Isn't that a coincidence! Wednesday, March 23 is National What-the-Hell-Was-I-Thinking Day!

marcolo, i never tire of you. honestly!

Is that sincere, kateskouros, or is that a "you-always-look-so-nice-in-that-sweater" kind of compliment?

it's sincere. you would know if it were otherwise. trust me.

Has anyone else taken an old tablecloth and turned it into a "sheer" window treatment? A picture or two would sure help me avoid a "what the hell was I thinking?" moment.

the what-the-hell-was-i-thinking moments are unavoidable. before we know it ten years will have passed and there will be SOMETHING to lament over. right now i'm blinded by all the newness and really can't imagine hating anything ...but i know better.

Um. Is it a clean tablecloth...?

Actually I don't think clean matters that much.

That middle image is going in the right direction, Marcolo. Thanks for posting. I priced a wide wooden blind with red tapes on an internet website and got the special price of $350; on another website it's $140. Thought I might sit on my hands for a while, stare at the wall, and just think through alternatives, including recycling some old items in the linen closet, to satisfy as window treatment for front lobby. (I _think_ they're pretty clean.) As usual, I'm back under the spell of Swedish style, using linen-y or vintage lace light-colored materials for flat, light-admitting window treatments. I'm trying to defuse a mundane view--driveways and parked cars.

The more I look at your image, the more I like it.

A diagonal orientation like the middle photo would bring me very quickly to the what-the-hell stage. (Think of all those points shooting daggers or cutting through the chi or whatever they were supposed to do! Goodness!) I'd stick to orthogonal lines.

LOL, this is funny!

marcolo...lol

does what the hell was I thinking day go along with "Next Time Kick Me in the Butt Before I Do That Again Day?"

I'm embarrassed to admit... I had those pointy last picture napkins hung over piece of wood adorning my sliding glass doors for years. That is what qualifies me for the above.

remodelfla -- I'll see your pointy curtains and raise you one hideous, teal/tea rose accented sofa from 1993 that I can't seem to get rid of. Every time I walk into the living room I can't look long enough to get a "vision" of what I want to do to replace it.

Perhaps my "home decor" risk will be covering that sofa with beef gravy -- and letting my two dogs have a field day with it. (At least that would force me to put it out on the curb where it belongs!)

Looking forward to celebrating "what-the-hell-was-I-thinking Day"!

Marcolo - priceless!

I have been taking more risks during this reno than I ever have before. My bil, in all his semi-backhanded complimented ways, saw our pix and told dh it looks like we are recreating our last house. My last house was nice/pretty (and much better than this one pre-reno) but this reno version blows our last house away. The only things in common is both have lavender walls in the kitchen and skylights throughout. Both kitchens are completely different in every other way. I purposely did not use light yellow in our living room and hallway, though I was tempted because it came out so nice in our last house. This time, I went with a very perky mid-range green.
I think the green he sees is in his own envy, but it still ticked me off. I have tried hard to step out of my own comfortable box and to be bold this time. GRRRRR....

Talk about taking risks, you gotta have an edjication (or fake it) jist to follow the talk on this forum!

I had to look up Orthogonal thanks to you, mnerg! "having a set of mutually perpendicular axes; meeting at right angles"

But...that half-tablecloth has orthogonal lines, doesn't it, but just rotated 45 degrees to make it interesting and missing its other half cut off at 45 degrees?...and of course we mustn't dismiss those floppy bits at the sides that invoke relaxation and a familiarity not subsumed by the central motif of rectiliniarity. Now, there's a risk, but well worth it.

I suppose the term is used in math more often than decorating. Since I don't know the correct decorating terms you might want to take that as a sign on how much weight to give my opinion, but I meant with orthogonal lines to window itself, not rotated 45 degrees--a rectangular curtain panel instead of a triangular one. Dull, yes. Predictable, yes. I'd let the fabric choice be the risk.

I did once make a set of curtains out of a lace tablecloth for some small windows over a dining room buffet. I had to cut around the wine stains. Except that sewing the lace was a pain, it worked very well. I look forward to seeing your results.

Ok, not orthogonal to the window PANES, of course, orthogonal in relation to the lines of the window frame.

(Yes, I'm mostly just enjoying using a word that doesn't come up very often.)

mnerg, thanks, but I fear you're afraid I'll actually make a decorating faux pas. You have to get in the spirit of this...remember you and I only have a few hours to get out of your comfort zone and make some mistakes suitable for tomorrow's what the hell was I thinking day...plunge in...hit us with some more of that vocab or another more wacky idea....meanwhile, just thought I'd say that DH has unleashed the dog to scare squirrels through the mud of melting snow...what the hell was he thinking?

My favorite outside the box decorating that I saw on TV was an old half slip pulled over a lampshade and "dressed up" with costume jewelry. Yep, the effort exerted matched the result.
That gets a TV segment--I think that means there are too many channels.

Actually the blogger doesn't specifically mention decor in the day's title:
Next TUESDAY, March 22nd is National Take A Risk in Your Home Day

So I decided to run through the house with scissors in my hand.

Well, I've had my own what-was-I-thinking moment with the mud today. I let the kids into the backyard for a couple of unsupervised minutes, in white karate uniforms, before we went to our lesson. I am an idiot.

Would you call it risky enough if I ran around the house with a hammer (a la Chicagoans) and finally hung up all the pictures that have been waiting for decisions on paint and just the right spots, since we moved in, nearly a year ago? Does it help the risk factor that one of them is a painting done by my ten-year-old, that I just picked up from the framer this morning? (Part of the risk here is that the three younger kids will want their scribbles professionally framed and prominently displayed, too.)

Remodelfla, I knew we were kindred spirits. Until we got new windows 2 years ago, I had placemats (bought on clearance, but cute enough) on the diagonal on rods over my doorwall and large kitchen window! My mom still asks me if I'm not going to put them back up because they looked so nice. I diplomatically reply that I was tired of the look and prefer to keep them bare for now.

Florantha, I think the second treatment looks nice as long as you want to cover the view (at least for the most part), but I think the lace is what makes it look charming. What kind of tablecloth are you thinking of using?

Mnerg, you definitely aren't alone with having lots of pics that are waiting to find homes on the walls. No way that's getting tackled today, however. :(

Thanks for the chuckles! You all are very entertaining!

I seriously DO need take a risk day, I take forever to decide on any decorating element, because I have NO decorating talent. I can't visualize. But if I take that risk and do SOMETHING, I might be celebrating "what the hell was I thinking day" or possibly "hurray you stopped dragging your butt day"!! Remodeling the kitchen makes me want a nicer house throughout.Just ignoring the parts I don't like doesn't seem to be working.

marcolo, you are too funny. :)

goodness, every day seems like what-the-hell-was-i-thinking day!

I bought some "cutter" 1940's tablecloths to use for curtains but coudln't bring myself to cut them! So now they are in my tablecloth stack and will end up in the rotation for the table.

go for it, Pinch, cut them up. Make some absolutely happy god-awful curtains and destroy their collector value

Thanks for playing my game, folks. This has been real.

As for me, I didn't take the risk to cut up the old lace tablecloth--I dug through my fabric archive (don't ask!) and finally found something that might work for a translucent fabric Swedish shade. Now the question is what piece of old lace will I decide to sacrifice to the scissors god. Will the tablecloth still die? Not sure, since it's "What the hell was I thinking" day. The second day in a row to run about with scissors--the first to do the damage and the second to repair it.

Oh, and it's snowing again. What the hell is the weather god thinking?