Ikea Curtains = Fabric!

I used to have folding doors that, when closed, separated my living room from the studio. In all of the 15 years we have lived in the this house, those doors have been closed maybe 20 times. It occurred to me during the remodel that it might look better with the doors down. It is better!

One set of the doors used to fold up against my design wall. With the doors gone, I have gained about a foot of usable space on my design wall. And, while the doors didn't take up much space, the doorway feels much more open.

The downside was that I was left with a view of the side of my tall bookcase that I didn't like much. So I got some curtains and an tension rod (meant for a shower) from Ikea. 

I'm pretty darned sure that the fabric is merimekko. It's cotton, heavier than typical quilter's cotton, but not as heavy as upholstery fabric. Each of the 2 panels is 56" or so wide and close to 7' long. They come un-hemmed.

I washed the fabric in cold with 2 color catchers and dried them in the dryer (not recommend by Ikea). They shrank which was why I did it. I figure that at some point I'll want to wash them again and I wanted to hem them already shrunk. The red did bleed a little, but not enough to be a problem for me.

The 2 panels (one set of curtains) was just under $30. That's a lot of fabric for $30 and that's what I wanted to share with you. You can't (to my knowledge) order these on the internet but if you like merimekko and shop at Ikea, don't forget to check out the curtains!

FYI- The side of my desk has a piece of galvanized metal screwed to it. It makes a great magnetic bulletin board. We can buy it here at a sheet metal place and Steve cuts it to whatever size I want.