Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Search for the Perfect Window Dressing

Going through some photos today, I came across a screen capture I've been holding on to for a while.

What interesting thing might this be?  Why, the curtains in a TV kitchen, of course!  (Yes, this is going to be a home decorating blog post.  You may want to sneak out right about now.)

These curtains hang in the Gilbert family's kitchen.  ...In The Vampire Diaries.  (I know, I know.  But it's better than you [probably] think.)

Anyway, here's the photo:

We need curtains for our kitchen/breakfast room windows.  When we repainted, we took down the tired, lace valances that we'd "made do" with for so long, and now I refuse to put them back up, for fear I'll decide to just continue "making do" instead of replacing them with something nicer.

I just have to figure out what kind I want to make... buy the fabric... and, um, make them.  (Have I mentioned I've never sewn any type of curtain before?  But I do know how to work a basic sewing machine, so I think I can handle it.)

I like the ones in the photo (which is why I saved it), but even if I could somehow find that exact fabric (...which is what I like about them), that set up wouldn't work for us.  You see, people in TV shows, movies, and glossy-paged magazines always have these beautiful windows framing "views"-- with nary a blind in sight.   (Frequently, they have no curtains, either.  I guess TV/movie/magazine people don't require privacy and never get that prickly-necked feeling that Someone-- or Something--  may be lurking just outside, watching... Must be nice, huh?)

I, on the other hand, live in the real world-- and more specifically in the Southern U.S. region of the real world, where the summer sun shines hot and the A/C drives up the electricity bill.  Blinds are pretty well a necessity, it seems to me.  You could do a shade instead of blinds, but I don't have any experience with shades, except those hideous dark green ones they used in some of the older classrooms in middle school.  Those things blocked out all the light-- not good, when you need them pulled down for hours at a time, during the hottest time of a summer day.  I am considering using some type of shades in conjunction with more decorative curtains, but I'm afraid I'd still feel like we need blinds, too.

...Maybe this is some type of mental illness-- a bizarre addiction to blinds.  I suppose you can still be addicted to something even if you hate it... ;o)

Anyway, I need to figure out what to do.  I'm tired of those empty windows--  empty save for those ugly blinds, that is.  (It's funny how I hate empty/curtain-less windows so much more than empty walls... I need to work on that some more, too, though.  We have things that need to be hung.  --But where??  The eternal question...)