CURTAIN DOOR TIE BACK HACK

Hello Friends!  It’s been a recovery week at The Striped House.  My home looked like a  “Post One Room Challenge Apocalyptic War Zone”.  No joke.  I can actually see my dining room table now.  I’ve returned everything that I didn’t end of using.  And I made much needed trip the store for human food, cat food, toilet paper and kitty litter – all the basics, right? 😉  I actually got out of the house with friends both Friday and Saturday night and slept for 10 hours each night.  Life is good.

I wasn’t going to jump back into any major projects this week.  I actually checked off a DIY project on my list that I’ve been wanting to tackle for a couple months.  You see, I have a thing for taking doors off in my house.  Hey, I can’t help it if the doors were put in bad places.

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For years I lived with my master bathroom door ON.  Then I realized taking it OFF would give me an extra 8 inches of space in front of my bathroom sink.  That sucker came off in 2 minutes!  My bathroom is tiny, tiny, TINY.  I needed all the room I could get.

In the mean time, I’ve had curtains up, but was never really fond of how they looked next to my bedroom curtains.  You see, my bedroom window and bathroom door literally come together at a 90 degree angle where the walls meet.

Here is the best photo I have of this awkward corner…

I thought about doing a barn door there, but then it would have to go behind my bedroom dresser and I couldn’t hang a mirror.  So that option was quickly crossed off the list.

Then I found IKEA’s RACKA corner curtain rod connector.  It’s a rubber piece that will screw on to any IKEA curtain rod and will bend so you can create “corners” in your curtains.  Both ends are threaded so you can screw rods on to both ends.  Problem solved!

I jerry rigged the rods and the rubber piece to make a giant L shape rod, and attached finials at both ends.

I used three curtain panels from Home Depot.  They are black out curtains and I give them 5 stars for blocking out sunlight when I have my 10 hour sleep-a-thons.  There are two covering my bedroom window and one panel for the bathroom doorway.

 

Next I had to figure out how to keep the curtain pulled to the side without making it a pain to pull it out and tie back each time.  I could have used any curtain tie back hook, but remember how my doorway and bedroom window literally make a 90 degree angle.  This means there isn’t any wall space to the left of my bathroom door where I could attach a tie back hook like that.  I needed one that I could install in the small wall space next to the bedroom window, but would hook out in the direction I needed.  Sheesh, tall order huh?

I found a coat hook for a wall at Home Depot that has the shape I’m looking for.  I think it wasn’t more than $8.  It’s not pretty on the end you will see the most.   I found these pretty drawer pulls at Home Goods for a couple bucks.  My luck the wall hook has places to screw something onto the end.  My idea is coming together great!

I used gold foil to make the wall hook gold.  I was actually surprised how well it matched the gold in the drawer pulls when it was dry.  I then sprayed it with a clear acrylic coat.  This is where my luck ended.

I went to screw the hook to the wall, and ended up putting about 12 holes in the wall.  Damn.  I didn’t factor in that the base needed to be a certain space from the bathroom wall so I could twist the hook on – it needs space to swing it around to tighten it.   Then I get it where I want it, but it won’t turn all the way to “point” the direction I want (away from the bathroom door).  So I reinstalled it for the third time.

 

I knew I wanted to shorten the screws on the drawer pulls since you would be able to see them from the side when all is said and done.   I YouTubed how to cut screws and I saw someone use two set of pliers to bend screws and they literally just snapped in half.  Looks easy enough.  I got mine to break, but it broke off in a way that bent the tip and messed up the threads. Damn again.  Looking around my garage, I grabbed the pliers and WD-40.   I was able to get the nuts on the screws and thread all the way down.  Phfew.

I stood back, adjust the curtains and admired my work. I’m 5’9″ without my top knot, and I clear the curtains when they are pulled back without ducking.  Success!