Wednesday, May 2, 2018

One Room Challenge, Week 5: Rug and Pelmets



For week 5 of the One Room Challenge, I bought a new rug.  I already had a gray geometric 8x10 rug that fit the space nicely, but as much as I liked the light airiness that the gray and white gave the room, this rug did not stand up to dirt.  The parlor is to the right of the front door, and the kitchen is off the parlor, so the line from the front door to the kitchen was a nice line of dirt across this lovely light-colored carpet.



I found a 7x10 persian rug on ebay.  I was deliberately looking for a cheap, busily-patterned dark blue and red rug that would hide dirt, and I did not want to pay very much for it, because my guess it will need replacing in a few years. 


I also made some pelmets for the windows.  For months I went around and around on what kind of window treatments to do.  Curtains weren't ideal, seeing as the room is only 10x11 and all the furniture needs to be pushed up against the walls, thus trapping the curtains behind the sofa and chair. 

I would love to do roman shades, but yeesh, they are expensive.  These windows are 35 and 3/8s, not a standard size, and I could not find a plain white inexpensive shade that I could gussy up myself with trim.  Custom shades--even plain white ones!--are $350+ per window.  I did splurge on roman shades for our back living room, since it has four abutted corner windows that won't allow a pelmet treatment and six windows are at different heights, making curtains look crazy from a symmetry perspective, but I just couldn't justify the cost in the front of the house.

I ended up using white pull down cellular shades from Home Depot, for about $40 per window.  I could have made a foam core board pelmet, like I have in other rooms, but since these windows are in the front of the house, visible from the front door, and I have another set of windows on the other side of the door I wanted to match, I ordered a more substantial pelmet kit from Amazon.  I have about fifteen plain white Ikea curtains from our last house, so I used those for the fabric, and hot ironed some greek key trim on them.  I'm happy with how they turned out.  They give some fanciness and look finished without overwhelming the rest of the room or making a giant statement.



Next week is the big reveal, ack.  I need to finish painting the closet and find some art.  I can't wait to see all the other rooms.  

4 comments:

  1. The pelmets look great and what a beautiful rug you found. Can't wait to see it all come together.

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    1. thanks, t! The closets were painted today--new hardware for the doors and it will be done!

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  2. Those look really nice, and I love that rug. It will look great with the blue sofa you found. I'm really enjoying reading/caring about houses again.

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    1. thanks! I am really happy to be doing decorating again after such a long drought.

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