With my penchant for walking around in nothing but a tank top & skivvies, Doug has been asking for curtains or blinds for the front living room since we moved in. & I was all “yeah, yeah. sure honey” & not because I’m an exhibitionist, but because the foilage around our casa is insane & it was light outside all the time. But now it’s dark & twisty & gloomy & our trees are going bye-bye in a few weeks, so it was time to get cracking. The room was painted a light olive green & I’m still not sure how I feel about that except I picked the color on a whim because I had this great idea for olive velvet curtains.
But then those curtains just felt too damn “heavy” for that room. In picture 1, you’ll see the velvet on the left & something I picked up at Pier 1 on the right. I adored the Pier 1 curtain but it was cream & the trim in the rug is bright white & it just didn’t go. So I snagged the curtains in #2 from World Market because they were olive green & light grey. But in the room, they turned a strange yellow color & the grey turned brown & they were too short & it was a hot mess.
No, thank you.
Onto Curtain #3 where Twitter was all GO PLAIN! & I grabbed the plain white drapes off my dining room rods. Lots of folks liked this look, but it wasn’t for me. It was way too plain. I pulled those down & realized how much I adored Curtain #1, so I ran to Home Depot & snagged a new rug for $150. At this point, Doug is well into his second beer & very tired of me asking what he thinks. The new rug flowed much better but for some reason, it still didn’t “click” right. Probably because I have so much grey, black, & white in my house…it felt awkward to have one room with warm greens & creams & yellows.
Back to Home Depot, rug.
I found myself again in Pier 1 & World Market & the employees are all “OH SWEET CHEESE & RICE, YOU AGAIN” & I’m like, “Do these come in a 94″ length?” Doug thought I would adore Curtain #5 but it felt too busy. Then Curtain #6 did something lovely in my heart & it seemed to pull it all in nicely but I wasn’t sold just yet.
Curtain #7: Very pretty, but nope. Curtain #8: HELL NOPE.
At this point, we’re nine curtains in & one hamster wheel short of an insanity menagerie.
I don’t even know what that means, but it felt good to type.
At long last & lots of receipts & dirty looks from store clerks, my selection:
I love them for bringing in that right amount of weird eclectic whimsy, but also tying in the light grey & green & aqua from all of the surrounding rooms.
Now I just have to pick out blinds. ::faints::
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A nice choice. I hoped that you would pick this one.
And good luck with choosing the blinds. Looking forward to a new saga from you)
I really liked curtains #1 and #6, so I’m glad you chose the one you did! I think it looks great! Good luck in choosing blinds!
See, this is the reason that I just don’t do curtains at all. They have to be changed any time I want to change a lamp or a rug or whatever. I just stick with the plasticy blinds with 2 & 1/2 inch slats. They’re a nice high-gloss white to match my trim, and they go with whatever decor I’m feeling at the moment. At $35 per window from Home Depot, hubby is happy too. And, they keep the neighbors from being able to see me when I’m romping around the house in my tank top and skivvies
Totally feel your pain. We’re building a house right now, which is a huge blessing and insanely fun at times… but at the current moment the number of decisions is killing me. Knobs matching fixtures and cabinets matching floors and one light or two and wood versus carpet. Types of tile, colors of hardwood, styles of cabinets, finishes on faucets. By the time we get to curtains, I might just proudly become an exhibitionist. PS – love your choice!
#7! WHERE CAN I GET #7? I am so serious.
Pier1
Love the rug – can I ask where it is from?
Garden Ridge. $100. For real.
They look AMAZING. Good choice.
I need some of your mad decorating mojo.
Really like your final choice. I think where you went wrong was describing that wall color as olive. It’s really more of a celery.
True enough.
It’s supposed to be olive, though. Green might be THE hardest color to pick.
You should go with a wood blind. That would look nice with the colors in your living room.
Curtains were a major pain in the butt for our house too. We have very high ceilings and I learned (from pinterest, of course) that everyone thinks you should hang them from the top of the ceiling. So in order to do that I had to order the longer length online and just hope to hell I liked the result. I can say that it was the BEST decision I made. The longer length does something wonderful to the room. I bought from Macy’s and JC Penney in case you ever want a change. Great service and amazing quality in the curtains.
Oh – stupid me alert! I also meant to say that you picked the best choice. LOVE the colors that go with the room.
I love the final choice! Also love that in a few more months, they give you lots of options for fun accent pillows that would make the room feel really “springy”.
This is probably why 80% of our house still has janky blinds and no curtains. It’s too damn mind boggling!
Okay, seriously (this has nothing to do with blinds or drapes) can I just tell you how thrilled I am that I am not the ONLY person who has a train table where a coffee table should live?! lol
My advice- skip the blinds. They are a bitch to clean!
That is if blinds me the same thing in America as they do in Australia.
love the train table as coffee table! which train table is it?
I neeeeeed that rug! Where did you buy it?!! Lovvvvve it!
Garden Ridge! $100 & tons of sizes!
Blinds should be easy. I would do a white wooden venetian blind. They are super easy to just vacuum clean.
Also. OMG I am in love with your tree skirt!!! I have never seen one like that before. I am tempted to try to make one, but I have been trying to finish sewing curtains for my living room for like a year. Wish I had just bought them like you.
ha, thank you!! $20 at Home Goods, baby. They had some good ones this year!
I am just glad I am not the only one who buys a million things, tries them, and then returns most (if not all) of them!
I love the green paint you used! Do you remember the name of it?
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