Actually, draperies and curtains are synonymous but I wanted to make sure you found this post in case you searched by one word and not the other. Why, do you ask, is this important?
Well, it took us almost 2.5 years to find curtains that 1) we liked and 2) were affordable.
Our family room windows had no curtains on them for the first year. Then my mother came to visit and what was a decision to leave the windows bare so we could see nature outside now became a problem.
“People can see inside,” Mama said.
“No, it’s too far from the street,” I countered.
“What about in winter when it’s dark outside and your lights are on?” Mama kept querying.
“If, by some crazy chance, there is someone out in the snow in temperatures below zero peering at us with binoculars, then by all means let them watch us watch TV,” I replied quite smugly.
The conversation ended but I soon learned that Mama was right but for the wrong reason.
You see, we have large windows in the family room and I soon learned that winters in Minnesota were, well, let’s just call them frigid. Let’s even go further and say that they are very very frigid since last year we had 30 days where the high temperature was not more than 0° Fahrenheit.
So, Mama should have given me the “energy and comfort” lecture instead of the “peeping Tom” lecture. Would I have listened?
The hunt was on for curtains. We looked at all the usual places like J C Penney and Bed Bath and Beyond. None of the “already made” curtains were good enough.
But, while at Ikea one day, I spotted some off white curtains that would work although they did not have grommets like we wanted. “This is temporary,” we reasoned. And inexpensive. But they weren’t lined and the family room, without the fireplace going, was still a tad chilly.
We decided to bite the bullet and ask Costco to come out and give us an estimate. $2700. Yikes! Okaaaaayyyyyy. I headed into J C Penney and spotted a similar curtain and asked the salesperson how much it would cost for them to install them (they were custom order). He said “about $3000.” Yikes! a second time.
Our next thought? Â Well, when we moved into our house, we ordered custom blinds through a woman who was referred to us by our real estate agent so we decided to ask her to come over, measure and give us a quote. $3500!!!! Yikes!
Oh dear, I said to myself. We seem to like expensive material. I considered making curtains myself but I really need more sewing time under my belt before I’d feel comfortable doing that.
As we mulled over our options, my husband did some “googling” and found a place on Etsy that makes curtains and he sent me the link.
Hmmm … this was interesting. We selected a fabric and received a sample in the mail which looked exactly like the picture on the Etsy site. After emailing back and forth with the owner, she gave us a quote …. are you ready?
$1035, including shipping …. Yeehaw! It was like we found gold.
I was a little leery of ordering through a far-away stranger but what was the worse that could happen?
And so, we entered into a business relationship with Zeldabelle on Etsy.
Zeldabelle was the easiest person to work with. Emails were answered promptly, sample was received, the correct size grommets were available (we have a large curtain rod) and she even recommended the correct liner to keep us toasty warm.
An additional plus is that Zeldabelle has very high reviews on her site which was something that I always look at.
The “sashes” didn’t come with the curtains as I want to make my own. Also, Zeldabelle made sure we could add the plastic “wands” to the curtains so we easily close them.
So ~ if you’re having a hard time finding great quality inexpensive curtains or draperies, try Zeldabelle on Etsy. I highly recommend her.
It’s going to be a nice warm winter …
