We have a current apartment situation. We have an awesome, large, naturally well lit living room, but when we want to watch movies during the day (or any time that is not 10pm-midnight) the glare on the tv can be pretty horrible.
You would think it would be simple. Hang some rods, add a curtain here & there, slide closed when watching tv & leave open to let in the sun the rest of the day. Well, that is how it SHOULD be, but it sure is not going to be that easy. You see our living room design (& the way we have it set up) make that infinitely more complicated.
Problem 1: the window arrangement
This is a tiny picture (& not mine), but as you can see, we have a window to the left & right of two porch doors (though only one opens, on ours the left side is the one that opens).
So do we get 3 separate curtain rods (one over each window & one over the doors) or do we just get one huge flippen curtain rod that will stretch over the length of both windows & both doors?
Being the stalker that I am, I googled our complex & found pictures of one of the units that is for sale. This is what they did (this unit is IDENTICAL to ours) :
I do not mind that one little bit, but the problem there is the amount of light the doors let in. They seem to be 70% of the problem when it comes to tv watching (the other 30% is the window on the left, the right window is sort of a nonissue). Looking at this setup though, I am convinced that 3 separate rods would just look crazy.
Problem 2: our arangement
Like the people in the example picture, our tv is on the left & our couch is on the right. Only we have ZERO option to change that given that the tv is mounted to the wall & our couch is L-shaped. This is how the couch looks now:
yeah i know i need bigger right & left picture frames, it is a work in progress
If we added curtains, we would most likely have to move the chaise to the other side of the couch. That is not really a deal breaker though, it will just be a bit of a pain in the neck. It also opens the door for the next problem…
Problem 3: half or full curtains??
Adding full floor length curtains looks nice sometimes, but covering that large of an area gives me the feeling of just hanging a huge blanket over the whole wall. We could add half curtains on the windows & put floor length ones on the doors, but that seems…. unbalanced.
Are you beginning to see why this feels like so much of a chore!?
Problem 4: color
This seems like a bit of a small problem given what our other issues are, but it still is a concern. We bought a black blackout curtain & hung it using painters tape just to get a feel of what it would be like/see if we could get away with just covering the windows & not the doors.
Black curtain when completely closed = stands out like a thumb that got bashed with a hammer against our light cream/beigey/taupey/more yellowish than off white walls. Did I mention the faux wood blinds that are currently on the windows are white? Right now, I am thinking maybe a light gray or white. But will white on white look weird? What the heck color curtain rods do you get if you hang white or light colored curtains, white?
The worst part of all of this is knowing in just over a year we will be leaving this place & all this contemplation will be for nothing (except to help off the next renters — the lucky bums!!).
So yes, I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do at this point. I would LOVE to just hang curtains on the OUTSIDE of the windows (ie – on the porch) so I do not have to deal with hanging them inside. But since Ben does not yet know about this plan & will most certainly not agree with that theory, I have no clue what I am going to do.
Any & all suggestions & advice are welcome. Offers to come & just fix it for us are also totally acceptable, just let me know when you will be over & I will even make you a meal & cookies & be eternally in debt to you. : )
January 9th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Here’s what I’d do. I’d put curtains over the two windows. Make them go to the floor to give the illusion of length. Then put shades over the doors just for movie/tv viewing. I just pinned this gem on Pintrest for making fabric covered cheapie shades. They’d hide when needed and then be there when you want. http://cottageandvine.blogspot.com/2011/05/fabric-covered-roller-shades-finally.html Putting curtains over a door is tricky.
As for color, I think pick one color you’d like to pop out of the room and find a fabric with mostly that color and then grey to match your couch.
January 9th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Ummmm I love that idea!! Covering those stupid doors is going to be a pain, but I like the idea of something we only really have to see/pay attention to when we are watching movies.
& you always call me the creative one, that idea is pure genius I tell you!! Now onto the eternal hunt for fabric…..
January 12th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
[...] The frames do not look like just specks of dirt on the wall!! There is a pop of color that is brought out even more in the matching of the oops paint in the frames to the wooden containers under the coffee table. Everything looks all balanced & I feel as if the world is at peace [except when I think about that stupid blind/curtain situation in the living room]. [...]
January 13th, 2012 at 10:07 am
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