Wednesday, January 16, 2008

curtains at last

We started our apartment renovation in September and we really went at it full force for at least 3 months. I was so happy to have the time and energy to be able to make our place feel like a home. It has been a real challenge lately as the real world of job searches and obligations have been sneaking in and spoiling the fun. I would love to figure out a way to do this full time and make money at it. (if anyone has any ideas on how this might be possible please let me know) At any rate I have been focusing more on details that have been left undone to sort of finish things up. I say sort of because it will never be finished. You bring things in you take things out. You rearrange or you get tired of a color what have you. Anyway for those of you that have followed us from the beginning you know that we have been needing curtains for months. With all of the cold weather we have had combined with my unwillingness to look at the fabric that had been stapled up in lieu of curtains for even one more day I was finally motivated to stop everything else and make the damn curtains already.


Staying within our general theme of faded Cuban glamour as our bedroom inspiration I bought fabric a while back that had the best old world striped pattern. I also went on an ebay mission to find curtain hardware that I liked. This took a good month to round all of the hardware up. I ended up choosing the finials, brackets and curtain hooks that you see below. I really looked for things that I liked and it turns out that all of the hardware is from the Victorian era. The curtain rod holes are small so we were able to buy a dowling rod to use as a curtain rod. Richard stained the rod to match the color of the brackets and we were able to screw the finials into the ends of the rod. I don't really like big bulky curtain rods and hardware so the dimensions worked out well for me. Richard likes it too.




What follows are photos of the finished product. I am including a few 'before' and 'in progress' photographs so you can see where we started.








This last photo is a close up of the tie backs. Its funny because I usually like things less decorative but something about wanting this bedroom to be a little decadent inspired me to use these hilarious tie backs. Now I can finally stop waking up cursing the tacked up fabric over the windows. I have another set of curtains to do over the doorway that leads from our bedroom to the living room but I lost one of the brackets. I am thinking about casting a set from the one that I do have in ceramic or metal. I might even make enough to sell as they are such an easy solution and no one makes that type of bracket anymore. Anyway on to the living room curtains and all of the other unfinished details that make me crazy daily.

Thanks for looking!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: the work thing - somewhere in your blog i know you wrote what you do, but i have forgetten. have you ever been a prop stylist? i am a freelance art director here in the bay area, working for the MANY catalogers that are based in s.f....they are always looking for fresh stylists. and the work on your house is a living portfolio. if you ever want any advice about this, respond here in commnets and i'll send you my email address! love watching the progress!

day at a glance said...

cm,
thanks a lot for the comments. i would love some advice. thanks so much for the offer. it would be great to talk to you more about it all. you can email me by following the email link in my profile or leave your email address for me to email you. thanks again!
monique

Anonymous said...

The curtains look beautiful! And the vintage hardware is inspired! I've been procrastinating about making our living room curtains for aaaages, but I've finally planned out in my head exactly how I'm going to do them, so I'll get to work ASAP. Whenever I see another blogger making progress it always encourages me to start and finish my own decor jobs. Thanks Monique!

j said...

the fabric is gorgeous. your curtains are just beautiful. and the tieback works- so small in the room, they just add a nuance of feeling

I've loved following your progress on the blog

day at a glance said...

thank you zee and j!

zee, i honestly can't believe it took me so long to do. aside from my sewing machine giving me problems it really only took 3 hours. it makes such a huge difference...you will be glad when you do it.

Anonymous said...

nice valance, bruce valance.
-carts