Kitchen Update

You may remember this photo that I posted back a month or so ago when I got the bistro set for the kitchen.  I posted then that this was not a finished project, but it was one more step to being a finished project.

A couple of weeks ago The Builder finally made me a curtain rod for the bay window.  I kept meaning to post them, but I think most people know how it can be when you have a family and time gets away from you.

the connector piece

The Builder made the curtain rod from electrical conduit that I bought at my local Home Depot (seriously, I love this stupid store and I should buy stock so I can at least re-coup some of my investment!). Because of the size of the window, we ended up with three 6 ft. lengths. They were out of the 8 ft. and I wanted this project done, so it was worth it to me.  In the end this worked our really well, because we were able to bend two pieces to match perfectly that curve, and then cut the third piece to the specific size for the middle piece.  I used connectors found in the same dept. to connect the 3 pieces together.  This was all galvanized conduit. I temporarily considered leaving it as is because all the fixtures in the house have a nickel finish.  But the galvanized conduit really isn't a nickel finish, so I decided to buy a can of black spray paint to get the wrought iron look that I had wanted all along.  I was able to purchase brackets to hold the curtain rod at Home Depot as well and I even snagged the last two they had in black, hooray!  They were actually the most expensive portion of this project, at $4 a pair.  I realistically needed 3 brackets, but since we had four, we put them up for the stability.  The silver screw you see in the photo?  Yeah, I took a sharpie and colored it black.  I learned about coloring things black with a Sharpie from my kids. Enough said on that!!

The curtains I kept going back and forth on.  I wanted black curtains with a red floral print.  The kitchen is supposed to have a French Country feel to it.  In my head, I know what those curtains are supposed to look like. However, I haven't been able to find them anywhere, and not for a lack of trying.  I seriously contemplated making them (side note - through all four of my pregnancies, the minute I was pregnant I had an overwhelming desire to sew up new curtains for the entire house. It was a bizarre side effect of pregnancy, and one that I haven't had ever again since we had our fourth child).  I haven't given up on finding the curtains I see in my head, and I wouldn't hesitate to sew up a set if I found the right fabric (although my husband might start having heart palpitations at the thought since we are very done have kids!).  But I had a set of red, fully lined curtains from the office at our old house and they are very nice curtains, so I went with them.  The valance over the kitchen window is red as well, and although the two fabrics are completely different because they're the same color and not together, it isn't noticeable.

Here are some pictures of the overall kitchen: