Curtain Hunt 2012

Although you didn't get to see them in the house tour, we have new curtains! Well, we have new and new-old curtains. But we do, after almost a year since I duct taped sheets to our living room windows, have curtains.

We couldn't have done it without Kyle's mom, Mrs. Janet. Well, maybe we could have, but we'd probably be sending our not-yet-existent children off to college before we had curtains without her. Let's just be real.

So Mrs. Janet came down to good 'ole East Texas for a visit and she was ready to work. Kyle's mom hadn't been down to our little home quite yet, and while Kyle's dad was away watching the Huskers play she headed down to see us.

She arrived on Friday night and was ready for a few projects. She had just left Kyle's sister's new place in Dallas and she was ready to hang curtains or paint something! Since I still hadn't chosen a color for the living room, we decided on curtains. And so began the Great Curtain Hunt of 2012.

Not kidding. It was kind of insane. See I have an idea in mind of what I'd like the inside of our home to look like. It's not like my room looked in college, it's not how our house looks now. It's kind of this fresh neutrals and whites with what I like to call "pops of color." Pretty much everything I pin on Pinterest.

We were looking for a large curtain to cover the back sliding glass door in the back living room, instead of the black bed sheet we had thumb-tacked up there.  We were also looking at more decorative than functional curtains for the living room, too. I knew what I wanted. For the sliding glass door I wanted a pattern, maybe something lighter so it didn't look like a stage curtain when closed, and something to keep the 5 o'clock sun from heating up the back living room. For the living room windows I found some curtains online at IKEA called "Vivian." They sell them in white for like $10 a pair, and come highly recommended by all those famous house bloggers! But they don't ship them online; we'd have to drive to an IKEA to get them.

So we started at Walmart. Not my favorite place for style, but the prices are good. I thought we may find something neutral there, but we left empty handed. I wasn't super impressed with the selection for someone going for a lighter feel. But, I guess, they did have sheer tulle curtains, but other than that it was thicker maroon shimmery heavy things.

Then to Target, which is a great place because I usually love their style. They had some curtains, nothing too impressive that was in stock or long enough or didn't have large grommets at the top. I prefer the rings and clips look.  But I did find the best shower curtain pattern. I actually was okay with using a shower curtain for our windows, because who would know right? But then it turns out shower curtains at Target are only 72 inches long and I needed something longer. I used the shower curtain as an example of the style I was looking for; you know so Kyle and his mom knew where I was going with all this.

Actually turns out though, they sell this pattern in actual window curtains in some other stores and online, and when looking for a picture of the shower curtain to show you, this was all I could find.

While at Target we did find curtain rods. I thought I was going to choose an oil rubbed bronze look, but the more I thought about it the more I loved this brushed nickel look. And it was on sale. We got three, two for the front living room and one big one for the sliding glass door. We bought some ring clips there too, but they didn't have as many as we needed.

We headed to Tyler's other Walmart and again left empty handed. Walmart was 0 for 2 at that point. And we headed home for the night.

Saturday we started the day hitting up the town's garage sales. Found a few fun items, like a stationary bike peddler, lol, then  we went curtain shopping again. We went back to Target, over to Bed Bath and Beyond, to Big Lots, and to the fabric store. We found nothing. Well, there was a designer special order fabric they had for $45 a yard that I loved! But I wasn't about to drop that kind of money on curtains.

I felt bad for Kyle and Mrs. Janet because I would say, "I'm looking for a fresh pattern, lighter colors, neutral, but with a pattern, but no flowers..." and they'd hold up something that actually met everything I requested but it was not what I was looking for at all. They should have stopped helping me and called me the curtain diva. But they were nice, lol.

Kyle was tired. I was tired. I'm sure Kyle's mom was tired. But we were right across the street from JC Penney. So we drug ourselves inside.

We walked to the curtain section and there they were right there hanging on the fake window display! I said, "Kyle I love these!" The perfect set. A natural shade of linen-type material with a worn navy print. Oooo. And they had plain curtains in the same fabric.

These are made my Linden Street. The floral pattern is called Madeline and you can find it online here. Please note that the only online reviewer of the curtains sounds like she could totally be me, but it actually isn't, kind of cracked me up. The plain panel is called Montego, and it really is the same exact fabric, just without the pattern and it's online here. But while at the store we checked in the bin and behind the secret display door and couldn't find the curtains on the shelf. Turns out the only ones they had were the display. I begged the lady to let me buy them off the display and she said, "well, I'm not supposed to. But I will." Yay! for rule-breakers... this time.

We got four panels, two patterned Madeline and two plain Montego so that we could break up the pattern when they hang closed; avoid that stage curtain look. We originally thought we wanted blackout curtains to keep all the sun out, but these are more sheer and they let great light in. The back living room no longer looks like a dungeon, and I could not have been happier. The black sheet hanging on the window could not be more gone.

And Kyle could not have been happier to get home and watch some football.



More pics and the odd story of the living room curtains to be told later this week. As for these curtains, I love them... they were well worth all the hunting, all 10 million hours of it. Right?