Things have been quiet on the blog front lately. Big projects at home, and big projects at work, means most of my time is going to DOING projects ~ leaving little time to blog about them. I have enjoyed some kitchen time, and shared some recipes. Hey a gal’s gotta eat! I’m sharing a preview of one of the big projects at home today ~ and my experience using IKEA Lenda curtains.
My guest room is getting a way overdue update. And it’s going to be a room that I can use and enjoy, while still a cheerful, comfortable room for the occasional guest. New functional furniture with lots of storage {including a new daybed!}, and some of my favorite decor tricks ~ including some curtain trickery to fake out three oddly place windows. I’ll show the whole look with the room reveal.
I used IKEA Lenda curtains and two of these industrial style pipe curtain rods from Target. For the cost, IKEA curtains are a great value ~ but they do require some work. At $20 for pair of 98″ panels, even using eight panels I got a lot of look for not a lot of money.
Curtain rod installation is always a pain. Installing two 10′ long curtain rods ~ with attached supports, meaning the tab top panels couldn’t slide, and had to go on in a specific order ~ was a workout.
I added some ribbon and jute gimp to the tie-backs, and Command Hooks to hold them in place.
And a SCBD {small change, big difference} tip to save you some grief ~ because I had to remember this the hard way. I always use a steamer to remove folds and wrinkles from curtains and bedding. That’s how we did it on photo shoots and I’ve steamed many curtains and duvet sets over the years. I let the curtains hang a few days to drop out, and then adjusted the hem with some fuseable hem tape, to the perfect length. I will say the factory length on the panels was inconsistent ~ varying as much as a half-inch, so hemming was a must. Then I steamed the last wrinkles, forgetting that steaming relaxes the curtains even move. Sooooo ~ goodbye to the perfect length.
Yep, steam BEFORE hemming. I knew this, but TOTALLY forgot. SCBD tip indeed. {sigh} Time to adjust the hems, again!
Here’s a preview photo of the room with the new daybed ~ and the curtains are done! The IKEA Lenda curtains are a great value, but inconsistent hem length and wrinkles mean they do require more work than expensive panels. Just remember to steam BEFORE hemming and you’ll be happy!
Fran says
Now I see the beautiful finished product from when we talked and you were installing the rod! It is lovely and you made it even more so. Hope you are well and looking forward to see you soon.