I’m sure this sounds familiar; nearly three years ago we moved into our current house, just yesterday I decided to tackle putting up drapery for our bay window.
In my feeble defense, I didn’t want to do just anything. And as usual, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. (The dream, you see, is that someday we’ll blow out the back of the house for an expanded kitchen and living/family room, which is the true reason why I held out draping the window for so long – it kept the reno dream alive.)
Photo: Before (left), after (right).
(Note: Please excuse the baby mess everywhere, but we honestly have nowhere to put it, and if we did, it would be pulled out two seconds later anyway.) Well the reno dream is on life support, and I’m tired of living in a fishbowl. So this is what I came up with. I am still inclined to keep anything I do in the house on a shoestring, so do-it-yourself is always my first choice.
As bay windows are a great opportunity to be creative, I decided to forgo the straight-rod-across option, as well as the three individual rods or three-rods-connected-with-angle-joints options.
I had three objectives:
- No frills
- Preservation of light (it’s a south facing window, making it an important source of beautiful light for most of the day)
- No curtain rods – I didn’t want to deal with finials or any other typical rod choices
What I decided upon was Indian cotton muslin, which I sourced at $2.50 a yard in Toronto’s Little India neighbourhood on Gerrard Street East. It comes in a myriad of colours and has the loveliest, gauzy look no matter how dark the colour.
Photo: Raising option #1 (left), raising option #2 (right).
Side Note: You may notice some writing on two of the panels. That’s the manufacturer’s stamp that is found at the beginning of a fresh roll of fabric, printed in a water-soluble gold paint that completely washes out. I love the stamp and it's part of the reason why I went with this fabric – I bought the beginning runs of two new rolls, just to have it. I learned the hard way that it washes out, so these drapes will be dry cleaned from now on.
To attach the panels, I went with cupboard hardware – brushed stainless knobs, from Home Depot. (The ones I used are not available online, but
here’s a knob that’s similar.)
Because they are designed to screw into a cupboard door, my husband snapped off the heads of the accompanying screws with pliers, and filed the ends so that they can be screwed directly into the window frame. I positioned them at the four corners of each window panel, and two just below the top for a second raising option.
The panels and ties were finished on a sewing machine, however you can use iron-on hemming tape if you’re an expert ironer.
This format allows for a world of possibilities as far the hardware goes, and you can use ties, grommets, button holes and loops to attach the curtains to the hardware. This also allows you to easily remove your curtains for washing (if you’re not subject to losing part of the design as I am) as well as to switch them up seasonally.
What do you think of these? You can be honest…Related: Sarah Richardson Answers Bay Window Questions