IKEA Lenda curtains ~

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!