August 17, 2011

Windows Warts

Alright! It’s 21 House quiz time! Are you ready?
Q: How many window treatments did our house come with?
Do you remember? I think I only mentioned it once, in the “Walkthrough” post in the first week, so if you don’t remember, I totally forgive you.
A: Zero
Yep, when we first moved in, there were exactly 13 windows and not a single blind, curtain, or even a tacked up sheet to give us any privacy. And in the nearly-five weeks we’ve lived there, we’ve put up…uh, only two treatments so far. I’m aware that this is terribly pathetic, but the thing is, we really only have a couple of rooms that really needed treatments right away. The bedroom was first, obviously, and I’m proud somewhat embarrassed to say that we waited (only!) a total of four days before installing some nice white plantation blinds. The other was the guest bedroom, where I hurriedly installed a tension rod and some old curtains when I remembered that we were having company one weekend and that they would probably like the option of privacy, too.
The other area of the house that needs some form of treatment a.s.a.p. is the side window in the kitchen and the large window in the dining room. Why only those, you may wonder? Well, the lower living room does have the sliding doors, but since it’s sunk down lower than the rest of the house and most of the yard, it’s actually pretty private. I don’t know if we’ll ever end up putting any kind of treatment on that one. The front room doesn’t ever get used, so that window can wait, as well as the windows upstairs in the studio and office.
Which leaves us with this,

and this,

The garden window, seen here, 

could probably use something, too, but since I’m not sure what, I think we’ll leave it until I can come up with a good solution. Oh, and don’t you just love the view from the side kitchen window? Very inspiring, eh? It’s funny, because the front of that neighbor’s house is perfectly nice. The side, though, is like a wart on an otherwise attractive woman’s face. Just plain unfortunate.
So, in addition to it being a privacy issue, I was simply sick of looking at that eyesore. Something had to be done. I began researching and didn’t really come up with much of anything beyond the standard “slap-some-blinds-up-and-call-it-good” tactic, until I came across this, from 7th House on the Left.

It’s contact paper! It looks like etched glass, but it’s really just a Moroccan pattern traced onto and cut from regular old contact paper. Genius, I tell ya. The idea was originally for a sidedoor that had a large panel of glass in it, but I think it can be adopted for a small-ish kitchen window, too. Whadya think?
What I love about it is a) you don’t need to hang any curtains or blinds, b) it provides privacy but you still get to enjoy the sunlight, and c) it’s totally commitment-free, since you can just tear down the contact paper if you change your mind about it later. In short, this was the solution to our problem.
However, when I went out a couple days ago to try and scrounge up some frosted contact paper, I realized that maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as it seemed. I went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Lowes, looking for frosted contact paper, but could only find clear. Finally, at Home Depot I found some “frosted squares” contact paper and decided I would have to settle for that (at something like $6 a roll, it wasn’t too big of a sacrifice). Side note: When I went back and looked at the instructions on 7th House on the Left, I realized they did use clear paper; it just looked frosted. Oh, well. I’m kinda digging the squares now.
Anyhow, I went home and got straight to work. I immediately put up this little sample, just to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time doing this.

I think it looks pretty cool. Denny is a little skeptical, but I just gave him the look and he immediately said (in an overly hearty tone, so I knew he was being sarcastic) “I’m sure it’ll look GREAT, dear.” Haha. Even though he doesn’t really believe it, I think it will.
Sorry that I don’t have it done yet (is it better to show projects all in one lump sum? or in stages?), but tracing and cutting out all of those shapes has proven rather time consuming. However, I promise that I will post a completed pic to show you by the end of the week. And as for the dining room window, I definitely won't be contact-papering it, but I will hopefully have some sort of plan for it soon. I really like how much natural light there is in this area of the house, so said-plans will probably involve something very sheer and filmy, maybe like so?

3 comments:

  1. And best of all, now you have a very good reason to name your first child "Moroccan". What were those other names you were thinking of? Victorian? Bohemian? Fleabitten?
    Also, you best keep up that Wee Leaf Of Secrecy (or was it Leaf Of Privacy? Adam? Is that you? You're gonna need a bigger leaf, Adam.) and hope your lovely neighbors never stumble upon this blog and realize they are the owners of Wart.

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  2. @KayDeeMcDee - Yeah, I considered that when I wrote it. But, really, is that not the least inspiring view you've ever seen?! Ick. They totally deserve to get called out on it. And, actually, I was thinking that we should name our firstborn "Contemporary-Electic." It's really so much more fitting for us, ya know?

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  3. "We'd like to announce the birth of our 3rd child, Industrial Chic Doe. He joins his sisters Modern Travesty and Wretched Hovel...." Yeah, that could work.

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