Curtain Updates

Having worked at Walmart for a horrific four month period, I can honestly say that I hate Walmart.  But, the good ole Wall does come in handy for somethings- they've got a lot of great prices on a lot of household goods.  


Yesterday before diving head-first into grocery shopping (bleh) I perused the curtain aisle and found two curtain panels that were the appropriate size and length.  They were $17 and only slightly less expensive than the $19 ones at Target.  Before I put them into my cart, I decided to check out the sheets to price what the price was for two white, twin flat sheets.  To my surprise they were $5 each, score!  They will have to be altered slightly which is not a big deal and when I got home, I realized that I could cut a twin sheet in half and have enough curtain for the windows (I'll never close them so it doesn't matter if they don't meet exactly, close enough).  Now, I'm either planning on making two sets of curtains to change out on a whim (I love being able to do little switches!) or taking back one sheet and getting back my $5.  


And today at Target I found a curtain rod, drapery rings, and a drill (I hadn't bought one yet but I'm not really factoring it into the whole cost for the curtains since I'll be using it for other things).


Cost breakdown so far: 


2 Twin White Flat Sheets- $5 each- $10.00
Curtain Rod- $13.99
2 Sets of Drapery Rings- $4.89 each- $9.78
Heat-n-bond for hem- $1.99


Total: $35.76


I'm very pleased with how little I've spent on my curtains, but there are ways they could have been made more inexpensively.  I liked the look of drapery rings but they could have easily been done without and instead you could sew a pocket for the rod to slip through. 


I got home from Target, charged my drill for a few hours (and ignoring the 16 hour first charging guideline), and began to hang the curtains.  The curtain rod came with a paper cut out guide to show you were to drill the holes, which was made the whole process easier.  What made the process a pain in the ass was the cheaply-made wall anchors that came with it.

After a few taps with the hammer, they were smooshed! 

Finally I got pissed enough to yank them out of the wall and use my red anchors (which actually worked!).  Look how bent up and awful they look!

After using the better red anchors, I was finally able to secure the brackets flush to the wall.

I couldn't resist taking the unmade curtains for a trial run just to see how it was going to look and... I'm pretty happy, but they definitely need painted!