Retro Ranch Retreat: It's Curtain Time

Well, things are starting to come together - slowly, but surely. I'm not a super organized person, so I don't have a big-picture plan of when I should be doing what. I tend to work with things that just happen to pop up. Case in point.... our curtains.

The house came with one set of drapes for the front window. Nothing special, but neutral enough that they will work for the time being - until I find the spectacular ones I want. I *thought* that had occurred when I came across an awesome set of vintage atomic style pinch pleat drapes at an estate sale I went to recently. For $6 the lady sold me the entire set - including the accompanying rod and hardware. They were OLD - pretty sure from the mid 1950s. But they had a great pattern complete with triangular shaped swooshes and speckles of flecked gold

. Unfortunately, they were also dusty. I don't think they had ever been washed or drycleaned. So, taking the saleswoman's advice, I decided to soak them in a bathtub with a few scoops of oxyclean to help get rid of some of their dingy look. Oh My Goodness - it was amazing how you filthy the water in that bathtub looked! I began having second thoughts after the third soak of the day and they were still emitting horrible, black streams of basically mud into the tub.

But I pressed on. Finally I dragged them out of the tub and put them out on the balcony railing of our other house to dry.

If you look toward the bottom you'll see some of the areas
where the curtain ripped due to dry rot

Only to discover that they were going to pretty much be unsalvageable. Due to dry rot from their age, the weight of the wet drapes had started to rip the drapes in several areas. I was heartbroken. These were some awesome drapes and would have looked great in that front window. But alas - such was not to be. So we are still stuck with the original boring set the house came with for the time being. And maybe I can make some awesome throw pillows or something from the remnants of my drapes fiasco.

Fast forward to drape episode #2... a much better overall experience, thankfully!

So... always on the lookout for vintage drapes for the house, I finally spied a set at the local thrift store. Ok - so not as "cool" as the other set, but really not bad. They were definitely vintage - probably 1960s - and were of a gold damask type material - coincidentally the same material as our vintage sofa - and also the same color as the walls in our living/dining room. They were the type with the insulated backing, and looked almost brand new. I spied a faded tag on the back of one set - yep, just as I suspected. These were made by JCPenny's. They sold a LOT of drapes back in the day. I remember as a kid seeing many homes with something similar to these hanging in the formal living or dining room. Hmmm... maybe I could put these on the sliding glass door that goes to the family room addition? The former owners never took the original outside sliding glass door down. I hate the way it looks, but hubby like how they help "soundproof" the two areas so well, so we decided to keep it like that. At least for the time being. They looked to be long enough. Unfortunately, however, there were only 2 panels, so I didn't think they'd be wide enough to cover the entire width of the door. I was about to walk away when I suddenly noticed the price tag. $2.99.....total! For both panels? I'd have to be a total idiot not to scarf these up and at least see what I could do with them. So I did! And here are the results: