A Tale of Two Curtains

I live 15 minutes from IKEA.  (Have you seen their new commercial, by the way?!  It's hilarious.  Yeah, the one where the wife/mother tears into the front yard with her flatbed truck full of IKEA boxes.)  It's a blessing and a curse.  Steve gets scared whenever I mention I'm headed there.  On one of my recent trips, though, it WAS a blessing.  I found 2 'damaged' MATILDA curtains in the "AS IS" section for $1 each.  The only 'damage' was a few of the curtain rod loops had come unstitched.  Luckily, I paid attention in home ec.  So, that's at least 6 yards of white fabric for $2!!!!  I ran with them to the checkouts. 

Back home I had 2 black leather storage ottomans hidden in my son's closet.  I totally loved the idea of them - we store board games in them - but they were pretty dark for my taste and our decor.  Enter, stage left, the new 'damaged' curtains.  I was sure I could make simple slipcovers for the ottomans... even though I had never attempted to slipcover anything before.

So, a few months later (yeah, this past weekend) I finally got around to making those slipcovers.  First, I threw the fabric in the wash to preshrink it.  I wanted the slipcovers to be totally removable and washable because, remember, I have two little boys!  From the clean, shrunken, newly-ironed curtains I simply cut out 10 identical 20"x20" squares of fabric.  Two squares for each top of the ottomans and eight for each vertical side. 

Then I simply stitched them all together and hemmed 'em up.  Here are the fresh white ottomans after $2 and 2 hours of ironing, measuring, cutting and sewing.  (Yes, that's HGTV Property Virgins host, Sandra Rinomato.  Now ya know what I like to watch while I sew.)

I placed them on either side of the TV console to try to soften and lighten it up a little.  Plus, I think they mimic the square artwork.

To the left of the TV...

To the right of the TV...

Some textural close-ups...

They aren't perfect but I'm in love with how they turned out.  More slipcovers may be in my future!  For more IKEA-related decor and projects, check out IKEA FANS.