Thursday, April 23, 2015

One Room Challenge, Week 4: what to do with these windows



The One Room Challenge continues, and I am working like crazy to catch up.  (You can see last week's entrance into the challenge here.)

Today I have a moodboard and a design dilemma.  The moodboard for my master bedroom centers around a 10x13 rug I found on Craigslist for super cheap.  Nearly everything else is stuff I already own and am repainting/repurposing.



The floral pillow in the board is a Pottery Barn print from years ago.  I have a shower curtain in that print and my plan is to attempt to use my sewing machine for the first time to make Euro shams.  It will be an adventure.

I own two small bombe chests that I will paint blue for night stands; the round mirror and the curtains are in my garage.  The longhorn cow may get yarn-bombed, we'll see how it goes.  I'd like to get some monogrammed shams if time permits.

And now for the design dilemma.  I have a large fan window and a corner window in my master bedroom, like so:


 Dilemma: how to hang the curtains? The giant fan window makes the room a sauna in the late afternoons and needs a cover.

Option 1:  hang curtains at 84 inches on both sets of windows.  This means the curtains are hung right above the corner windows, and on the middle between the fan window and the window below it.  In this scenario the fan window gets a fan pleated accordian paper shade.

It is hard to find pictures of curtains below a fan window, but it would look something like this, with longer curtains:

image via northern nesting

Option 2: hang curtains unequally.  One set above the fan window, which is 120 inches from the floor, so I'd probably have to lengthen a set of curtains by adding a contrasting fabric at the bottom.  The corner window would have curtains hung at about 100 inches, because that is the height of the curtains I have.

It would look something like this:

image via
Your thoughts on the window situation, please.

Check out all the other linking participants here

12 comments:

  1. Fan windows are obviously a guy/builder thing. I think they're awful--second only to paper fan shades. Mutt and Jeff it will have to be. Can you put the same "bottom" on the drapes to "marry" them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it depends on whether you like the light/view (tops of trees?) that comes through the arched part of the fan window, because as far as I know the pleated paper fan shades are not something you're opening and closing; they're just shut all the time. We have the same issue in one of our kids' bedrooms, and when we replaced the window we lost the cross piece directly underneath the half-moon, so a pleated shade wasn't possible anymore (no place to attach it). We went with option two (bar over the top). I do like the fact that the window is entirely uncovered when we want it to be, but we do have some trouble with the rings catching on the edge of where the rods join, and because it's so high, you do have to reach up quite a ways to properly yank it over that edge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd put the curtains at the same height, and add the paper shade to the arch window. I would be very cautious of adding a contrasting fabric to curtains hung at unequal heights.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would do pattern-block on all curtains but make sure that the seams occur at the same height. I would also hang curtains above the fan window because paper shades are not really ever an option in my most humble opinion. Or you could bust out some gyp board and block in the fan window ;-) Commercial buildings do it all the time!!! You don't even realize it because they do such a great job of faking you out!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with this. I did this, minus the pattern block and it looks good. Another way to cover the fan window that I am attempting is to create a faux Roman shade. I made one using a large table cloth and iron on velcro and hem tape with some wide grosgrain ribbon to make it look raised. It was easy and inexpensive!

      Delete
  5. Option 2 for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone--I am leaning towards option 2.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I would hang the curtain rods at the same height, but instead of a paper shade, use some window film on the arched window for heat control. Most of them in the hardware store are tinted, but you can get clear online.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I prefer the second option. The best would be shutters, but I know they are more pricey.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hang the curtains at different heights ... no paper shades! I don't think I 'd cover it up because it could be a beautiful architectural feature ... just play it up!

    ReplyDelete

Yay! You're commenting! I love comments!