pretty places - the happy home

The Happy Home blog is one that has been in my 'daily reads' list for a while and today I want to share a tale of curtain rods. Belinda Graham is the web editor for Real Living magazine (a favourite of mine for very practical but stylish ideas) and she also authors this lovely blog sharing some fabulous decorating ideas as she renovates her home.

I was reading through the pages of her blog and came across her "Let there be (temporary) light" blog post. It is Belinda's tale of tracking (or hunting) down curtains (and lights) for her living room. I found myself laughing out loud and nodding along as she recounts her treks to Ikea and the "choose-your-own-curtain-rod buffet" at Spotlight as I too have recently walked the same path. While perfectly OK, the living room curtains that came with our house are hung off the ugliest curtain rod and rings I have ever seen (they are also in our bedroom). All the other windows in our house came with timber blinds when we bought, taking away the dilemma of window decorations when we moved in and we have just put up with the rods for now. We have two sets of tall sliding doors that lead out to our courtyard and the curtains (completely OK dark chocolate bouclé fabric) fit the decor well and more importantly keep the cold out in winter and the heat in summer. So far I have found some pretty decent ready made curtains, but alas we have lovely high ceilings which = non-standard curtain drop lengths. In turn this means custom made curtains = $$$$ and so new curtains go back to the home decor wish list.

 

There is hope though - and this is where Belinda and her blog come in. There was more head nodding as Belinda recounted her desire for white curtain rods on her white walls. She has ended up with black rods (read why in her post and see the lovely picture above) and I think that she has saved me from a decor obsession. You see I was having trouble finding white curtain rods I liked with the right level of "whiteness". I agree with Belinda that darker curtains on a white rod could end up looking like they were floating mid air. So with that blog-land has given me inspiration - perhaps I can keep the curtain we have but just find a replacement rod - and it doesn't have to be white - hooray!

Please pop over to The Happy Home blog and see if she can inspire you too.