Making a Home...Living Room Curtains

We are so very excited that our living room curtains have arrived! After searching long and hard for just the right curtains, I found these beautiful panels at West Elm :) 

They go perfectly with our golden corduroy sectional and they add so much texture and pattern to our living room which previously felt a bit like a big white box.  We found the perfect hardware at Crate & Barrel and when everything arrived in the mail, we went to work putting it all together.

But first, let's remember that big white box!

LOL!! I couldn't take it any longer!!

So let's hang some curtains, shall we?! :)

The curtains had two options for hanging, one long pole pocket, and a set of hidden tabs. I opted to hang them using the tabs since I wanted a slightly more tailored look.

The hardware was simple enough to install. Each pole came with a set of brackets. Each bracket set had one flat panel (which got screwed directly to the wall - see photo on left) and then a hook, which slid effortlessly over the flat panel (see photo on right).  The rods rest inside the hooks and are held in place by a small screw (which can be seen poking out of the front of the hook). 

Getting everything level was the trickiest part of all because we live in an old house which is not at all level!  So we just made sure the curtains hung level to the floor (so we wouldn't have one side longer than the other) and that method seems to have worked pretty well :)

Drumroll please....

It is admittedly difficult to take a decent photo of the curtains behind the sectional, since the sun is always shining through them.  But the blend of linen and cotton definitely lets just the right amount of light through without being too sheer.  We have also noticed a big difference in the temperature in our living room. It's much more comfortable throughout the day, and the curtains are the perfect fix for the afternoon sun which once baked us on the sofa.

It was also tricky trying to decide what height to place the curtain rods at on either side of the front door.  This is because the windows are much, much lower than the windows on the back end of the living room, and therefore the front door frame is much higher than the windows. Since the curtains are 84" long panels (which work perfectly in the back of the room behind the sectional), we decided to keep the whole room uniform and hang the panels in the front of the room at their full length, too.

 

 
When they're closed, it is almost impossible to tell where the window actually is and hanging them higher than the molding fits better with the scale of this large room (which also has a vaulted ceiling).  The only glitch is that the floor is so skewed, the right panel hits the floor a little more than the left. Oh well! C'est la vie! :)

This is our favorite little vignette at the moment. It's the corner of the room that feels the most complete to us and makes this place feel like home.

Oh happy day of new curtains :)