The ensuite also directly faces the sliding door so I'd come straight out of the shower and give the neighbours (and passers-by) a show they certainly didn't ask for. So for the first few weeks, we pinned up a quilt cover on one side, and the other side was covered by some cardboard from the box that dining room table came in. Ugly? Oh yes. Effective? Uh-huh.
We ended up using the box to protect the floors downstairs while we were having a party and it got trashed so for a long time we were using a coreflute building sign (thanks work) which was only half the size of the door's height, so I had to duck every time I got out of the shower and shuffle soldier style across the floor to the wardrobe. That too met its demise when Jansen used it as a cutting board to fillet some poor fishy he caught up in North Queensland. So that brings us to version number three. This oh-so-fashionable picnic rug taped to the walls with Command M hooks. Awesome right? No.
Anyway, I grew very tired of looking at this version every night, it was a bit depressing. In the quote I got for custom roller blinds for the house, the door alone was going to be almost $500, way more exy than my picnic rug and way over my budget. So my only option really was DIY. The only problem was that with the DIY roller blinds, even the fab ones from my eBay supplier, there would most likely be a gap between them and I wasn't that keen for that in my bedroom. So I decided on eyelet curtains. Easy, affordable and you can get thermal backed ones that help keep in the heat.
Spotlight (am seriously loving this place lately), were having a sale 30% off rods and curtains and if you had a VIP card you could get an extra 25% off. Awesome. Both cost a total of about $110. Bargain.
Measure twice....
Drill once!
...actually, drill three times because my hand kept slipping. Pass the Spakfilla please...
Actually, just get someone taller and better at it to do it. Like your six foot tall, 14 year old, who's now used to fixing up his mother's DIY mistakes.
Ta-da!!! OK, I'll admit, this isn't probably my favourite style curtain in the whole world. It's a slightly shiny, leaf pattern which could border on nana-like, HOWEVER, it was sooo cheap that it'll totally do for the moment. And it's 1000% better than the quilt cover/cardboard box combination. It is also slightly too long but that's because I didn't want to put the rod into the gyprock, I think it's much safer in the frame. I'm considering getting a sewing machine just for little jobs like this and also to make some cushion covers after seeing how expensive they are.
Spent my first night without having to do the ensuite-to-wardrobe nudie run. Slept soundly without the flash of headlights coming through the window at all hours and woke to a *slightly* warmer bedroom. You can see, with the curtains open, how exposed the room was to the world.
Definitely a job worth doing. Show's over neighbours :-).
The evolution of the window “curtains”. Heh.
ReplyDeleteIt’s good that you were finally able to replace it with actual curtains instead of relying on your trusty picnic rug. What with winter rolling along, you’d probably need all the insulating you can get. That, and at least you won’t have to wonder if someone’s doing a “Peeping Tom” in the neighborhood. Cheers!
Arthur
Contractor Express
Ugh. I can sympathize with the flashing headlights scenario. Because for some reason, one of our neighbors tends to come home at wee hours in the morning. I fixed the problem by getting some curtains with a darker shade than what I had before. At least now I don’t feel like a deer in headlights whenever he goes home and I’m facing the window in my sleep.
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