april's craft nest: bedroom curtains, oh yeah and lamps!

I finished our bedroom curtains several months ago (May?), but have forgotten to take any photos. These are not the best, but they will do. Since hubster works at night most of the time we needed blackout curtains but I could not find long enough ones that went from floor to ceiling without having them custom made (btw, 1000's of dollars!). I found the circle print blackout curtains at Walmart of all places (I had to go to 2 stores to get enough) and then I bought some matching (or at least complementary fabric) at an awesome place that sells fabric in a where house-type store. Because I bought so much I even got a discount. I think it ended up being about $3 a yard!!!

It was a lot of work (although straight lines) to iron and sew all these, but it was worth it. I doubled the fabric to make it thick enough to hang properly.

try to ignore the paint job. we are not expert painters and i hardly notice it anymore!

I made the curtain rods from conduit. I've had this idea for a long time, but needed to find the right lengths. I finally figured out the math and the nice man at Home Depot cut them for me (although they said they do not usually do that). I bought the curtain rod "holder-upper things" and my husband helped hang them. Soooooo glad this project is done! It took over 2 and a half years to complete it!

Our house decorating has really taken a back seat to other things- basically, life. Mostly the fact that the husband and I have very different design aesthetics. It takes a LONG time for us to agree on furniture or decor purchases. He's traditional and I am modern, mixed with handmade and thrift store finds. He got to chose our bed frame and his bedside table (here) about a year ago (I chose the mattress here) and I chose my own bedside table, even though it is completely different. We chose our armoire and dresser a few years after we got married and we are both pretty happy with those.

Anyhow, we did not have matching bedside lamps. In fact my husband never has had a lamp since we got married! I can't live without mine since I read in bed. I've been using a milk glass lamp I received as a gift for the past 5 or so years. I still love it, but needed an update and I wanted matching ones to make up for the fact that we have different nightstands. I was browsing through Target the other day and found these awesome lamps and shades WITH a bulb attached!!! Each piece was only:

That means for $15 dollars I got two lamps, two shades and 2 energy star bulbs!!! AMAZING!!! And I got to sneak some modern in there! That's a lot of words for what I am trying to get across! AWESOME DEAL and were getting closer to completing the bedroom decor! Not quite there yet, but getting there!