Window treatments

Over the weekend, we moved into our the bathroom portion of the master suite, since my dad and stepmom were coming into town, and four is definitely an awkward crowd in the upstairs bath.

The bathroom is not yet complete, but the painting portion is done (minus some touch ups I'm dragging my feet on). While painting, we removed and disposed of the old valance and plastic blinds and uninstalled the screen in order to give it a very necessary hosing. Except it's been consistently below zero, so the screen sits in the garage.

So, our backyard neighbors were getting a nice show. The direct backyarder's kitchen is actually directly across from our shower window. How neighborly of us.

At night it's a mirror for us, but
it's a show for the neighbors.

Mike temporarily solved the problem by hanging a shirt off the window trim. Stay classy! We love the etched glass in our home and wanted to do something similar ... but budget-friendly. So, we looked at decorative window film and were going to order something off Amazon when Mike stumbled onto a blog post from Thrifty Decor Chick.

To imitate a fogged window, she used clear contact paper, like you might use as a shelf liner. At $5 for a huge roll (allowing for mistakes), it seemed worth a shot before coughing up decent dough.

First, we needed to seriously clean the window. Some mildew had built up around the weather stripping (which should be replaced soon), so Mike sprayed it with a mold & mildew killer/preventer and we let it sit overnight. Then we scrubbed the window down ... which was gross. All of the dust and mildew builds up over time and looks like a black mess on your paper towel. Yeck.

I measured out the window, and Mike suggested leaving some extra paper and using the box cutter to make it exact once it was on the window.

Then, per TDR's instructions, I spritzed the window with water and peeled off a couple of inches of paper to move it into position. The damp window made it easy to re-adjust and keep a straight line.

I used a credit card to smooth out major air bubbles as I went, always peeling a few inches at a time. This also pushed the spritzed water down, so it pooled in a muddy mess on the sill. Ew, but no worries, just dab it with a paper towel and keep going.

Before finishing, I cut the edges with the box cutter, and then continued smoothing the bubbles out. I didn't get them all, since some seemed to stick around a bit of dust or grime we missed while cleaning. I'd suggest using a microfiber cloth before spritzing and applying the contact paper.

But it does the job. For a couple bucks (so much paper left over!), I think we'll take the fogged up window look until we can do something better. We're hoping to find or make a stained glass window for the shower room at some point.

We still need to wash off the residue on the trim from the wallpaper remover, reseal around the glass (it looks old and worn), but it's definitely less janky and X-rated than before.

Now that I have all of this extra paper, I'm tempted to find some cheap scrap glass somewhere and play around with painting on contact papered glass for a non-permanent stained glass effect. It'll likely turn out awful, but I've got the paper and paint and feel like playing around, so no harm done.

Curtains Are the Devil
In other window treatment news ... curtains are hard, you guys! I found some lovelies at TJMaxx, and we love them, but we wanted to add a second set in between the silvery, ribboned curtains. We thought it might be fun to find a sheer, weave texture in a white or ivory and went to several stores.

At Lowe's we found a pair we liked and bought them tonight and hung them up. ::insert sad trombone::

They were almost there, but they were too short and we think we either need to go with plain, white sheer curtains, white sheer with a ribbon pattern, or embrace a darker shade. This will probably involve buying several different panels and bringing them home for a hanging marathon and then sheepishly returning them to the store. We want to have some fun with curtains, but we don't want them to totally dictate our decorating choices, unless they're awesome and amazing. I've never given curtains so much thought in my life!

Plus, I really need to relearn how to sew, because these curtains are a little long in the leg. Plus, then we can pick out fabrics and make our curtains, pillow cushions, etc. And hem pants. Because we're short.