Extra Long Curtains for Super Cheap

Another window treatment post... yippee!  Sorry I've been gone so long; I've missed you all terribly.  Things are starting to slow down and the kids go back to school next week so I should be able to start blogging again.  Anyway, here are our newest curtains

It is crazy difficult to find reasonably priced curtains for really tall windows.  I got the idea to use cheap Bed Bath and Beyond tablecloths from from Robin Flies South.  I am eternally grateful to her!

You can buy any size for $12.99.  That's pretty close to $10 a panel when you use the 20% off coupon (which never expires, by the way).  Not bad, right?  These panels are 120 inches long... perfect for the 10 foot ceilings we have in the house!

I hemmed them just to make sure they don't puddle too much at the floor.

And I made "faux pinch pleats" that I learned to do from Allison at House of Hepworths.  The rings and clips are from IKEA.

Each side of the sliding glass door has two panels and the little window has one panel on each side.  That's about $65 in curtains.  

I tried one panel on each side of the big window, but the curtains wouldn't quite close all the way.  So I chip clipped them together when I wanted them to stay closed.  Just until I bought 2 more panels. 

 Yep, I'm super classy.

I am so happy with how they turned out!  The room is starting to come together... now just to replace the tiny coffee table that gets lost in such a big room.  I'll be posting about other changes in the house soon.  I promise!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  And thanks for sticking with such a slacker blogger ;o)

Blessings,

Jamie

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Black and White Horizontal Striped Curtains {made from tablecloths}

Hi everyone!  I finished the curtains for the front room...

It took me a while to get around to it, but I think it was worth the wait.  

The windows in our new house are gigantic and I had been looking for a window treatment solution  since the day we moved in.  We needed about 108" long curtains; that length is VERY difficult to find!  I ended up using Walmart tablecloths (that were solid black and solid white) for the fabric.  The tablecloths were only $3 a piece, so each panel came to about $6 total.  The Nester and The Yellow Cape Cod's curtains served as my inspiration.

via theyellowcapecod.com

Gorgeous, right?

I plan on leaving the walls white; most of the room is a hodge podge of craft supplies and kids' toys.  That is a recipe for a room that is both boring and messy.  I knew I would need something bold here to distract from the chaos and basic lack of decor in the room!

I love how they coordinate with the newly framed photo canvases

here are the tablecloths.

I took the tablecloths, cut them into 16" strips and sewed them together alternating the black and white stripes.  All in all, the project took about 5 hours.

The curtain rods are from Hobby Lobby and the rings and clips are from IKEA.  I never imagined I would be able to treat these windows for such a small amount of money.

What do you think?  Do they look like $6 drapes?  Is the bold design too much for the room?  Let me know in the comments!

Blessings,

Jamie

This post is linked here:  Today's Creative Blog Blue Cricket Design Kurtz Corner Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Cherished Bliss Lines Across My Face Southern Lovely Bear Rabbit Bear French Country Cottage Craft Junkie Too DIY Home Sweet Home Saved by Love Domestically Speaking Funky Junk Interiors Homemaker on a Dime Eisy Morgan The Answer is Chocolate Making the World Cuter Craft-O-Maniac lolly jane 504 Main I Heart Naptime Singing Three Little Birds mad in crafts House of Hepworths Somewhat Simple Chic on a Shoestring Keeping it Simple Be Different Act Normal Sew Can Do Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus The Girl Creative Flamingo Toes Tatertots and Jello Sisters of the Wild West Reasons to Skip the Housework Giggles Glitz and Glam Tip JunkieThe Trendy Treehouse Ladybug Blessings Night Owl Crafting Tea Rose Home My Girlish Whims Allie Makes Gluesticks Thrifty 101 Momnivores Dilemma A Little Knick Knack Miss Mustard Seed Freckled Laundry kojo designs A vision to remember Primitive and Proper 733 Rook no 17 Home Stories A to Z Naptime Crafters Whipperberry delightful order blissful and domestic elizabeth and co diy by design gingersnap crafts>my repurposed life>

Tips for Moving {DIY Style}

I thought about posting this before we moved, but I wanted to see if my "system" really did work before sharing it with you.

We DIYed our move.  We rented a truck and had a bunch of friends help with the boxes and furniture.  Here are a few of the strategies we used to help things run smoothly.

 photo source

*Get the biggest truck and reserve it early.  I know, I know, you don't have that much stuff.  That's what I thought.  Get the big truck just in case.  We almost ran out of room in the big one!

*Don't be afraid to ask for help.  I know this is easier said than done.  We don't have family in town, so we've had to learn to lean on friends a lot.  They have been such a blessing to us, offering to take the kids, helping with  the move itself and helping me with unpacking/organizing.  Also, we originally had commitments from about 12 people to help with the move and 8 showed up.  Life happens and other things come up for people, so be sure you plan to have enough hands!  Also, be sure to provide food and drinks for the people helping you.

