One of the first things we noticed about this house when we walked through the studs months ago was the number of windows and how BIG some of them were. I'm a lover of natural light so I was really excited about that:
As you can see, in our family room the windows are extra high -- they have the transom windows above so it makes them even taller than the rest of the house. LOVE them. And most of the year we can keep them open no problem -- when the leaves are on the trees we have tons of privacy, but this time of year it feels like we're living in a fish bowl. ;)
Around Christmas Home Depot had a sale on their bamboo roman shades and they were such a good deal I was able to purchase for most of the house. I got them all up, but we were stumped as to what to do with these windows. They are tricky because of the transoms and the length.
On the smaller ones I could have hung the blinds under the transoms, but I wasn't sure I'd even like that look and how it would cut off the window. And the big window requires a way to secure the shade in the middle (the wider ones have three brackets). The horizontal area between the windows is vinyl, not wood, so we can't secure the brackets in there. (I mean, we could, but I don't want to.)
I could have looked into custom bamboo shades, but they wouldn't match the rest of the house. SO. I knew I'd have to do drapes of some kind, and figured because they were going to be so long (132 inches), I'd have to go custom. I was planning to shop for fabric but quickly realized with the number of yards I'd need, it was going to be hard to do this affordably, especially adding a liner. (I needed four panels so that they would cover the whole wall when closed.)
Then I started looking online, just to see what I could find ready made. I found (affiliate) just what I wanted on Amazon -- to the rescue again!! And I was able to get them super quick, score! I found 52" by 132" lined drapes for $36 each. That's pretty darn good for such long curtains. Still an investment but I was thrilled to find them for that price. They came in a medium gray color which was exactly what I was looking for in this room.
I was able to hang these myself -- it was AWESOME to get something done after weeks of not being able to do much (I have a herniated disc that is slowly but surely healing). I took it suuuuper slow but with some help from my husband, we were able to get it done. The hardest part was getting them wrinkle free, more on that in a bit!
They were just a couple inches too long, so I used my hemming tape to hem them up just a bit. I've been singing the praises of this stuff for years -- if you haven't heard of it, it's fusible webbing "tape" that you use an iron on to hem just about any fabric:
You just figure out where you want your hem, fold over with the tape inside and then use the iron with high steam to warm it up. It fuses the fabrics together:
That little ironing board is from IKEA -- I've had one for years and LOVE it because it's small and so easy to pull out for quick stuff like this.
You can see that these have just a slight sheen -- I was a little worried at first because I didn't want that look. But it's very minor and I quite like the texture of the fabric. It looks like linen.
I could have left them to hang and get some of the wrinkles out, but it was driving me crazy. So I used my handheld steamer (this is the one I use). This took FOREVER. Longer than it took to hang the dang things. But it made a big difference!:
Over the years I've fallen in love with drapes with grommets. They save on any additional hardware and look SO nice when the curtains are open:
They pleat beautifully, which is especially nice if you're really going to actually use your drapes. Also -- the grommets make opening and closing the drapes super smooth.
A little trick if you'll be opening and closing your drapes often -- put one ring/hook/grommet on the outside of the drapery hardware. So when you open the drapes, the end will stay put. Otherwise the whole curtain will go flying across the rod and you'll constantly be adjusting. Hope that makes sense!
I used two on each side of the window so we can cover the whole wall. We couldn't believe what a difference they made in the room! Fabric on these windows makes the room feel so much warmer:
I found this table about a week ago at HomeGoods for this spot (before the drapes) and used one of my favorite lamps. Because it disappears a bit I'm switching it out with another one, but you get the idea. ;)
Another decorative item that instantly warms up a room? Lamps. We didn't have any in here and I love the soft light!
I'm going to have to move the drapery bracket over just a bit so the drapes can fall better next to that table. But the thought of patching holes in my brand new walls makes me want to cry, so I'll do it when I feel like tackling some hole filling. For now it still looks great:
They aren't light blocking but we don't need that anyway. We'll rarely close them (if ever) during the day. They do have a nice white liner so look great from the outside.
We close them at night and it only takes seconds because the grommets make it so easy:
I almost forgot to tell you about the long curtain rod! I looked EVERYWHERE for long rods that weren't crazy expensive. I was going to make them with metal rods from the hardware store, but those weren't long enough. I finally realized that IKEA carries really long drapery rods...but even those weren't quite long enough. I thought I was pretty smart when I realized I could just grab two sets of the rods and put them together. Then the other day when I was there I saw they actually suggest doing just that for wide windows. Ha! I'll list exactly what I used at the bottom of this post. (Only cost me $12!)
Here they are opened up. The fabric is super thin and light so even though there's two drapes on each side they don't take up much room:
Here's a view I haven't shown you just yet -- you can see how our dining area is situated here:
Because I LOVE before and afters I have to share this one -- this room is coming together even better than I had hoped! The before:
And how the room looks now:
Eventually we may look into fabric shades for these windows maybe? I'm not sure though. I know that won't be cheap and I like having them so open.
I have big plans in mind for our fireplace wall but am working them out in my head before I tackle that project. :) I'm obsessed with the symmetry of this room! I was really pleased to see how the visual weight of the drapes balanced out the room even more -- our stairs are on the other side:
I have learned over the years that I save SO much money if I'm just patient. You want to do all the things in a new house but waiting to find just the right thing always pays off for me!
I listed all of the resources for this room at the bottom of this post -- check that out if you're interested in anything!
Here's what I used for these windows:
Racka curtain rod x2 (Hugad is a bit thicker and what I wanted, but they were out) from IKEA
Betydlig brackets x3 from IKEA
These are the curtains I purchased and they have tons of lengths available. (One even longer!)
My total cost for the whole window was $160 -- which is still a lot but I saved a TON by taking my time and looking around for deals. Even if I had purchased the fabric myself and made them I would have spent quite a bit more. And the hardware was SUPER cheap.
If you have any questions, please let me know! I was thrilled to find these for such a great price so as always, I like to pass them along.
Affiliate links included for your convenience!
from
http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2018/01/hardware-and-drapes-for-big-windows.html
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