Dining Room Curtains

I've always shied away from curtains/drapes and could never really explain why. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my mom never did curtains - we grew up with hand-sewn valances that were always in some country-calico fabric (in her defense, that was 'in' at the time). My practical side always thought that curtains were silly since blinds already provided shade and privacy. So what changed my mind? My lackluster dining room. I love how it all came together, but it was missing a pop of something - color, pattern, etc. As I stared and stared at the room thinking of what to do, curtains popped into my head.

First step was a trip to JoAnn's Fabrics. Yes, I cheated on Hobby Lobby, but I really needed a larger array of fabrics to choose from and believe me there is so much fabric at JoAnn's, I almost had an anxiety attack. The best part? They pre-cut little samples for each fabric for you to take home! No more buying an awkward 1/4 yard for testing.

Here is what I came home with:

Here are the two finalists:

The one of the right really wasn't a contender for the dining room, but I fell in love with it and I hope to use it somewhere else in the house (yea, I am fully on the curtain-bandwagon). The fabric on the left was everything I was looking for - neutral, soft, patterned.

Check out how well it looks against the Lenox Tan walls:

Just to be extra-super-duper sure, I went and bought a 1/2 yard of the fabric so I could hang it up in the room.

The lighting is a bit off because I was trying to take these at night. Also, the way the stripes ran made it difficult to position the fabric for 'test' purposes. I'm really thrilled with how it looks and can't wait to see what the finished curtains will do for the room.

Of course I don't know the first thing about curtains or how to hang them. I already called my mom and she said she would sew them for me, but it was up to me to measure and buy the remainder of the fabric. The other day I just happen to be in Pottery Barn, when I came across this nifty sign:

I honestly had NO idea what the different curtain-threading ideas were called. I narrowed my choices down to 'Pole Pocket' (second from left) and 'Grommet' (last from left). I knew Pole Pocket would be easiest for my mom to sew, but I also decided to check out Pinterest for some inspiration (ignore the colors, this was more about shape):

Pole Pocket was the winner! I also wanted to be able to tie-back the curtains with something fun, like these:

Next up it's deciding how high to hang the rods, how wide to make the curtains and then buying the fabric. Ideally, I'd like to do this all before Christmas, since we are headed to NY for the holidays. Again kudos to Pottery Barn for providing this handy guide for measuring: