The Horizontal Stripe Curtains

I’m back with another home project! This one is all about curtains. Horizontal strip curtains to be exact. You see- I have been seeing curtains like this all over my favorite decoration blogs; teasing me, taunting me! I love how playful yet modern and clean the pattern of wide horizontal stripes can be for curtains. They really can add a bold element to the room with out being over the top in color or pattern. One of my favorite examples is here. I knew that I wanted to find or make some for our new house.

So I tried to track down somewhere, anywhere, that sold horizontal striped curtains. And I came up with Zero. Zip. Zilch! Apparently most stores have not yet gotten the memo that this is in style because I could not find curtains like this ANYWHERE! Just recently I finally saw them become available a few placed but when I was hunting there was nothing. Now you can buy them at Crate and Barrel and West Elm has a shower curtain that might make a great curtain if you have a smaller window. Still- these options are far more than I wanted to spend, even if they had been available when I was looking.

Ok, on to Plan B. I could just make some right? I am a decent seamstress and curtains are not hard to make. I would just find some wide horizontal stripe fabric in gray and white and make my own. I even read that if you can’t find horizontal stripes, you can find vertical stripes and sew it together in pieces to make the curtain panels hang with the stripes horizontal. Great! Wonderful….and then I could not find fabric that I thought would work. Even when I found something that would come close to what I wanted it would usually be $12-18/yard and I knew that with an entire wall of windows in the man-cave to curtain that is a lot of yardage.

Then, after some internet research I learned that many people are painting horizontal stripe curtains using white curtains and acrylic paint. Some pretty amazing one have been made I thought about this option but frankly that sounded like a lot of work and supplies, not to mention that I had this picture in my head of what they would look like and painted curtains just didn’t seem terribly lovely. I mean- your stripes would have to be perfect since they are on such a large scale hanging for everyone to see! This option quickly fizzled for me.

So I was about ready to give up on my dreams of curtains with the stripes that head horizontally, when one day I was strolling through Target. It must be said that I rarely go to Target and simply go to the items I need and then check out. No, I wander, and stroll, and lollygag around the place for as long as I can. I love Target.

This particular day I was already out running errands for our house to Home Depot and I had stopped at the Tar-jay for a few more items, so you could say that I had our house on the brain. Suddenly as I am walking past the bedding section I do a double take and then back it up to investigate closer. What I found was this duvet cover set in the perfect, PERFECT gray horizontal stripe.

I even went so far as to pull it out of the package(no worries! It was packaged in a sort of fabric envelope with buttons so I could pack it right back in the envelope if I decided not to buy it.) to feel the fabric and see the size. I almost started jumping up and down in the aisle for joy! It looked like it could work. Then, it got even better when I realized that the different sizes could easily work well with my different size windows. You see- in the man-cave we have a sliding glass door out to the patio flanked by a large window on each side. So a twin size duvet cover would work perfectly for the two windows and two King size duvets would work for the sliding glass door. The good new kept coming when I realized that because it was a duvet cover it would make a curtain panel that was essentially already lined since duvets are like a big envelope for your comforter.

And the best part by far? The price was only $19.99/twin and $34.99/king. I mean, curtains will usually cost you around $60 and the fabric I was looking at would have ended up be hundreds of dollars for all the material I would need for four curtain panels! I was beaming at this point. The cashier must have thought I was on drugs I was smiling so hard.

Along with the duvets I also grabbed four sets of curtain clips for $3.49/each on clearance, and three curtain rods. Then I stashed them away knowing that soon we would be removing the hideous vertical blinds from the 90’s and painting the man-cave moonshine gray like my favorite decorating bloggers YoungHouseLove using an Angie’s List deal we had bought($199 for 7 hours of professional painting!). Here is what that room looked like when we bought the house:

After all that I knew it would be time for these babies to make their debut. And here they are along with our new gray walls!

Oh, and I should mention that Mark was fully aware of my plans and was hesitant but trusted me and agreed that he would have veto power if he didn’t love them. Putting up the curtain rods the night after the room was painted was more difficult than either of us expected but after I hung the first panel we sat on the floor and looked up at it in all it’s striped and simple glory and Mark turned to me and said “I actually really like them”. Can I get a Hallelujah?! Mark and I actually agree on something! That seems to be the case more and more often these days as well settle into this house. Maybe our tastes are not as different as I always thought.

So the curtains are here for good, AND I LOVE THEM. Most of all I love that I found a solution to this decorating dilemma that 1)was less expensive that I thought it would be, 2)was even better than I could have hoped for since I didn’t have to sew them and the fabric of the duvets is lighter and airier than any of the home fabrics I had found that I was considering, 3)that Mark and I both love, and 4)was outside the box. I feel quite proud of myself for the idea and for making it happen!
Stay tuned because it doesn’t stop there. That poorly-installed ivory carpet had to go and tonight I am enjoying the smell of new carpet wafting in from the man cave! Photos and post to come!