Well, we finally covered up our big windows in the kitchen. It has been on our to-do list pretty much since we moved in because at night, you can see right into our house. Luckily, our back yard is wooded and there isn’t really anybody who can look in, but you never know. It was just super creepy walking by these gigantic windows at night and not being able to see out of them.
The reason it took us so darn long to put curtains up was because I wasn’t sure I wanted curtains in our eat-in kitchen. My first reason was because I thought they might look weird with our door wall curtains just a few feet to the left. My second reason was because I thought they might get dirty hanging around the table with a messy toddler. I really wanted roman shades and I was totally gung-ho about making my own out of drop cloths. In the end, I thought way too long about making them and finally decided that I might be in over my head with ’em.
Then, I found these curtains at Ikea and I was sold. I mean, you really can’t beat 15 bucks for such large windows. So, I made the trek to Ikea on Saturday and picked them up (and a few other things because who can leave Ikea with only one thing??). And yesterday we got to installing them.
Note: Make sure to check your curtains for the amount they will shrink in the wash. Mine said 4% so I made sure to wash them before hanging!
Here is what we started with. It basically says “please come look into our windows creepily at night.”
I first measured where we wanted to hang the curtain rod (this one from Walmart). Nothing scientific here. I randomly picked a spot above the middle of the window and made the bracket marks on either side match.
Then John did all the pre-drilling and installing of hardware. I thanked the curtain rod gods that it was level. Measuring is not my strong suit.
And some people just stood around picking their nose while we did all the work.
Caught ya!
I then hung the curtains up on the rod to see how far up I wanted to hem (these curtains come at a 98″ length). I took them up to a length of about 76″. Kinda just eyeball it to see where you might like your curtains. I, personally, didn’t want them dragging on the floor and picking up stray food from our little food flinger.
Then I just ironed the hem and stitched it straight across using the 5/8″ mark on my sewing machine as my guide. Then I hung them back up to double check that they didn’t end up all wonky. Score one for me!
I cut off the excess fabric and voila! New curtains! And they even match our existing rug (also from Ikea).
Don’t you just love that pattern? It’s so fun and playful. Ikea FTW!
And now to figure out what to do with the extra fabric…
