Sheer Madness: The Real Winners

After living with our sheers-behind-the-shades setup for nine months I finally looked at our living room one day and decided what was missing. There had been something that just felt off about the space for a while because one of the main reasons we bought the house was for the lovely amount of light it brought in but lately it had been feeling dark and dingy. 

So on a trip up to Kansas City to see family I stopped into a TJ Maxx and fell in love with some curtains. I had dreamt up this 'thick sheer' with a subtle pattern that would be perfect for the space but expected it to take me forever to find the perfect one that didn't cost a million dollars. I was literally on the last aisle of the store (like rounding the end-cap) when these lovelies caught my eye. They were a thick sheer (sheer enough to let light in but thick enough to give privacy) and had a beautiful, but very subtle ikat-ish pattern to them. 

And the best part? They were massive sized panels 100"x84" and they came in a pack of two for 19.99. Hello, ten dolla curtains. I couldn't find fabric for that cheap per yard to make a panel this size let alone to make up for the time it would take me to hem them up. Glorious day. The kicker was that there were actually two colors that I loved in the store but couldn't decided on. This lovely grey blue with soft cream and dark grey accents. 

And this more tan/green/yellow shade with blue and brown accents. With the absolutely ridiculously huge windows we have in our living room I estimated that I would need ten total panels (6 for the picture window and 4 for the windows by the fireplace). So I threw 5 packs of each color in my cart and loitered in TJ Maxx while I pondered. I called everyone I knew and sent them pictures and tried my best to describe the color tones over the phone. I still couldn't decide.

So then I thought I'd throw together a small mood board right there in the store. I wanted to get an idea of how the other colors and tones in our living room would work each panel. So I found the closest grey to our walls in a sheet set, a white frame accent which we have scattered about and then I set everything on top of a dark walnut dresser that matches the tone in our floors. Still couldn't decide.

So after some advice I decided to to buy it all. I bought 5 packs of both colors and brought them home. I needed to see in person how the curtains played off our wall color and chairs and floors. As you can see below my very sophisticated method of envisioning the curtains in our space. I simply frog taped those babies up to the wall at about the height I would later hang the winners. I left them there for about two days while I was on the hunt for the equally massive curtain rods to hang them with.

Here is the winner! This is the panel I was most afraid of in the store and the one everyone via phone seemed to like the most. I didn't want it to be too 'seaside blue' or wash out the grey. But the tan panel in person washed everything out in a sea of the worst shade of 'grellow' you've ever seen.

And let me tell you these rods were the hardest thing in the world to find. I had high hopes of snagging some at Ross, Marshalls or TJ Maxx for a good deal but apparently stores like that don't sell rods that have to go up to 117 inches. So I eventually found some at Bed, Bath & Beyond where I used a 20% off coupon for each along with a left over giftcard and ended up paying 30 of our own dollars. Then I had to pick up rings from Target because I wanted the curtains to be hung pretty high so I needed the extra inch or two and I also wanted them to be really easy to open and shut.

Also remember the weird little ledge we have going on over the windows by the fireplace? Well it helped to disguise it when I caulked the deep crevices but it helped a ton by hanging the rod high enough over the ledge to kind of blend it in with the wall.

We also made sure to hang both rods at the same height regardless of the slight difference in the window height. This helps to trick the eye into thinking there are actually the same height and makes the room flow a lot better. Oh and the bestest part of all this? I ended up only needing six panels total (4 over the picture window and two by the fireplace). Since the sheers were thicker then normal sheers they worked great to give coverage with less.

End of story: we love them. It makes the space feel bigger and lets in more light. Win, win.