Kitchen/Dining Curtains

I made some curtains for our kitchen/dining area this weekend. I know some of you were against it, but I liked the idea, and did it anyway :) Some people had said it would be weird to have curtains on just this one area. Our house, however, is a pretty open floor plan, and so you can't do the same curtains on every single window and I thought the idea of doing them on this big picture window was a-ok! So I did it. I selected a pretty creamy ikat with gray, orange and turquoise in the print. The orange corresponds with our kitchen barstools and the orange and turquoise combo has always been a favorite of mine. 

I like that the print isn't too large, so it's not too demanding of your eye. That will hopefully help me to hold off in changing it anytime soon. But, I made these myself, so if the mood does strike me to change in a year or so, it's not a big deal because it wasn't too pricey. 

I did my old tried and true method of ironing the edges under, then hot gluing. To attach them to the curtain rings ( I bought the rod and rings at ikea. the rod was $5 and extends to 150". Our window is very long - something like 120"), I ended up doing a method I saw Sherry do at Young House Love do. Clip the little clips that attach to the rings on to the back of the panel, and it helps give a more pinched look at the top, rather than just clipping them to the top of the curtain. Way less "DIY" looking!

here's what mine looked like on the inside:

I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing or not, so I just tried it out and it worked. I think they look great. I didn't think the little teeth on the clips would hold the heavy fabric, but they actually barely would even come out when I was trying to reposition the clip. Those things are grippy!

see how they match the barstools on the other side of the kitchen?

other side. I forgot to buy the end cap things for the poles. Will get them next time I'm at IKEA. Not in a hurry to go back to that place. I had about a thousand things on my to do list this weekend ,and when I went to IKEA on Saturday (obvious mistake to go on a weekend, but I didn't have time during the week), I had to wait in line for literally 30 minutes to check out. Awesome!

the cute little wicker cabinet I found at Goodwill is also in here now. I still haven't painted it- it's only primed. It might stay primed forever. Haha. I think it would be cute to paint it a color though... hmmm, what color?!

I think it looks pretty good right there. I'm not one for things being catty cornered like that, generally, but I think it works ok in this space. I like seeing my cute little napkins/glasses/bowls displayed, and I know i'll have fun changing them out regularly. Plus, I can hold a lot of stuff in this thing! 

this is the latest sofa table (which is currently living in the dining room) incarnation:

springy. jordan said I was being fancy. This setup changes weekly. I took down the art - not sure what will go over the sofa table. I might do another painting when I get some free time. going on vacation next week, so maybe I'll do something then. 

anyway - the curtains are definitely an exciting upgrade I've been meaning to tackle. Glad I finally did.