Living Room: Curtains

If you have been following along, you will know that my living room is unusually dark because we have a very tall brick building mere feet away from our living room, kitchen and bathroom windows. Alas, most of the time our place is very dark and requires constant electric lighting. For now, we illuminate the living room using the lamp on our ceiling fan, but my goal is to eventually strategically add lamps and sconces to warm up the place and perhaps add some mirrors so the light has something to bounce off of.

Suffice it to say, I really pondered the type of window coverings I should use. Currently the windows have metal mini blinds in ivory. They are great for keeping the neighbors out of our beeswax, but during the day, when the room begs for natural lighting, we want to open them to allow what little light we can into the room, but still have some privacy.

My initial idea as to simply put up sheers. However, the only sheers that would even attempt to allow in the light we get would need to be white. I am not exactly fond of windows covered in white sheers. It says "cheapskate" to me in a space that is supposed to be City Girl Chic. After a little hemming and hawing, I decided to go with aubergine taffeta curtains with white sheers underneath. The blinds will remain up but on the days we want to open the blinds for light, the sheers will give us some privacy and the taffeta curtains are also great for adding a bit of privacy and an element of glam to the look of our room.

Although I can score inexpensive white sheers at Walmart, I cannot find aubergine taffeta drapes to save my little life, so I will be DIYing them. The only decision now is what type of drapes shall I craft.

I love the idea of the fabric puddling on the floor. Below is an example of a basic drape shirred onto a curtain rod. This is one option and the easiest to create.

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Next is the pleated drape. I really love how this looks, but I will need to study the methodology for this type of drape as it requires pleating hooks and additional sewing and measuring.

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Then there is the grommeted drape which is very contemporary and may go well with the City Girl Chic vibe but also requires a bit more skill level and a few more tools. If I make the grommeted drapes, I will not puddle the fabric onto the floor as this is a more polished look. Aren't these pretty? The pattern and color of this material doesn't really go with my look but I do appreciate them.

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So what do you think? Shall I go with shirred, pleated or grommeted?