About the Lace Curtain in the Bathroom...

Hola darlings!

I recently added a lace curtain to dress up the top part of the bathroom window.  Jury is still out on whether I like the look but for the time being, it is still in place.

And now, the lace curtain has a pleated shade to keep it company.

You may recall that I'd mentioned in that post about the lace curtain that I had checked the opaqueness of the frosted glass window in my bathroom, and found it to be just fine.  Duh.  That was done one sunny summer day about 10:00 a.m. and the light inside the house was not as bright as the light outside the house so -- no problemo.

Oops...

I was out early one morning recently putting fresh water in the birthbath at the crack of dawn; I just ran out in my robe because nobody was up at that hour but crazy me (a week before Daylight Savings Time kicked in), and the bathroom light was on.  As I turned and glanced at the house on my way back to the patio stairs I realized just how BRIGHT and NOT SO OPAQUE was my frosted bathroom window in the near darkness of early dawn.

OHMYGODDESS! 

Dashed back into the house and before I did anything else, I rummaged up a piece of cloth (from my sewing days) that was opaque but would still allow light in, unlike the heavy terrycloth hand towel I'd had tacked across the upper part of the window during the summer. I would have used that if necessary, despite it cutting out so much light this time of year! 

Hand towel covering top of window to block the strong sunlight during the
summer.  Didn't want to do it this time of year, when every bit of light is precious.
But I would have put it across the bottom "frosted" part of the window if I
couldn't come up with a better idea!

It was a temporary solution, but made me feel easier that I now had actual privacy in my bathroom!  I do not want to be Mr. Peep Show Neighbor across the way.  Geez.

What to do, what to do for a permanent solution?  I played around with adding a second lace curtain to the lower part of the window, but it did not achieve the degree of opaqueness I wanted, so that idea was nixed.  I thought about looking for the smallest semi-sheer curtain I could find, cutting it down further, double-layering it and ruching it on to two tension rods.  But where to find 20 and 5/8" wide tension rods?  And I didn't want to spend money on a solution plus sewing time if I could cook up something else from what I already had at hand.

I then thought perhaps some frosted contact paper put over the frosted glass would add a layer of protection/opaqueness, but I couldn't find frosted contact paper at the Family Dollar, the Dollar Store or JoAnn's Fabrics (unless I wasn't looking in the right places for it), and I didn't want to order it online.  And I only need a small bit of it, not an entire roll!  And -- I'm a cheapskate -- didn't want to pay for a roll of contact paper I wouldn't be using for anything else.

All the summer and up to this morning, the solution had been paitiently staring me in the face every time I walked down the hallway to my bedroom, because the door to the guest room is angled 90 degrees from my bedroom door and I have a clear view of the guest room windows -- adorned with IKEA pleated shades.

Untrimmed IKEA pleated shades.  The windows in all three bedrooms here are "ranch" style, that are typical in Milwaukee "ranch" style houses (our midwestern interpretation of them, that is), about 6 feet long but only 33 inches tall!   Besides being budget friendly ($2.99 each) and easy to install, the IKEA shades are quite long and, being lazy, I had not trimmed them when I installed them, just used the plastic clips that came in the package to gather and hold up the excess shade.  There was plenty of extra shade to use elsewhere, all I had to do was trim one of the shades in the guest room.

I did that this morning, and now I'll have to be a good homemaker and trim the other three IKEA shades in the guest room as well, so things are "balanced."  LOL!  I may even do that today :)

Easy peasy "project" -- love those, especially first thing in the morning (I was up at 5:15 a.m., woke up to go to the bathroom at 4:15 and could not get back to sleep, ACH!) while the water in my tea kettle was heating for my one allowed cup of coffee a day.  Dashed into the guest room with the scissors, cut what I needed.  Measured the width of the bathroom window to cover and trimmed the cut part of the IKEA shade to the width needed.  Pulled out my masking tape and taped the top "pleat" to the top sill of the lower (frosted) bathroom window.  It fit (on the first try!!!) and looks great.  Just realized I did not take a photo of the "before" temporary solution, and so you have nothing to compare the new look to. I am such a bad blogger!

Bathroom window.  The lace curtain now has a pleated
IKEA shade to keep it company!

Then the tea kettle started whistling and I ran to make my Taster's Choice French Roast coffee, and I didn't "test" the window because dawn was already well underway by the time I'd finished checking the headlines online while finishing my coffee.  I will test the window with new shade tonight about 5:30 p.m. when it is quite dark outside.  Sigh.  Quite dark at 5:30.  These dark days this time of year try my soul, let me tell you!

Ahhh. Yes, the pleated shade is doing it's job - at least
during the daylight hours!  And the lace looks so pretty!