When we realized that it didn’t make sense to do the full living room refresh that I wanted, I decided to go ahead and get the part I was most excited about anyway, because why deprive myself of great light and luxurious fabrics? Here are my new white velvet curtains for the living room!
I’ve really been wishing for a new sectional for the living room for most of this year. We’ve had our current one for about seven years now, and while it’s not super old, it’s really well-used and its dark color just isn’t doing it for me anymore. Of course, a new sectional is a huge investment and they also take forever to come in right now, but a couple of months ago I decided that it was time to embark on the process of getting a new one. And then Chris kind of brought me back to reality. We really do still abuse this thing on an almost daily basis with spills, a seven year old jumping on it, dogs with muddy paws running in and laying on it, all that fun stuff. So while, I’m pretty sure I could manage to keep a new, light-coloured sectional fresh-looking with very conscientious and skilled cleaning methods, it would probably be a full-time job and an exercise in frustration. For us, at this particular point in time, at least. So I decided that maybe the best choice for right now was to just accept this one for another year or two.
The Curtains Before
Oh gosh. I had a hard time finding a decent photo of the old curtains because I’ve really been avoiding having them fall into photos over the last little while. I found this photo from Christmas where you can see a little of the dark grey curtain over on the side though.
The New White Velvet Curtains Now
Here’s how the living room looks now with the new, brighter curtains!
White Velvet Curtains | Rings | Similar Curtain Rod | Similar Coffee Table (at a better price :)) | Washable Area Rug | Dough Bowl | Colorblock Vase | White Marble Chain | Bookcase Lights
It really does feel like someone just turned on the lights in here.
I mean, I do still strongly dislike the dark grey sectional, but these curtains make even that a little less offensive. 🙂
And here we have one of the many reasons why a light-coloured couch might not be the best choice. He’s so cute and funny-looking though. 🙂
The living room is also kind of open to the dining room, so I like to use the same curtains in there as I use in the living room.
How to Hang Curtains With Rings
If you want to replicate this look, you’ll need a few things:
- White velvet curtains that come with a hook belt for rings. Here are the ones that I used. I’m so impressed with the quality and the price of these. I would have expected to pay easily $250 per panel for curtains like these that are lined, weighted, and fully set-up for various hanging methods. These ones are the “pillow white” color in the 96″ length, which pools just a bit for us with our low ceilings.
- Curtain hooks. There are a few different styles of these, but these are the ones I used.
- Curtain rings. I wanted to keep our current curtain rods, which are kind of a blackish oil rubbed bronze, because I still really like them, so I went with these black rings. I also really love the idea of gold rings with a gold curtain rod though with these curtains since they’re such a nice, warm white.
I ended up using eight rings and pins per panel, and since I had six panels, I had to order a few packs of each of the rings and the pins, so definitely keep that in mind when you’re ordering and count carefully so you can be all set to hang your curtains when they come in.
I only realized a few month ago what a difference the rings make and I don’t think I can ever go back to grommets or pole pockets. Also, I’m definitely team “rings and hooks” rather than team “rings with clips” unless you want a super, super casual look. I was tempted to go with the clipped rings because it just seemed like it would be easier, but I knew it wouldn’t be the look I really wanted and I’m so glad I went the way I did.
White Velvet Curtains | Rings | Similar Curtain Rod | Similar Coffee Table (at a better price :)) | Washable Area Rug | Dough Bowl | Colorblock Vase | White Marble Chain | Bookcase Lights
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- All-Weather Adirondack Chairs Review
- The Creek Line House Decorating Idea Archives
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.