Decorating a small apartment on an even smaller budget can be a tricky task. The goal is to create a living area that is comfortable, and enjoyable, while at the same time maximizing your space, and minimizing the amount of cash spent on the whole design project.

I used a combination of techniques to FINALLY get our curtains to glide easily. Like you, i t was driving me nuts to close and open the curtains every day. We bought a house with blackout curtains that covered a triple sliding glass door—total 12 feet long. There was also a 3 section window that was 11 feet long. The curtains have wide grommets and the curtain rod was 1.5 inches in diameter. We have to close the curtains every night as it is VERY bright and sunny as early as 5 AM in the summer. I tried several different suggestions I found online and finally arrived at a combination of a homemade narrow and longer single rod along with the rolling shower curtain hooks in bronze I found on amazon. I made the new longer and more narrow metal pole without telescoping sections out of half inch metal electrical conduit—about $7 for 10’ at Home Depot. I needed two rods at 12’6” and 11’6”, but could only find 10 foot sections at our local home depot, so I bought three 10 foot sections and a pipe cutter, and pipe connectors to make longer rods. I cut one pole into the two shorter sections I needed to add to the 10 foot section of each rod. I had a couple of pieces of wooden dowels I used duct tape sticky side out and put inside the two sections and the connector so the rod wouldn’t sag at the connection point. I then spray painted both rods with some bronze/brown paint—it took a whole can for the two rods—and I actually went over a light coat of black spray paint I had to get more coverage. I had tried the grommet curtains on the just the more narrow single rod, but it was still sticking a little. So I ordered the rolling shower curtain hooks from Amazon in bronze attaching them to the grommets and then the rings to the rod. IT WORKS GREAT—FINALLY! I still have to figure out the end finials, but can use the curtains for now with ease. Here is the list of things I used for the two 12 foot rods—most at Home depot except for shower curtain rings 1. 3 10’ sections of ½ inch metal electrical conduit—about $7 each 2. a pipe cutter about $18 3. conduit connectors ($2.50 for 5, but I only needed 2) 4. Spray paint (about $8 a can 5. dowel and duct tape—I had some scraps 6. Shower curtain rings with rollers—I got bronze in sets of 12 ($7 each):

"now do you have an opinion as to whether there is such a thing as drapes that are too long" Um, heck yeah? ;-) I detest the puddled thing, to me it looks sloppy, like someone was too lazy to hem their curtains to the proper length, although other people think it's a very luxurious look. ajsmama is also 100% right about the dust bunnies! Pets have also been known to "nest" in the fabric that's on the floor. I've seen dense, heavy laces (the cotton laces do tend to be weightier than the polyesters) puddled, and it does look rather better than the really lightweight sort, but I still don't think it's practical or attractive. Me, I like long WTs to stop about half an inch to an inch from the floor so they don't catch as many dust bunnies and you can vacuum without fussing with the curtains, but I'm also willing to compromise aesthetics a bit for practicality. With the very complex laces with a lot of bottom detailing, an inside-mounted sill length, which many people think of as being an informal style, can still look quite formal because the lace is so intricate. Just for pity's sake don't use tension rods. Use an inside-mount barrel-bracket rod instead. Here's a picture of one style and of another. The visible-screw ones are cheaper from annwallace.com, just the pics on that site kinda stink. IMO inside mounting something longer than sill length looks sloppy where it flops over the sill. If you want to go long, whether you go 84" or 95" depends on where you want to put your rods. If you want to do a casing mount or wall mount parallel to the top of the casing, measure from the top of the casing to the floor to get the correct length. I don't like to see a lot of wall between the rod and the window casing, so IMO the "put rod up near ceiling to emphasize room height" routine only really works with a WT that's going to conceal that area, and lace usually isn't dense enough to do so. I'd rather have curtains hemmed to the right length than place my rods based only on a stock WT size. (Remember that most laces are hemmed from the TOP by removing the stitches creating the preexisting rod pocket and sewing either a new pocket or a hem for hanging from rings. Sewn-on rings look MUCH better in a formal setting than clip-on!) I also don't like those clear plastic "lace curtain" rods, I think they look tacky. Use a good quality brass or wooden rod (very traditional) or a finish that matches lighting fixtures, door hardware and suchlike other metals in the room.

Palimp is right as usual, lace should be hung to show off the skill of the lacemaker (even if it is a machine now LOL). I've been doing my victorian drapery research and that's a key feature of real lace draperies. I also found a wonderful article about drapes with the lace, completely condemning the fashion of crazy drapery (valances, swags, jabots, etc) surrounding the lace. The writer suggests you stay "traditional" with simple pleated drapes hanging flat to the side of the lace panels full enough to be pulled across the window with some give but not full enough to overwhelm the architecture of the windows or the room. Nor full enough to gather dust in significant quantities (I'm paraphrasing but I loved the guy...it was written in the 1880's). He recommended a simple but adequate rod fitting the size of the window molding with a simple finial and brass rings to ease in closing the fabric panels. Those he wanted to see heavily lined so as to prevent drafts on the delicate ladies. Heh heh I wish the was with me while walking the dog in a snow storm last night...delicate lady my ars...umm nevermind :oP Anyhoo, we will have lace here despite my hatred of the stuff (unless it's hand made in Italy by 300 year old women). It's appropriate to the house, but I'm going to follow his advice and keep the drapes surrounding the lace simple panels...which I think would also be lovely in your home. That room is beyond lovely and calls for something simple but very classy to highlight the window but not overwhelm the furnishings. I'd go with a dupioni panel on each side in a complimentary color to the accents in the room. I can't see the colors in the rug well but I'm thinking maybe a beautiful olive green or a rich russet would be lovely with an ivory lace panel in cotton. KFC has the best description of what's wrong with the poly lace. We have both here, mostly poly and the cotton ones hang quite simply and lovely. The poly ones are very stiff, blowing in the breeze like a sheet of cheap newspaper, verses letting the breeze blow through them as a cotton piece would do. We also had oddles (i'm talking hundreds) of poly lace table cloths and doileys. I can see the need...it's a bed and breakfast, but one of the first things I did was begin to edit out all poly pieces and replace with cotton, mostly antique stuff hand made (it's suffed in cupboards and drawers all over the house...fun discovery actually) :O) They're so much nicer!!!