final school room projects: bookshelf and curtains

When we lived in Gburg in 2009, I picked up that little black book shelf for $10 at a garage sale. Except it was really ugly. It was dirty and poorly painted off white. I spray painted it black and it's been a very useful little thing. But after we painted the school room car siding white, I didn't think the black shelf would look good at all. And since I had all the white paint out still, I went ahead and painted the thing white...

I LOVE it. I wish I had painted it white before! I even put some polyurethane on the top to keep it from   showing wear and chipping.

My final project to tackle for the school room was curtains. We have never had curtains in this room before - only some icky forest green shades left over from the previous owners.  

I really wanted these ones from urban outfitters but they were pretty expensive.

But Nathan and Ana found me this beautiful fabric at IKEA while they were going through on their way home from a trip to Michigan. It was kind of difficult to figure out how much I needed, but with my mom, Nathan and Ana's willing help, we figured it out:  4.5 yards. 

I really, really like it. It's just what I wanted - a white background with a minimal colored pattern that included some orange. Plus is was only $20!!! SCORE!!!

I spent several hours yesterday making two panels - one for each window. I used this other downstairs curtain to compare for a hemline length and then left it pinned until I could get it on the rod and make sure it was right. I didn't want to make the same mistake I did on the kid's curtains (make them too short).

I was SO excited to hang up the curtains last night. Right after dinner Terry and I got to work. But despite all my care, I didn't like how they hung! I was SO disappointed! The rods and pullbacks were too high for the size of the curtain. They made the curtain look too small for the window - they weren't able to cover enough. Luckily my husband is the nice sort and let us move the rods and pullbacks. I was the most mad about having to do that and leave big holes in the wall. But we can fix that. So this is before we moved everything down.

And here the rods and pull backs are down. Much much better. I like them so much. 

How pretty right?!