Saturday, April 30, 2022

It's curtains!

These are voilages or what I would call sheers or sheer curtains. They went up pretty easily yesterday. Of course, that was after I took the old ones down, cleaned the rods, washed the windows, and vacuumed the floor. There was a fair amount of furniture moving, too. But the result was worth it.

The deck window. Tasha approves (I think).

I ordered these at a window/wall/floor decorating store up near Blois back on April 5. I got an email on Thursday the 28th informing me that they were ready for pick-up. They had to be custom made as the windows in our house are wider than standard French windows and no ready-made curtains would fit them. I went onto the store's web site for instructions on how to measure the windows for the type of curtain I wanted. I measured several times, recalling the old adage from This Old House, "measure twice, cut once." That, and the fact that custom made curtains are non-returnable. Everything had to be right. I drew up a rendering of the windows with all the measurements indicated and headed up to Blois.

The north-facing window.

The young woman in the store who took my order was very nice, very knowledgeable, and very patient with me. When I saw the fabric that we had decided on from the web site, I didn't really like it, so I picked out another. The sales agent took me through each measurement and made a couple of adjustments here and there to accommodate the hanging style, in my case oeillets (those rings in the curtain).

The old curtains were literally coming apart at the seams. And those rings were a pain to remove and reattach whenever I washed the curtains.

We bought the old curtains at the same store nineteen years ago. Their age was starting to show. Most obvious was the fabric disintegrating where it attached to the rings. The curtains were coming off the rods. Our intention was to get new curtains two years ago, but the stores closed for a while when covid hit. Then inertia took over and we just didn't get it together. Finally, the spirit moved us and now, voilà, voilages!

14 comments:

  1. Very elegant. And I love the way they slide over the rod. A crisp, clean look.

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  2. They look good and I prefer their less fussy tops. You don't have any other blinds on the window? I guess privacy is not an issue but I thought when it is cold something extra would be good.

    Any tips for overcoming inertia with matters of home?

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  3. They are beautiful! Glad you could use your old rods for the new curtains.

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  4. The room is beautiful, I love shears.

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  5. The curtains are lovely and it appears you are watching the Tour De Romandie……..I am too!

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  6. Well done! Very elegant.

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  7. What kind of material were the original voilages made of to be in such bad shape only after nineteen years? Some of the late sixties polyester voilages hanging in my apartment in Paris were still in excellent condition two years ago, the last time I saw them!

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    1. From photo #3, I am trying to figure out how the voilages are hanging. It must be a pain in the neck (and in the arms) to thread that string through the small rings and eyelets (?) in the voilage! Congratulations, the effect is beautiful.
      Did you notice the voilage is hanging in the tree above the chair in photo #2?

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    2. While writing the comment above, I forgot you mentioned the “œillets” in the curtain! Âge! Lol.

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  8. andrew, both windows have external shutters, but we rarely close them. The neighbors aren't close enough to really worry about.

    travel, thanks!

    evelyn, yes, they're the same rods that came with the house!

    wilma, thank you!

    judy, evidence that some things actually get done!

    anon 1, :)

    anon 2, I was actually watching tennis, the cycling came on right after.

    emm, it's a much cleaner look compared to the old curtains.

    chm, I don't remember what the material was. The new curtains are polyester.

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