Oops I Did it Again

I have a few projects that I am going to start this weekend when Dan is out of town. I am pretty hyped.  The projects will involve unsupervised use of tools, stain, mud and spray paint. Which means a whole lot of potential... to mess something up. Are you ready for story time? Lets take a walk down memory lane shall we?

I felt inspired during election week after learning of our new, female VP elect, Kamala Harris. I figured since we have our first female VP, I should be able to hang curtain rods on my own, right? Girls can do what boys do, if not better.   Logical thinking from me, per usual.  I hauled the kids in the car, dragged them to the Target Drive-Up lane and picked up the curtain and rod order. Lets take a minute to appreciate what Target Drive-Up has done for our lives: I can wear my house slippers, go to Target and not brush my hair all from the comfort and privacy of my car. Praise God!  Before I carry off on a tangent about how Target Drive- Up has been life changing, lets get back to the curtains. I was over-the-moon excited to do something independently without Dan hovering over me or getting so frustrated with me that he just takes over. I felt confident that my 10+ years of training via boo camp [definition: boo·camp (noun) long, rigurious life exercises and experiences that couples go through, similar to military bootcamp but much harder] was going to pay off. I picked up my screw driver, glass of wine and screws and immediately got to work. I bet you are thinking, "How hard could an installation of beautiful, cotton curtains be?" I bet you thought I could do this effortlessly.  That's cute + thank you for thinking so highly of me. 

Expectations

Dan would come home after a long weekend away, walk in the house, take one look at my curtains flowing freely from our windows, slow run toward me, embrace me full of pride, realizing that I am in fact the wife he prayed for all his life. He would then bow down to my house slippers and pass the "home projects" baton to me with full confidence. 

Reality

Dan came home after a long weekend away, walked in the house, took one look at my curtains flowing freely from our windows, quickly ran towards me asking me 'wtf' I did.  He then told me to never do a project again when he wasn't home because we always end up having to fix it. 

Before you all get your panties in a bunch and think how rude of Dan to degrade me as a woman. Ya'll I have earned the badge of clusterfuckery. I legit suck at most of the DIY projects we undergo. I get an A+ in the vision department and an incomplete in the execution. It's okay. I have full faith I will get better.

What did I do wrong you ask? 

Issue #1.  We live in an open concept home. A sliding glass door sits perpendicular to massive oversized windows in my kitchen dining nook. We also have large windows in the living room (right next to the sliding glass door on the other side). My goal was to have all of the curtains at the same height across all 3. Eazy. Peazy. Lemon Squeezy. The curtain in the living  room was already hung up last year so that was my starting point. I followed its height when I hung up the curtains above the door. THEN I went to hang the curtains up in the kitchen dining nook. This is when I  realized if I kept the same height above the kitchen windows, that I would basically be hanging the curtain on the window trim. No bueno.

 Your curtain rod should be a minimum of  3-6" above your window trim (see below). I didn't come up with this rule, I just happen to like the rule. The goal is to make the room feel taller and the windows to appear larger than they actually are.   Before you are going to install curtain rods, take a step back. Access the situation and look at everything as one big picture. Once you put a hole in the wall there is no hiding it. The only way for me to fix this is to have a dry wall guy come out and patch the holes so I can then raise the rods to the right height. I could also try to spackle it myself and hopefully the paint color from years of fading will match properly.

Issue #2. If you do not hit a stud, you need an anchor. You guys, half of my brackets fell out of the wall after I hung the curtains because I did not use an anchor. Instead of picking up my glass of wine, I should have picked up a stud finder. 

If you use your stud finder and you locate a stud, you do not need an anchor, just a long enough dry wall screw to grab the stud. If you do not locate a stud with your stud finder, you will need an anchor and screw. This will insure that your bracket doesn't separate itself from the wall.  I learned the hard way that forcing a drywall anchor into a stud does not work. Just like using a screw in drywall without an anchor also does not work.

 

Moral of the story, don't drink and drill. 

Virtual Hugs + Wine Chugs,

Brit 

Stay tuned : Repurposing Barstools from FB Marketplace

Sourced Products

 Curtains : Tonal Texture Curtain Panel Sour Cream - Hearth & Hand™ with Magnolia

Curtain Rod : Ball Curtain Rod - Threshold™

Chairs : White Ginny Solid Wood Dining Chair