the windows, but Peter was so excited that we decided that we would leave them until we had time to hem them. Fast-forward a couple of nights. I woke up to go to the bathroom, my foot got caught on the huge pool of curtains that were laying on the ground, I tripped and pulled the half the curtain rod out of the wall. Peter woke up and immediately asked if I was OK. In the morning he had absolutely no recollection of this happening and wondered why the curtain rod was hanging from the wall.

It was a discouraging moment. We took the rod down and pretended that it never happened. Instead we focused our decorating efforts on the living room. But when Peter bought me my Mongstad, it was painfully obvious that we needed curtains.

(Do you see all those white spots? Those were from the previous owner and then from my aforementioned experience.)

We wanted something that felt airy but could still block out some light if we wanted to sleep in. The first curtains that I found were made of a beautiful white piqued fabric but as Peter quickly pointed out, they wouldn’t block out any sunlight. Then he came up with the brilliant idea to layer a thicker white fabric with my pretty light one. For less than $30 we were out of the store and on our way home.

IKEA’s curtains are great because they come with that special iron on hem. I’m interested in learning to sew but sometimes it’s just nice to do things the simple way. All we had to do was pin each curtain to the desired length.

Then iron an even crease. In my opinion this helps avoid ironing in the hem and then figuring out that you folded the curtain kattywompus. Lay the ironing tape toward the base of the crease, fold the fabric back over, and iron.

After you’ve finished ironing, trim the excess fabric above the crease.

Peter and I then hung both curtains together by alternating loops as we put them on the curtain rod.

Here’s the much more refined after. Yes, I realize that we need to find some matching paint and paint over the little white spots.

(It is easiest to see the pique if you look toward the bottom of the photo.)

I think the curtains add a bit of textural interest and without a doubt make the room look homier. What do you think? Do you like the white or would you have gone airier?

Let’s Start with Curtains

Jamie Lee — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:27:23 +0000

Last night Peter posted about his hate/hate relationship with our couch. What he didn’t mention was that when Peter and I first met this condo was eerily empty. Imagine yesterday’s photo with no TV and no coffee table to collect clutter. This was the way I was first introduced to it. One would think that having studied art for 14 years that the boy would hang SOMETHING on the walls, but no, it was completely empty. I moved in with one semester left of college. I didn’t know how long I would be here because I didn’t know where I would end up getting a job and so I didn’t want to “waste time” decorating. We hung a few things here and there until finally I realized that no matter how short a period of time I spent living here, I needed it to feel home-ier.

We decided to start with the living room because since we don’t have an entry way this is the first room that guests see when they walk into our home. For a long time we focused our frustration on the biggest (and pretty much only) item in the room–our couch. I yearned for one of those beautiful cream couches that would grace the covers of fabulous design magazines like Domino. Finally, with not enough money in my bank account for a new couch (and two black dogs who would’ve covered the couch with their fur) I let my focus leave the couch and decided to start somewhere. We opted for curtains.

A short trip to both Ikea and Target only set us back about $40 and suddenly we had curtains and curtain rods for the room. We opted for the type of curtain that you can hem with an iron. It was super easy and it was the first step to making our house a home.

Here is the condo post curtains. What do you think?