The drapes, the drapes!

I have been working on making over the dining room the past few weeks (Really, over a month, but who's counting?!) and finally have some fruits to show for my labor. Below you can see the before, ugly brownish mustardy tan color, with horrible lace curtains. Also, you probably can't tell, but the trim has about four shades of white and cream in various places.

Once I painted the hutch and moved it into the kitchen I finally had space in the dining room to set up shop and go to town painting. It took a ridiculous amount of time to pick a paint color, but it was worth it because I am so pleased with the green color I finally chose! It is bright (but not too bright) and sophisticated (in my opinion), and works perfectly with the curtain material. And it only took painting five sample color squares on the wall to find it! (If anyone is looking for Benjamin Moore paint in green, I now have every green sample strip they make.)

But really, the curtains are what this post is about. I only mention painting the room because you can see the color in the picture of the finished curtains. But really, I can't seem to get a good photo of the color, it just has to be seen in person!

I found fabric that I absolutely fell in love with at the Fabric Warehouse here in Auburn. For $5.98 a yard! With 8 1/2 foot long panels x4, a nice low price was a necessity.

I did take the extra step of lining the panels with a thermal lining fabric that will help the house stay cool in summer and warm in winter. We have such huge windows lining the drapes was important to me. I would much rather have lined drapes than plastic covered windows!

Here they are! I had planned on one day of sewing, but that stretched into five as I sewed, ripped apart, sewed, ripped apart a number of times until I was happy with the results. The fabric was VERY particular about how I sewed it, and if anything was off even a little bit the panel did not hang well.

It's all in the details, right? I found a curtain rod with a neat little glass bulb at the end that will coordinate with the chandelier (once I get time to make over said chandelier!). I actually bought and hung a different rod, but then decided I hated it. The rod was too thin and didn't look good with such substantial drapes. Back to Lowe's once again, but these are worth every cent extra.

Thanks to Mom, who helped me choose a color and then trimmed out a large portion of the room. Without her I would have been even more undecided about what color to pick!

And also, many thanks to John, because if it weren't for my wonderful supportive husband, I wouldn't be able to do any of my projects. He helps pick up the slack with the rest of the house, always has positive things to say, and lets me decorate however I want, which is such fun! He actually told me later that when I first brought the paint home and showed him the color he didn't like it, but didn't want to hurt my feeling so kept quiet. Two coats later he says he loves it!