Mistreatments

Today, on Talk About Tuesday, I'm talking about mistreatments! If you know the Nester, then you already know what I'm talking about--aka, the world's easiest window treatments!

We moved into this house 4.5 years ago. 4.5 years ago (while 36 weeks pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia and pregnancy induced hypertension that was exacerbated by a cross-country move...but I digress) I tore down the vertical blinds on the windows in my kitchen and family room. My husband was not thrilled to come home and discover his hugely pregnant wife (hello, 60+ pounds of baby weight and water weight!) opted to do this instead of keeping her feet up as instructed. I say that he just didn't understand the powerful nesting instincts that Mother Nature was inflicting on me. He claims that Mother Nature had nothing to do with it--it was all about my *strong* dislike of vertical blinds. He may have a point.

Anyhow, for 4.5 years these three windows have been naked. They look out into our backyard so there really isn't anyone who can see in except for one set of neighbors and they don't go in their yard very often.

I finally decided that enough is enough! I special-ordered wood blinds for the *huge* window in the family room. That set me back almost $300 and that was after a 60% off sale--it was a necessity though; we bought a new couch for the family room and didn't want it to fade the way our old couch faded. Now I need to wait and save up for the sliding door in the eating nook and the window over the kitchen sink. In the meantime, I'm tired of naked windows--so I've started mistreating them!

Here is the kitchen window--the before picture shows my naked (dirty...it's been too rainy to clean outside) window with some of my collection of strawberry plates.

This is the bare naked picture--plates are down and I decided against filling nail holes and removing the anchor from hanging the clock.

Here is the first try--I like the mistreatment, but I think the mistreatment should go higher. Oh, and please notice how the light over the sink is centered on n.o.t.h.i.n.g. That is par for the course for this house. We love our little house, but many things about it drive me crazy! Oh, and yes that is my girly little red hammer on the counter. My husband hates it.

And here is what it looks like today--I raised the mistreatment up and I love it! Our window looks sooo much bigger. My only disappointment is that the adorable rag garland I made to hang across the window looks dorky. I stuffed it in with my sewing materials in the hope that out of sight would equal out of mind...but it isn't working.

Working with the calico in the kitchen was so easy, I decided to see what I could do with the silky stuff I bought on a whim. It was in the decorator fabric clearance section and was on sale on top of that. It was the exact shade of the accent color in my family room so I had to buy it...but I bought the entire amount left on the bolt and I wasn't sure it was enough for a mistreatment. Still, I opted to give it a whirl. No nails this time though--just straight pins and drapery clips. I'm not as sold on this window mistreatment, but I like it better than a naked window, that's for sure!

Click on the pictures to enlarge them and get the full effect.

I still need to mistreat the sliding doors off the breakfast nook. I think I'll do the same thing that I did on the kitchen sink window. I'd rather have long panels down the sides of the door, but my 2.5 year old son would destroy those--he already puts sticky finger prints on the door while he eats because his high chair has to be right next to the door. Long curtain panels definitely are out of the question for now.