About three years ago, we moved down the street to a larger house. For three years, our living room remained decorated with flat white paint and the builder’s thirteen dollar, gold-plated light arrangements.
I am not known for my decorating skills, but I do have a knack for accepting other people’s stuff–which is how my sis-in-law’s curtains ended up decorating the family room windows, my aunt’s lamp on a table and my mother in-law’s kitchen table ended up in the dining room.
So one day, the hubby and I looked at each other and had the same thought–let’s paint the living room. We were avoiding it for a long time because of the soaring ceilings. When inspiration hits, we roll with it. Our problem is, we often run out of inspiration in the middle of a home job and leave things halfway done.
Or we run out of money.
But this time, we got the job done and sat back to admire the soft yellow walls. We admired the new lights that we put up over the hand-me-down table.
Yet, the room still looked bare and unfinished. We knew we needed curtains, so we set out to find some. Due to the high ceilings, we quickly learned that we would have to either make them or have them custom made.
Either way, it wasn’t going to be cheap.
One day, I was at my neighbor’s house picking up the youngest kiddo and I noticed that she had some nice white curtains hanging up. We have the same soaring ceilings. “Nice curtains,” I commented. “Where did you get them?”
“Oh, those are tablecloths!” she replied. “From Linens and Things!”
I was flabbergasted.
So I ran over to Linens and Things and found a beautiful gold color tablecloth in the perfect length.
For eighteen bucks each!
Comments
14 responses to “Psst, Come Here–Wanna See My Curtains?”
I love money savers like that!! Congrats on getting new “curtains”. They look great!
Whoo-hoo! You go girl – They’re beautiful!
Hahaha that is awesome!!!! Hey, since you’re done at your house… wanna paint and decorate MINE?
Ha, Ha, Jana, you’ll have to wait until we finish the rest of the house!
Hey, they look great!!!
My friend is infamous for decorating with (much much cheaper than already cheap) shower curtains from Ikea.
Good job! I love how bright and cheery your lr looks.
The picture didn’t come through for me, but I love how your story turned out. Congrats on a great find! One of these days I’ll get the nerve to try and paint a room. LOL
They’re beautiful! BTW, thanks for your kind words on my blog today.
Sorta stumbled on your blog awhile back. I enjoy reading it. I’ve never commented until today. I, too, use a table cloth as a curtain. It’s an indian/arab-style cloth simply draped on a curtain rod. I get more compliments on it! It’s great! Oh… and almost everything in my house is a handed down from someone else. I prefer it that way, frankly. Sure beats the “Pier-1-in-a-bottle” look. Congrats on your savvy style.
That is great. My wife did the same thing with two different color sheets for the kitchen before I met her and she says that she had so many compliments about them. She never did tell anyone what they really were.
wish we could paint our house, but we live in military housing. 🙁 I don’t even have pictures on the wall. Love the way that pic looks. 🙂 Very cozy area, perfect for reading.
lovely looking room!
Greta job!
i love linens n things. they have really great stuff that’s very reasonably priced! they look so nice in your living room, too 🙂
Well, you were more ambitious than we were. I decided to start with the bathroom beacuse it was inexpensive to do. I just created a while new look for mine and I think it cost me less than $250, including paint. You can’t beat that.