Panels & Sheers

We have been living in our house for a year and some months and while we have made lots of changes in that time there are still things that need to be done.

For example...our front room {or as Keegan calls it "my living room"}. This room has pretty much collected our "leftovers"...our old couch, the glider that was in Keegan's room at the old house, an end table that isn't really needed elsewhere, a hope chest, the TV that Keegan watches his movies on, and most recently the hall tree that my aunt gave to us. The only thing that we have actually done in this room is paint the walls and hang up a picture frame, just one....even the old, outdated gold trimmed light fixture is still up and it bothers me every single time I look at it {which will be replaced some day}. 

There is a huge window in this room and until a couple of days ago the only thing that was on it was the old shade that was on it when we bought the house....you know those old roll up shade things that use to be popular way back when and are a pain the ass to get to work right. Let me show you what I'm talking about...

And what's even worse about it....it's on backwards!! Yep, when it was put back up after being taken down to paint it was put up backwards and we have never fixed it, partially due to laziness and partially due to me hoping to have something else up there sooner than a year and some months later!

There are a couple of reasons why it has taken so long though. One, I had no idea what I wanted up there. I eventually want this room to be a sitting area type of room...I'm envision some chairs, a new lay out of the furniture, things on the walls {besides on stinkin picture frame} and somehow creating more of an entrance way kind of space instead of just walking into this open room. {And I have no idea when any of this will happen but hopefully it will some day!} Therefore I didn't know what color{s} to choose or what kind of style to go with. Second, to get curtains for this size of a window is anything but cheap and I hate spending a lot of money on curtains...I just don't understand why they are so damn expensive!

Well this past weekend when I was looking at the new Target ad before doing some shopping I saw that they had panels on sale for just $9!! SOLD...I immediately put it on my mental list of things to get. I'm not going to lie, when I got to the store and found out that they are normally $9.99 I was kinda disappointed but hey, at least I saved $4 right? I picked out a color threw them in the cart and then picked out a rod {which are way overpriced as well}. I have to say that I'm not exactly in love with these curtains, I was really wanted some kind of print and the fabric isn't my favorite but it will work and they are much better than that stupid shade.

Have a look....

{before I ironed them}

{you can see the part of the ugly light in this pic}

Now...here's what I'm thinking of doing. I'm not completely crazy about the idea of leaving them closed the majority of the time so I'm thinking about getting some sheer panels to go in the middle or getting sheer panels to go all the way across and putting up a second rod...that way I could open those up when I feel like it. What do you think?! Would it look ok with the sheer panels?!

Here's a couple more pics after I ironed the curtains...oh and that rod, can't stand it! I originally got it because I liked the color and it was one of the cheapest ones but now that it is up, it's a little too wimpy & puny for the window, I'm thinking it needs something bigger!! Opinions?!

And the curtains....I wanted them to be touching the floor, you know like just grazing the carpet and this is what I got after I told the hubs how I wanted it....can't stand it, makes it look like they are too small. Maybe I will fix that when I get a new rod! :)

And something else that is driving me crazy....

Can you tell what it is {besides the puzzle pieces all over the floor}.....see that panel on the far left? It's longer than the rest!! The panel on the far right looks a tad longer as well. I thought maybe it was the because the middle bracket for the rod wasn't quite level but it seems to be just fine!! UGH!!! Maybe a new, bigger, more sturdy rod will solve that problem too...if not, looks like I'm going to have to do some hemming!! What can I expect, they were only $9!

So...what do you think? Add sheers, don't add sheers? Add sheers in just the middle or add a second rod with sheers all the way across? Get a bigger rod & rod ends or leave the puny one up?