Yesterday Morning’s Curtains

We lost the tree in our backyard. Now the afternoon sun comes blazing into the kitchen window at 2 in the afternoon, building up heat so thick, so that by 6 p.m. dinner time, there’s no relief, even from the air conditioner. 

Yesterday was guaranteed to be another scorcher… so yesterday morning, while the kids were still sleeping, I whipped out the gardner’s burlap, and started threading the top with twine…threading was taking too long — have you seen how big and wide our windows are? Instead, I used tape (masking tape, if you must know)  to fold down a flap to make a pocket for the twine to come through. (I can’t touch a sewing machine… I freeze.) The twine, you see, was my “rod.” I figured if I liked the look, and if my husband didn’t take one look and say, “What is that?” Then, I would invest in a real rod, and do this curtain thing right.

For now, I only wanted to block that sun.

See those sleepy boys?

And block the sun, it did. My original plan was cafe curtains… but I didn’t like the look. My designer friend said, go full tilt. Full length burlap for those full length windows.

Such a glamorous effect for my kitchen. At night — the effect is luminous. Night time camera settings elude me. My son said, they look “earthy crunch.” He sounded a bit worried about that.

I have a weak spot for burlap. And my husband did love these curtains. Not only do they block the heat, they don’t block the view. It’s more like a “diffuser” of light. My husband loved them just the way they were — even with the twine and the sag in the middle — which I am not fond of myself. He liked them more than the ones we see at our favorite restaurant… because these use the finished burlap.