Let there be drapes.....

For those who are calling me a slacker for not posting last week - you have officially guilted me into putting "POST" on my to-do list for today.  Yes, I am still a woman who gets up and loves to make an actual list of things I want to get done.  It can be electronic, mental, written on paper, etc....but there's almost always a list and it's usually way longer than could ever be accomplished in a day.  I suppose it's my weird way of keeping me motivated.

so, on my list last week was getting the drapes in the LR done.  Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it? Ha!  so....here's the saga. Hardware is installed to fit existing beautiful silk panels that came from a former life.  Hang the silk panels and find they look like crap!  Grrrrr! What????? Yep, that looked really bad.  So I thought to myself, well maybe you just need to live with them for a little while.  Really?  didn't work and by the end of the day, I was taking down the silk panels and planning my little "Plan B".  I needed something simpler, cleaner and less fussy.  Anyone besides me thinking IKEA???? Simple, clean-lined and cheap - just what I needed.  So I measure exactly the dimension I would need and find that their standard sized panels are not going to work.  Second Grrrr.  So now I realize that I'm going to have to either move the hardware or band the panels.  Since I do like banding and customizing the most boring of panels and hated the thought of having to reinstall the hardware, the choice was easy.  So while at IKEA, I take a look at their fabrics, which happen to be 58" wide (vs standard 54") and exactly the same width as the panels, again a no-brainer.  I find a fabric that would work, a dark gray with a white line pattern ......and I'm off!  Off to the ironing board that is.  I turn on the DVR to watch my taped shows and iron all the white panels, band them and then realize that I have gone crazy and banded 6 panels and I only need 4.  Grrrr # 3! Mind you, I do not need gray banded panels in any other room - so will now have to cover the extra panels in another color, or hey find a shorter room and just hack them off :)

So scroll down to see the project that should have been easy and seemed to take forever.  First the detail, then a full shot of the panels and finally a bigger view of how the room is shaping up (and yes, still not done).



And while I'm at it - I guess I'll add that the DR drapery panels went up SO easily - like maybe 20 minutes, so I know there really is a God.  And if I add the time it took me to do both rooms and divide by 2 - maybe the time it took to put up the LR panels doesn't seem so bad.  :)

Dining Room panels: super bargain from the Ballards outlet store in ATL - $19.99 per panel (thanks CW!).  I had the black hardward from a previous house, so the only cost was 4 panels for a total of about $80 buckeroos. 

Note: The ugly chandelier is coming down as soon as a replacement is found.

BTW, the LR panels were super cheap inexpensive too.  I think the panels were 29.99 for a pair and the fabric was 1 yard @ 7.99.  Again, I already had the hardware so the whole LR was at a cost of under $80. Then again, that does include cheap labor - ME!!!

No more blogger slacking - promise!