Dining Room Update: Free Drapes from the Living Room

Remember these linen drapes (and oil-rubbed bronze rods) I bought at Target awhile ago and hung in my living room? (They kinda look just like those drop cloth drapes that everyone has been DIYing, except I'm too lazy to do that!)


Well, they turned out to be the exact same color as the walls (Benjamin Moore Smokey Taupe) and I've never really loved them here, just thought they looked ok. (I'm into neutrals and everything, but lately I've been wishing I had gone a little more bold with the curtains and added some color or some pattern, kinda like I did in Maura's room.)

So this past weekend, we took the drapes down from the living room...and moved them into the dining room!


Now I love them! The warm oatmeal color (and linen texture) adds just the right amount of warmth (and contrast) to the cool grey walls and plays nicely with the beige in the rug and artwork (on the walls you can't see here). The dark hardware ties in with the oil rubbed bronze chandelier and espresso table and chairs.

{sorry, that's a jigsaw puzzle in progress on the table and I wasn't going to move it for the pic, even for you guys!}

Of course, this leaves the living room walls a little bare, but whatevs. We can worry about that later.

Here's a real before to show you how the dining room looked when we moved in:



And here it is after we painted, got some furniture, changed out the light fixture, redid the wood floors and finally found an area rug...but before we had any window treatments.



And again now with the new, no-extra-cost-cause-I-stole-them-from-another-room drapes!

{if you look carefully, you might notice I didn't hang anything on the window on the right wall...in the living room I had 3 windows, but only 5 panels, as one window was right next to the fireplace and so I only put 1 panel on it on one side. I needed 6 panels to do all 3 windows in the dining room, but I couldn't find these anymore at Target to purchase one extra one. So I decided to just use 4 and only dress the 2 windows next to each other on this wall and make it more like a feature. I saw it in a Ballard Design catalog - that all the windows in a room don't have to match - so I feel justified:) }

Next up is to replace the plastic roller shades (on all 3 windows, so they will be coordinated in that aspect) with bamboo blinds. So far I've checked at Lowes and Bed Bath and Beyond and haven't found the color or size that I want. I plan to hit up Home Depot and Target next. Where have you guys had good luck finding bamboo shades?