Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Knock-off Ballard Designs Burlap Curtains

 So, I decided to take a cue from Ballards and bring some more texture into my house in the form of curtains. Burlap curtains :) Who doesn't like burlap? I looove this stuff!
Now, I thought about adding some stencilling onto mine like Ballards did, but I decided I wanted to go for a little more subtle touch. I didn't want this room to become too busy. Simplicity is better, for me at least :) and only in some cases. lol. this is one of those cases.
 At Ballard's, one single panel in the length I would want(and is still somewhat short of what I would need) is $229. Are you kidding me?! That's almost $460 for a complete set. Good grief.
The cost of mine? Albeit there's no pattern, which wouldn't even cost anymore money since I have all the supplies on hand, is just under $12...for both panels.
 Okay, so to get to the point from burlap to curtains is simple. I bought 6 yards, cut it in half at 3 yards using the tricky burlap cutting method, which I'm not sure really works, it seems like a big waste of time for me. lol. Its where you grab one of the threads of fabric that is moving in the same direction you want cut, pulling it, and pulling it and pulling it until you get it to the end and its completely out, then cutting on the line where it was. I did this, my burlap still unravels. Maybe not as fast, but still. Anyway.

Next is to just fold the burlap over on itself, get some cafe curtain rings, and secure them in place equidistant from each other pinching both the front and back of the fabric flap. I used seven per side on mine. I put the the cafe rings a little lower initially so there was more 'flap' on top, but it looked ridiculous because the burlap isn't a stiff enough fabric. So, I just clapped the rings about two inches from the top to get this look.
 I just love the texture it brought into this room. I had been debating  keeping the original curtains, and changing out the blue on the bottom with some other color, but I'm glad I went this direction instead and changed out the whole thing.
 You can see here the small flap on top, its just a perfect size to not slump over :)

 Now I'm not so sure of the grayish blue with the burlap. But I guess it does go together...burlap is somewhat of the orange color group and grayish blue is of the blue color group. And aren't blue and orange complimentary colors??? I'll just keep telling myself this every time I look in here and it bugs me. lol. Cuz I'm not getting rid of that rug, I like it too much.

But now I have to address the over abundance of burlap in here with that burlap lamp shade....hmmm.
 So, here's one of the pictures of this room when I wanted only one accent color. What Was I Thinking??....blah....

Here's the room before with the original curtains. Didn't look so bad...but I wanted something different...of course..and I'm totally not the commitment type. If it goes in my house, trust me, it will be changed at least once if not twice within the next year, and that's if its lucky. Cuz this room alone has been changed...ummm...like six times in the past year and a half ?? lol
 See...even Max boy likes it :) Just kidding, he's probably moping cuz I'm in there and he can't get on the couch when I'm looking...naughty dog.

So, maybe the time will come when I will add some pattern to these, but as for now...I love them!

 .............................................................................................................................................................