Cover Me...

We have been slowly but surely procuring window coverings for the new house since you know that the previous owners left us really nothing to work with besides the ugly curtains in our bedroom and various cheap blinds. Right now, with the exception of the dining room, most windows have thermal roman shades, as you will see. Even the drapes in the dining room are thermal to help us save on the heating bill by keeping a little warmth in. Sure isn't helping today though. You would never know it is March with these temps.

Anyhow, our goal is to get drapes for most of the windows, but we are working in baby steps at this point. So here are your "befores" and "afters":

This is the only picture I have that shows the before of the top of the stairs and that window looking down. As you can see, the previous owners left us a light white dainty type curtain that let in all of the drafts.

BEFORE

AFTER

Much better and the hallway color looks great as well. We do plan on having the stairs carpeted. Maybe then I wont slip and fall on them (did that), trip on them (did that) or hear each and every creak even when the cats walk on them.

Next is the stairway looking up. Again you can see that lovely dainty drape.

BEFORE

AFTER

Don't worry about those little pieces of wood that you see. Those were placed by B to see how much work would be needed to fix the stairs so they dont make as much noise.

Moving on to the dining room. I really do not have a very good picture of the before window but I will give you what I have.

BEFORE

AFTER

Yes, we have not painted this room quite yet. We have, however, placed a few color choices, none that we are going with, next to the drapes. Since the drapes are so dark, we will go lighter than the colors up on the wall currently. This is the second pair of drapes that we purchased. The first pair were a bit too gold. Do you know how hard it is to order drapes online? Luckily these were in the store and thermal and now they are ours.

Moving on to the living room. You all remember that bay window right? I still love to have the shades open on a sunny day to let in the light. Apparently, the previous owners thought we could just live like that all of the time since they took all of the window treatments with them.

BEFORE

AFTER

Next up is my office. If you will remember, this was their master bedroom and although they left us window coverings, they were those cheap blinds you can buy at any store:

BEFORE

AFTER

I don't know if you can get the full effect from these pictures, but those shades did wonders for this room. I am in love with them. In fact, I have to go tomorrow to get the one for the second window. This shade was the last one in the country in that size. They seriously traveled all the way from the other side of the country. They were a returned item but it does not appear that the prior owners even opened them as the packaging was all intact. I was afraid to the buy the shade for the other window in case this one didn't work out, but now I am safe.

Finally, the kitchen. Another beautiful bay window to let sun shine in, but also to let in drafts. So coverings were obtained.

BEFORE

AFTER

There you have, most windows covered, more on their way. I feel so behind in these renovation posts but I can barely keep up. Things change every day and I try to wait until they are somewhat "finalized" to show you.

I think that may never happen.