It's All About the Draperies

Well, here I am, back up in good ole Massachusetts.

I was welcomed with grey cold rain.....

UGH!!!

But today is glorious, so everything's OK in Betsyland.

HOWEVER!!!!

As you were warned, I still have one more story to share about Florida.

When I first met Lissette (one of my BFF's)

this is the way her house looked.....

If you've been following my blog, you know she lives across the street from me in Florida, and is Chloe the wonderdog's mom.

The kid on the right, and the second from the left, are her two hellions daughters.

This picture was taken around 4 or 5 years ago.

But this blog isn't about them, it's about DECORATIN'!

So pay attention to the wall color, countertop,

 red corner cabinet, dining chairs and 

NO DRAPERIES!!!!!

Lissette has a natural eye for decorating, but needs a leetle nudge when it comes to layering. 

She's afraid to have 

TOO MUCH STUFF IN A ROOM!!!!!

Can you imagine??????

What a ninny.

That's right Lissette, 

I CALLED YOU A NINNY!!!!!

Here's a picture of Lissette.....

and her hubby Sergio.

That little wiseguy in the back is Sofia, their oldest....

You may have recognized Sergio from MY SCARY STORY!!!!

So, I am really tired, and it's their fault.

I've been after Lissette for 

2 years....

that's right...

2 years....

to add draperies to her sliding doors and window in her living/dining room.

Look at the picture above, 

It's just not cozy with bare windows.

AND DON'T GIVE ME THAT @#$ ABOUT IT BEING ENOUGH TO 

HAVE SHUTTERS ON THEM, 'CUZ IT AIN'T!!!!!

So, this is what the room looked like at this time last week.....

Lissette had changed the paint color to blue,

 changed the side chairs to a Swedish Country style

Stripped the hutch and repainted the inside

(more on that latter)

And changed the chandelier.

We were sitting in her living room one day, 2 or 3 years ago, and she asked me...

"What would you do if this were your home?"

Now folks.....

YOU SHOULD NEVER ASK ME THAT, 'CUZ IT WILL COST YOU MONEY!!!!!

I mentioned (sweetly) that I felt the chandelier was out of scale to the rest of the room.

It was too small....it needed to be bigger!

it was this...

And we changed it to this.....

Although the crystals were very pretty, they disappeared against the strong light of the sliding doors.

We had to fight with Sergio about the chandelier shades, but he eventually caved in accepted that the light looked better with them.

I also may have mentioned

(repeatedly)

that the hutch was too short for the room.

The scale was way off. 

It needed something on top of it to give it more height.

So Lissette stuck those wood platters on top, but don't worry, by the end of this post, I will have fixed that!!!!!

So the hutch was red because Lissette had painted it red.

She gets a can of spray paint, and there's no holding her back.

So then we chose a green color....

and while I was up in Massachusetts last summer, she painted it green,

and hated it.....

So she and Sergio got out the sander,

or however they stripped the @#$ thing, 

and removed most of the paint from the outside of the piece,

 leaving the green on the inside.....

And I had her replace the starfish knobs with cottagey glass ones, and change the placement to a more traditional (and gooder) spot.

So, as you can see in this picture, the room was coming along and looking very pretty.....

BUT I COULD MAKE IT COZIER!!!!

We just needed to go to Pottery Barn and buy some unlined sheer

cotton panels.

Then we went to Lowes and looked for drapery poles.

Here is a picture of Lissette trying to figure it out.....

We were trying to figure out if the white was the right color white, 'cuz of course we hadn't brought the fabric with us....

OH NO!!!!!

That would have been too easy.

And then, Lowes didn't have enough of what we wanted.

We got some really nice help.....

Her name is Marvalyn....

It's amazing what a few off color jokes will do to break the ice and get a little help!!!!!

She wasn't sure about us at first, but she sure loosened up after my sparkling repartee!!!!!

But still.....We left empty handed.

So, Lissette ordered the panels, and the next weekend we went back with the fabric in hand.

This time we went with Sergio and Chloe the wonderdog....

This was a much more successful trip, as I bought stuff for ME too.

I got a new ironing board that will hang on the wall in my redone laundry room next year.....

(Chloe thinks she's surfing!!!)

Lissette had better luck with the poles.....

And we dragged our booty home with happy hearts.....

NOW ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS HANG THE POLES AND SEW THE DRAPERIES!!!!!

First up was the problem of the brackets being a different white than the poles and rings, so we (Lissette) spray painted them.

She said

"Look!!!! We can rest them this way, and they will stand up so we can paint them!!!!!"

And I said.....

"Or, we could be not so stupid more practical and set them this way, so we can paint them in one step!"

So we took them outside and painted them right up, yes in deedy!!!

After they dried, I marked where they should be mounted.....

and then put Sergio to work.....

We got all (both) rods up. The one over the sliding doors had to be in two pieces, as it is WAY long. We covered the joint in the two poles by resting them on the middle bracket. Then we got Sergio to cut down the one over the window.

There's a green that runs down the middle of our street, it's were we do our do it yourself stuff and have neighborhood get togethers and doggy play groups. It's a neighborhood that Norman Rockwell threw up in.

Here's Sergio in action!!!!

He Da Man!!!!

So we got the poles up, and tried the panels out with the clip on rings we had bought. I was going to sew the panels to the rings, but the clips were good for seeing if we liked the direction in which we were going.

Yep, I was liking it, so I took them home to sew the next day.

I sewed two panels together for each side of the sliders,

(look, my dining room disappeared into my sewing room!!!!)

 and then I hemmed them. 

(look, my guest room disappeared into my cutting room!!!!!)

Then I sewed pinch pleats at the top and then sewed them to the rings.

This is something I would normally do in 2 or 3 days, but as I was leaving the next day, I did it in one day, and

that's why I'm so #$% tired!!!!!

It took me a long time to sew them,'cuz I kept on having to go to the bathroom. 

That's 'cuz this is the size of my coffee cup.....

So here's how it turned out.....

The panels on the doors are up, now the window looks really bare.....

WOWZER!!!!!

Ain't that purty????

Sergio was so happy he was floating around the house singing dirty ditties.

(the girls were outside, no young ears were offended)

Here's a close up of the top.....

I left 4 inches on the sides, so I could tack the panel to the wall. I will have to do that when I go back down, as I didn't have time to buy the wall hooks.

Here's another close up of the pinch pleats....

I moved the basket from the table to the top of the hutch. 

The top is curved, so there was a big gap under the sides of the basket, to hide the gap I stuck some old straw hats in front.

It gives it the height I wanted, and looks pretty too.

Next year, when I come back, we are going to put chicken wire in the doors.

So, the room in two days went from this to this.....

I know why I'm so tired!!!!!

It's all the exercise I'm getting patting myself on the back!!!!

Don't forget!!!!!

This coming Tuesday, is the answer part of

OY VEY!! Q&A!! Tuesday!!

Later Gator

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It's overflowing with creativity