I totally meant to do this post before Christmas decorations went up, but I got so swept up in wanting to decorate for Christmas I completely forgot to photograph for this post! Anyway, today I bring you another installment of “Our 1954 House” showcasing our window treatments.

We have several different window treatments throughout the house, including some creative solutions to some problems. I have been hoarding vintage curtains for years now, and I was excited to put them to real use! But I was in for a few unpleasant surprises.

We’ll start in the living room, which features double sliding glass doors, so it is quite a lengthy stretch, thankfully I had a collection of eight matching panels of vintage curtains that actually spanned the entire length! There was just one problem…they were too short! Something we ran into again for the window in the dining room.

I also had a set of curtains that were the perfect width for the dining room window, but once again they were too short! So, what is a girl to do? First I learned the type of system needed for these types of curtains, which are pinch pleat curtains, is called a traverse curtain rod. It involves a series of loops along a track, which are then moved by a pulley system. S shape hooks are used to attach the curtain to the loops, and often the pleat then covers the rod, giving a clean top of fabric. However, as I mentioned, my curtain hoard proved to be just too short! But Patrick came to the rescue with an innovative solution. He made chains using S hooks to lengthen the curtains.

This allowed us to play with the length a great deal until we got it just right. Then, to cover up the curtain system and the length of chain, Patrick built two valances. Yep, those valances are not original to the house, although every one of our guests so far has thought they were! So, I would say that’s a win.

The sliding glass door curtains are not lined, so we bought black out curtains, and opted for a two track system, which allows us to have natural light, but privacy, or no light at all. The curtains for the dining room however were already lined.

We purchased both curtain systems on Amazon. The living room one can be found here, and the one for the dining room here.

In the kitchen we opted for a simple valance, which I made of my fabric hoard, and a curtain rod from Target.

The fabric features a cute cowboy pattern with colors that are in the counter tile and our flooring.

In our bedrooms and office, we went for simple wooden slat blinds, boring, but effective.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our home. I still intend to do a more overall shoot of the house sometime soon!