It's Curtains for Us!

First off, I'd like to show everyone our newest ornament for the tree.  I wanted to get something to commemorate 2010 being the year we bought our first house.  I thought this ornament from Hallmark was very sweet.

Now for the real reason of this post...The windows in the family room are very drafty, and they make the room very cold.  I put plastic on the windows, but it doesn't seem to be helping much.  I tried a different (more expensive) brand than last year, but it seems to be worse.  Next year, I will go back to using Frost King since the 3M film doesn't seem to be doing its job.  Anyways, because the family room is where we like to sit and relax, we decided to go ahead and try to remedy the situation.  For the very first time, Jim and I have bought curtains for the house!  Yea!  All the other curtains in our home are the same ones the previous owners left.  Most of them are just a very thin lacy material.  The family room didn't even have curtains, since it had shutters when we first moved in.  I had taken those cobweb encrusted dust magnets off the windows within the first month after moving in.  The shutters are still sitting in my dad's garage as I type.  So, yes, it has taken us almost a year to buy curtains.  

We discovered that curtains are expensive.  Fortunately, the family room only has 3 windows.  We knew we wanted to buy red curtains, but we wanted to make sure that the curtains wouldn't clash with our red couch.  We were able to cut off a piece of the couch fabric in an inconspicuous spot so that we wouldn't have to take an entire couch cushion with us to the store.  Can you see me doing that?  While Jim was shopping at Lowe's.  I went to check out the selection at Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was actually quite surprised and pleased when I saw their selection.  I managed to find exactly what I was looking for: curtains that looked stylish, yet also had insulating and noise reducing properties.  Jim liked the curtains as much as I did, so we bought them.  We had chosen London  Stripe in brick.  We decided not to buy the coordinating valance at that time, but I'd like to at some point in the coming months.  We also bought a sheer panel to go behind the curtains as an extra detail when the curtains are open.    This, however, lead to some unforeseen consequences.  We would need to buy a double rod set, but we didn't like any of the ones that we saw.  We did; however, like some of the single rods.  We figured that we could just buy the single rods and purchase the needed double brackets separately.  Easy enough, right?  WRONG!  We went to 7 different stores looking for double brackets and couldn't find any that were sold by themselves!  What stores did we try you might ask.  Well, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowe's, Kmart, Kohl's, Walmart, Home Depot, and Sear's Hardware!  Nothing!  We found plenty of single brackets, but no doubles.  Grrrr!  What the heck, peoples?!  Well, we ended up drilling holes in the single brackets that came with the rods we bought and screwed them together to make a double bracket.  Of course, we didn't have the proper drill bit, so we went to Ace Hardware to buy the right one.  Long story short (too late, I know) we finally have curtains hanging in the family room.  As a bonus, I no longer have to worry about the neighbors seeing me work out on my Wii Fit in the morning. ;p  Besides the valances, we also still need to buy the holdbacks.  We figured that could wait until spring/summer.  We plan on keeping the curtains closed for the winter.  I'm hoping these curtains help keep the heat in and the cold out.

And now what you all have been waiting for...the pictures!

The sheer back layer

It is Astor Gold/Wine from Westgate

Close-Up of the Sheer curtain

The front layer with the curtains closed

Do you like the front rod finials?  They are called Orly.  lol.

Jim holding the curtains back to show off the 2 layers together

I know, I should iron them.

The camera didn't quite capture the true color of the curtains, but now you have an idea of what they look like.  I love them.  I've included the holdbacks and valances in our Wish List tab at the top of the page.  Our family room looks more homey now.  Homey, not homely.  :)  It looks more put together despite the pink faux brick wall on one side, the pioneer wall paper on the other, and our Asian decor throughout.  Hahaha!  This is the first room people see when they come in our house, and it does not give the first impression that I'd  like it to.  I told Jim that I should try to get on one of HGTV's shows like "Rate My Space" or something.  Unfortunately, this room is not one of our priority rooms, so it will have to wait.