We FINALLY Have Curtains!!

I am SO excited to finally show you the curtains I made for our master bedroom!  I've had this all planned out in my head for forever, but it just took me a really long time to actually pull it all together.

Remember a few weeks ago I showed you this picture as a sneak peak of an upcoming project?  I shared the rustic sign that I made with some of the wood, but revealed that there was more to do be done with the rest.

Well, the other two pieces were for this area.

This barren and oh-so-boring window in particular.  Notice all the cords showing and the baby monitors so tackily in plain view?  

It needed help!

The window over the bed is much too narrow and needed some "oomph" to make it really stand out and have more presence in the room.

When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for the curtains I knew for sure that I did NOT want the ones that went with this bedding set (not pictured).  Can we say overkill on the French country look?  Too busy and just not my style.  I thought it over for a few days and then as I was looking at the picture that came with the bedding set I realized the answer was right in front of me!

There in the background, behind the bed is some sort of burlap panels.  Burlap...of course!  It's perfect.

So, now with burlap in mind I began to try and figure out exactly how I wanted them to be hung.  I knew I didn't want them to be on a traditional black or oil rubbed bronze curtain rod, again, it would end up with more of a French country look and I wanted "farmhouse."  I thought of other rustic options like tree branches, etc. but nothing was speaking to me.

Then one day I remembered reading Michael's post, over at Inspired by Charm, about the curtains he made for one of his guest bedrooms and I instantly knew that was my answer!  I went searching on his blog and found the post again to refresh my memory.

(via Inspired by Charm)

Suddenly, I could picture just how I wanted it to be and I knew it was the perfect combination of rustic and creative that I love.

I had hubby measure and cut the boards to the sizes I needed, then I stained them with a vinegar and steel wool solution.  (I learned my lesson on the last go-round with this stuff and made sure I wore gloves this time!)

Next, I measured and marked off spots every 3 inches for the nails.

I had this box of rusty nails in my junk stash that I bought at the Habitat ReStore last year.  They were just perfect for this project!

Hubby used drywall screws to attach the boards to the wall and I colored over the shiny silver screws with a brown Sharpie permanent marker to help it blend in a little better. 

After I got the nails all hammered into the board it was time to start on the fabric.  I had already purchased the burlap months ago (used my 40% off coupon to make it cheaper) and had just been waiting for Hubs to have the time to cut the boards for me.  (He goes to school full time and works almost full time on top of that, so he's a very busy man.)

I needed to cut and trim the fabric into 4 panels.  Here's a handy little tip I came across over at Craftaholics Anonymous.  A way to easily cut a straight line in the burlap is to pull out one of the strings/fibers at the cutting point.  It leaves you with a nice little gap that serves as a cutting line.  Very handy!

I can sew some basic stitches, but I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to sew burlap and I didn't even want to try.  I just ironed a good stiff hem along the top and called it a day.

I bought curtain rings with clips to hang the panels.

Here's another great tip about burlap I came across, this time at Life to the T.  Burlap tends to be pretty stiff since it's more of a grassy type fiber rather than fabric.  To get a nice "wavey" look, shape it how you want it to look and use clothespins to hold it in place and let it hang and it will start to take on that shape.  Ideally, let it hang for a couple of days for the best results.  Personally, I'm too impatient for that and mine only stayed clipped for maybe a day.

My original intention was to let the panels hang straight like Michael did up there in my inspiration picture, and maybe add a bit of trim of some sort.  But after I got them up it just didn't look right for some reason.  Hubs wasn't impressed either.  We stood there and mulled it over and tried this and that.  (Now, he's a man's man, loves guns and hunting, he used to be a cowboy, he's currently going to school to be a diesel mechanic, his job is fixing huge semis, and in a perfect world his meals would be meat with a side of meat.  BUT...when I'm stuck and not sure what to do he's always willing to be my sounding board and I can just talk it out and run my ideas past him, and 9 times out of 10 he has great feedback.  This is reason #86 that I love him completely, all the way down to his oddly formed pinky toe.)

After talking it out with him an idea hit me and he liked the sound of it, too.  I wanted to make tiebacks, so I bought a couple of yards of jute webbing and some sticky velcro tabs.  Funny story - the lady who was cutting the webbing for me asked me what I was going to do with it and I told her "curtain tiebacks."  She responded with an, "Ohhhhhhh...." in a tone of voice like, "Here's a trophy for participating Sweetie, but next time you might wanna just stay home."  I got the same reaction when I bought the burlap.  Oh well, you can't let naysayers and criticism get in the way of a vision.  : )

I cut each tieback about 18 inches long, applied the Velcro, then I just wrapped them around the gathered burlap and pinched them together to hold them in place.

** Update - the velcro just did not stand up to the stiff burlap and they fell off after about 3 days.  I ended up using Aleen's Tacky Glue to permanently hold them in place. **

Cute, but still needs something.........

Ahhh...much better!

I found these adorable red wooden buttons at JoAnn's Fabrics and used my 40% off Hobby Lobby coupons on them.

SO.....are you ready to see the full reveal?  

The stack of tan patterned boxes are ones I've had for years.  They hold excess old photos and I put them there to help cover up the unsightly A/C cord.

I frayed the bottom edges of them by simply removing a few rows of fibers.  

So, let's compare a few "before" and "afters."

Notice how the baby monitors are well hidden now?  We can still hear them, but we don't have to stare at them all the time.

Ahhhh...such an improvement!!  And it only took me 1 year and 7 months to do something about it.

Why in the world did it take me so long to finish this project?  Oh well, at least it's done now.

I'm still lovin' my ladder bedside "table."

In this close up you can see the tiebacks peeking out over the top of the bed.

It's all coming along quite nicely, and I'm very pleased so far.  

So...I've done plenty of talkin', now it's your turn.  

What do you think of my "rustic farmhouse" curtains?  Would you give me a consolation trophy like Fabric Cutting Lady or do you think my "vision" was a success?

(If you want to see any of the previous posts about the master bedroom just find my list of previous posts over in the side bar and click on "Master Bedroom.")

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesdays - Savvy Southern Style
Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors
Sunny Simple Sunday - Sunny Simple Life