Tct-curtainfabbefore A couple of days ago, I send out some photos of my new place to a few far-flung friends. "Dude, I'm totally get a tell the RA about your fireplace!" Said my friend S. I'll admit that having everything in one room does make my place feel a little dorm-y. Not a look I want to be going for at this point my life.

When I got this place, I made the choice that I wanted to have a bed in this room rather than doing the bed/futon thing. It's just really important for me to have a separate space where I sit and read magazines and a separate place where I sleep, even if they are a couple of feet apart. Of course, I'm not sure that I want everybody who visits my apartment to have to look at my bed either.

Tct-curtainfabhook I've been trying to come up with a way to close off the area where I sleep from the rest of the living room. I could've bought a screen but that would have been much less fun than this curtain system I devised. And it just so happens to be Tuesday and it just so happens that I purchased myself some Crown Royal. Let the games begin!

Materials
Hooks with a screw in on one side ($2 at your local hardware store)
Curtain rod (by only the length you need…measure first! This rod was about $6.)
Drapery clips (I ordered mine at an online discount store, $5 for 10 clips)
An old sheet or fabric (to test drive your idea)

Cocktail of the day: Hot chocolate with whiskey

Tct-curtainfabblah Pre-Too Cute Tuesday: Order drapery clips online. Do a search on your favorite shopping comparison website or try eBay. Whatever you do, don't order these things from JCPenney or another department store as they will charge you about four times the amount I bought my drapery clips for.

1. On a cold winter's night, fix yourself a nice cup of hot chocolate and drop a little whiskey in it for double the warming powers.

2. Survey the scene and figure out where in the ceiling is a logical place to put the screw hooks. My ceiling has the fake tile look and where the tiles meet is a conspicuous place to leave a small hole. Measure the distance between the hooks.

Tct-curtainfabafter 3. Buy curtain rod and the screw hooks at your favorite hardware store. (Lesson #1 from Nicole: wire will not work on this project as the material is too heavy not to mention the wire will never straighten. Do not waste $2 and an hour attempting to use wire! Lesson #2 from Nicole: Make sure the curtain rod will fit into the hooks you by or else make sure you have pliers on hand.)

4. Screw the hooks into the ceiling, making sure that the openings face the same direction.

5. Load the drapery clips onto the rod (I used 10). Place the rod on the hooks so it is secure.

6. Attach an old sheet or some leftover fabric to the clips. Before you invest in expensive material, it's best to figure out how much you'll need, the kind of fabric you want, etc. As you can see with this queen-size sheet, my fabric is about 5 inches too long.

Over the next few nights, I'll be able to tell if the fabric is thick enough to block light and thin enough to not overwhelm the room.

Future step: when you know exactly what kind of material and how much you want, pick some up at your local fabric store or order online at a place like www.reprodepot.com or www.IKEA.com (yay Almost Frugal for the idea), which are couple of my personal favorites. When your material comes in, you can easily get rid of your test fabric and clip on your new stuff.

A small space just gives you a little more excuses to be crafty!

Images: TCT Curtain trick through all it's stages, even an intermediate unsuccessful one.

Need marketing help?

X