*Don't move junk with you.  I've heard so many people say, we'll handle it when we get there.  We might need this.  If you haven't used it in your old house, chances are you won't need it in the new house.  Do yourself a favor and get rid of it.  If you need some help with decluttering, here is a great article from Becoming Minimalist.

The following are a few items you are allowed to collect/hoard:

*Hoard organizing tools and look for deals.  I've found shelving for the garage, bins and baskets at Goodwill or on clearance at stores.

Need window treatments for the new house?

*Hoard supplies for window treatments so you aren't overwhelmed by the expense all at once.

Here are a few of the deals I found in the month before we moved:

$5 rods (gorgeous!) with hardware from IKEA

$3 tablecloths (for curtains) from WalMart

$1.50 per yard fabric from WalMart

*Start hoarding boxes.  Ask friends who have recently moved.  Post something on Facebook about looking for boxes.  Or check freecycle.  Don't forget the packing tape and paper.  When we ran out of boxes, we found more at a great price at Home Depot.  They were between $1 and $2 each!  They had good prices on packing paper too. 

*Label boxes clearly.  Our boxes have been through a few moves already so we had to find a way to distinguish our labeled information from all the previous moves.  I used yellow construction paper and wrote the level of the house, room, and contents on each label.  My husband laughed at me and said, "our friends who are helping us aren't idiots; most of them have advanced degrees and don't need it spelled out like that."  I say you can never be too specific!

*Label furniture.  I just used a piece of blue tape and a piece of paper on an area of the piece where I can be sure it won't damage the finish.  You don't want the people moving the stuff to have to ask you everytime they bring a piece of furniture in, "where does this go?"

*Label the rooms in the new house.  Again, you don't want to have to direct people every time someone brings an item into the house.  I just used a big piece of paper taped to the doorway of each room

*Avoid shoving everything in the garage of the new house.   This one is pretty self-explanatory.  Get the boxes into the rooms where they will be unpacked.  It will save you a lot of digging through piles of boxes later on.

*Have everything packed in boxes before the move starts.  Yes, everything!  I know what you're thinking:  we'll come back and get it later with the minivan, truck, whatever large vehicle you have.  Trust me, avoid this temptation.  Once you are in the new house, you are going to want to be working on/in the new house.  I don't care how many odds and ends you have shoved into boxes marked "miscellaneous".  We found it best to get it into a box or get rid of it.

*Give yourself some grace.  This is a stressful process.  The house we were moving from didn't have a garage; we had boxes stacked to the ceiling in our master bedroom and kitchen for weeks.  I needed to calm myself down every morning since those boxes were the first thing I looked at each morning.  I just told myself it was temporary and we needed to make a few sacrifices to get to a better place.


Hope your move goes well!
Blessings,
Jamie

Tarps as Window Treatments?!

Yep.  I used picnic tarps.  Hey, it's a Spiderman room, we aren't exactly going for the classiest decor award here

Do you know how much curtains cost???  It's really hard to find them for under $10 a panel.  Even if I were to buy my own fabric and make them, it would come to about $10 a panel... and that's using the cheapest fabric around (with a coupon).

These were $4.99 each at Home Depot!  I've either hit rock bottom or I've struck gold in finding and using these.  Maybe a little bit of both :)

I'm not going to pretend that this is the most luxurious fabric ever.  They are a little, um, stiff.  The red side feels like fabric and they are backed with a silver plastic-type material.  But they fit our needs perfectly for now! 

Another update to the room:  trim!  My amazing husband put chair rail and window trim up.

All the windows in our house looked like this.

And then I saw a post at House of Hepworths for how to fix these eyesores!!!  So easy and soooo much better.

One more pic of the room so far

the wall color above the chair rail is Sherwin Williams Online; below the chair rail is Sherwin Williams Web Gray

I feel like this room redo is dragging on forever!  More to come.  Hopefully we'll have it all wrapped up in another week or two.

What do you think?  Are you going to go tarp your windows?

Blessings,

Jamie

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This post is linked here:  Today's Creative Blog Blue Cricket Design Kurtz Corner Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Cherished Bliss Lines Across My Face Southern Lovely Bear Rabbit Bear French Country Cottage Craft Junkie Too DIY Home Sweet Home Saved by Love Domestically Speaking Funky Junk Interiors Homemaker on a Dime Eisy Morgan The Answer is Chocolate Making the World Cuter Craft-O-Maniac lolly jane 504 Main I Heart Naptime Singing Three Little Birds mad in crafts House of Hepworths Somewhat Simple Chic on a Shoestring Keeping it Simple Be Different Act Normal Sew Can Do Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus The Girl Creative Flamingo Toes Tatertots and Jello Sisters of the Wild West Reasons to Skip the Housework Giggles Glitz and Glam Tip Junkie
The Trendy Treehouse Ladybug Blessings Night Owl Crafting Tea Rose Home My Girlish Whims Allie Makes Gluesticks Thrifty 101 Momnivores Dilemma A Little Knick Knack Miss Mustard Seed Freckled Laundry kojo designs A vision to remember Primitive and Proper 733 Rook no 17 Home Stories A to Z
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