The Guest Room Is Driving Me Nuts, P.S. -- Shortening Curtains With No Cutting or Sewing

AFTER photo.  Gave up trying to keep the long panel curtained look on the headboard wall where
there was no room for it and went with common sense.

So, after all my ranting and raving (see yesterday's post) about the guest room and how much I don't like the lack of space in this house, today is a new day and I feel much better after a relatively decent night's sleep.  The years since menopause, let's just say that a good night's sleep is a rare commodity in the Newton mistress bedroom so I appreciate it when a good one comes along :)  

And with less blood-shot eyes and sunshine greeting me this morning, determination sprang anew.  Where there is a will, there is a way; I had lost my will, and that's scary because I'm usually a pretty stubborn person who doesn't give up easily no matter what the issue is.  Let me tell you, losing one's will sucks.  Good thing it doesn't happen to me too often.  Today, the old smart-ass woman is back.  And so I took another look at the windows in the guest room.

There's no help for it; as much as I love the look of full length curtains (NONE of my curtains from the former Maison Newton qualify for that description in this house, given the placement of the existing curtain rods, my curtains all hang several inches above the floorboards now) I'm going to have to go with short curtains/window coverings on the window above the headboard.  I need every spare inch of floor space I can garner in the small guest room, and shoving the headboard as close to the wall as I can get it underneath the window just doesn't leave room for long curtains to hang prettily behind, let alone being easily accessible to open and close by pulling them across the rod.  And, because I like symmetry, the other window should probably be treated the same way too, or it will most likely bug me to perdition. 

But I'm not ready to tackle that room yet with my full attention. There are too many other spaces to work on first and for Goddess' sake, I've yet to complete ONE.  I just wanted to get rid of the long curtain panel that was trapped behind the headboard, a headboard that was not even pushed all the way up against the wall as far as I could get it in the vain hope of making the long curtain panel behind it hang decently, but that curtain panel was definitely "squished" and sorry looking.

I was NOT a happy camper with that look.

So, with renewed determination today, just to get that ridiculous curtain situation out of my craw, I got up on a chair at the problematic guest room window and started fussing with the two curtain panels.  I tried creating a semi-draped sort of cascading look by throwing the bottom of each panel over the top of the rod toward the center, and then putzing and putzing; but I didn't like how that looked; then it occurred to me I could thread the bottom hem of each panel (which are open on each end) on a rod and the curtain panels would magically be "cut" in half while also providing an additional layer of privacy "underneath;" but alas, the existing rods are only singles and I don't have two double rods just laying around waiting to be installed on the guest room windows.  So then I thought (briefly), about putting up an old fashioned curtain rods by screwing the brackets into existing holes in the woodwork on each window -- but I didn't want to do that work and then not like the look!

So -- I cheated.  On the window above the headboard, I ended up tossing the bottom of each curtain panel over the top of the curtain header already on the rod, stretched each panel out full width, tried to make the overhanging curtain "valance" the same width all the way across, and then "gathered" them a little on the rod, trying to get them equal on each half of the rod, and sort of "fluffled" things up a bit.  Here is another photo of the result:

This will do for the time being...  I'm going to leave the panels on the east-facing window hanging long for the time-being because I like how it looks when the panels are pulled shut over the IKEA blinds for the night.

One window with short curtains, one window with long curtains, right next to each other. Geez.  But for now, I no longer have a squished panel behind the headboard, and I'm very happy about that :)  Maybe I'll even manage another good night's sleep tonight!