One Room Challenge Week 2: All About Curtains

It’s week 2 of the One Room Challenge! Take a look back at Week 1 to for a refresh on my plans to makeover our guest bedroom.

If you’ve hopped over to this post from the ORC website – welcome! I’m Emily, this is my blog, and I’m working on undecorating the 1929 tudor-ish home I share with my husband, Andy, and our corgi, Penelope. This is where I should describe my style so I guess I’d say it’s something along the lines of traditional-modern which doesn’t sound like a real thing. I am glad you’re here.

If you watch my stories, you know I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about curtains and shades for the guest room. I’ve done light filtering shades in most of the windows in our house, but this will be the first room to get curtains. And guess what? I’m overthinking it. Come with me on my overthinking-the-curtains-all-week journey.

Curtain Challenges

• How high should you hang curtains if you’ve got an angled ceiling?
• How do you hang long curtains when you have baseboard heaters and not burn your house down?
• What if you want 2 different light filtering options?

How high to hang curtains with an angled ceiling

One of the greatest crimes against curtains is bad hanging. Hang too low or too narrow and you’ve made a mistake. The internet pretty much agrees (and you can’t swing a cat without hitting a curtain hanging diagram on Pinterest) that you need to hang those babies HIGH AND WIDE. I like to go by what the queen says (Emily Henderson, of course) and hang the rod 2/3 of the distance between the top of the window casing and the ceiling and extending 10-12″ on either side.

I’m dealing with walls with two different ceiling heights due to an angled ceiling line from the angle of our roof. On the long wall with the wider window, the angle starts just 9″ above the top of the window casing. Using the 2/3 rule, I’d need to hang that curtain rod about 6″ above the window. If I went by the ceiling height of the other wall, I’d be hanging the curtain rod 16″ above the window casing.

The curtain should match across the room so even though the ceiling is higher above the second set of windows, they’ll still need to be hung at the same height. To make the angled ceiling look as tall as possible, I’m going to hang the curtain rod as close to the beginning of the angle as possible, at close to 9″ above the window casing. The same will go for the other set of curtains.

How to hang long curtains with baseboard heaters

I was pretty worried about hanging long curtains in front of baseboard heaters. I definitely did not want shorter curtains that would fall above the heaters because that’s just not my look. I searched the internet and found these general guidelines:

When hanging curtains in front of baseboard heaters, the curtains should fall 1″ from the floor and hang 2-3″ from the edge of the heater.

For me, that means that my curtain length shortens by 1 inch and curtain rod brackets become an issue. I know that my baseboard heaters stick out about 2 3/8″ from the wall. Add 2 inches to that, and I need brackets that are at least 4 3/8″ long from where they mount to the wall to the middle of the part that holds the actual rod, where the curtains hang. I ordered brass curtain rods from Crate and Barrel without knowing the brackets were only 3 1/8″ long end-to-end, so they will be going back. I’m eyeing up a similar set from CB2 that are listed as 4.5″ deep but I think that might be cutting it close. I may have to go with a double rod set, which would have brackets with a depth of 6.5″.

Two options for filtering and blocking light

This room has a general need for some light filtering and privacy, so we decided to go with the simple (and perfect) IKEA roller blinds we have in the rest of the house. The challenge comes in the form of an outdoor light that shines into the guest room at night. We want our guests to be comfortable, and I know wouldn’t be able to sleep with a light shining on me, so we decided blackout or room darkening shades would be the best pick to make our guests sleep well.

If you remember from last week’s post, the previous owners used blackout roller blinds in this space and we’ve kept them up (despite their scallop shape) since we bought the house.

Goodbye scallop edge roller shades! Andy popped the old roller blinds out of each window and then unscrewed and removed the new hardware.

To install the new IKEA SKOGSKLOVER roller blinds, Andy marked the placement of the two hanging brackets along the top of the window and used the holes to mark the new drill locations with a pencil. He then drilled into the frame around the window and secured the hanging brackets with the included screws. The main shade piece then rocks/snaps onto the brackets.

Just a note to everyone on why you don’t see me in these pictures doing this work – I pride myself on being a seasoned home DIY-er but I have been struggling with a shoulder injury since October and have had to take it easy. Andy has been sweet and kind in taking over doing a lot of the labor on our projects that I otherwise would help with – so that’s why you see him and not me!

What I love about the SKOGSKLOVER roller blinds is that they fit our windows perfectly, they filter light beautifully, they have built-in stopping points so you can match their length along multiple windows, and they roll up smoothly with one little tug – like some kind of machine magic.

Blackout curtain options

I have been going back and forth on different blackout drapes for this room. I’ve been bugging everyone on Instagram about it and I’m here to bug you about it in this blog post. My first instinct was to brighten the room with white or off-white curtains. And then I remembered how much I’m into tonal looks and thought maybe a matching green or lighter shade of green could work.

I am a visual person and too impatient to wait for all the curtains to arrive to see everything all together. I took some photos of the room, patched two of them together in Photoshop, and threw in some items from the mood board from my One Room Challenge Week 1 post.

Option 1: White Pom Pom Blackout Curtains

[Option 1: curtains | lamps | nightstands]

I put these pom pom blackout curtains in my week 1 mood board. I was worried that pom pom curtains are for kids and teens – these specific curtains are, in fact, from PBteen. I like how the white curtains add brightness against the dark walls, but I am worried that there will be too much white and too much high contrast when white bedding is added. What do you think?

Great tip for those looking for blackout curtains – check teen and kid stores! I am not a parent myself, but I have learned that parents love having blackout curtains to get their kids to nap when they need them to.

Option 2: Light Green Velvet Light Blocking Curtains

[Option 2: curtains | lamps | nightstands]

These SANELA curtains in gray-green are the first of the two green velvet curtain options, both from IKEA. They are not lined, but I think the dark velvet will do a good enough job blocking out the light. At 98″, they are longer than I need them to be, but I’d want to take out the grommets and sew in tabs instead anyway, so hemming away the extra length won’t be a problem.

I’m really liking these as an in-between option. The lighter green looks great with the pink accents I want to include and ties together the dark walls and light bedding really well.

Option 3: Dark Green Velvet Light Blocking Curtains

[Option 3: curtains | lamps | nightstands]

The drama! These SENELA curtains in dark green from IKEA almost perfectly match the walls. The sheen from the velvet would add just enough interest but let the dark green walls really be the star of the show. I think these curtains are the coziest option but I wonder if they make the whole room feel too intense.

Leave a comment and tell me which curtains you’d pick! PLEASE.

Remember to follow along and see what the Featured Designers and Guest Participants are up to for week2!

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