Colours, curtains, conundrums and confuddlements

Ah, the fun begins! [}]

The painter, bless his cotton socks, is happy painting the entire ceiling of our house, and then just completing the master bedroom/ensuite/wardrobe bit for us so we can move into an almost completed area by Xmas.

I know from past experience that once you have your carpet chosen, you then need to chose your curtains, and then and only then match your colours. Because there is a far greater range of colours in paints than in curtains, esp when trying to get a pretty close match rather than a contrast, as I'm wanting to do this time.

So headed into the carpet place today, grabbed a larger sample of the carpet, and went to grab some samples of curtain material. Cripes, what a choice! And cripes, haven't the prices gone up since last I bought some!! :rolleyes:

I was quite adamant to the showroom lady that, though I loved it, anything over $50 a metre was an absolute no go (didn't tell her that even $30 a metre would be pushing it [:0]). I make my own curtains so that keeps the price down, but even still...

I'm surprised to see when looking around that there is very little selection of less expensive curtain materials as there used to be...but lots and lots of ready made ones, which seem to have filled that need...

So sitting here in the house surrounded by swatches and colour charts, meltica samples and camera, waiting for hubby to come home and no doubt knock at least half the selections out of the running within a minute of seeing them - which is fine by me, as means less choice which should be easier.

But still...glad that as we're not in town we don't need to worry about getting the whole house done at one go, just out bedroom to start with. At this rate we'll have nice curtains but be living on toast and baked beans [}]

Once you have chosen and paid for it, forget the baked beans and toast.......... keep inviting friends to "bring a plate"

Hehe there's an idea [].

Usually I'd be skittering round every possible fabric outlet, getting the best possible deal and compromising on the material I finally got to save some money...but for once in my life I want to just go in and choose what I want and not feel guilty for having something special that cost a bit more []

If it takes several years to get all the curtains up, room by room, so be it [}]

Stupid thing is, the only one making me feel guilty about such decadence is me!!!

tigger - have you a Harvey's anywhere near you? I thought they were having a big sale at the moment (but could be wrong) and there is one in Manukau. Seriously, the prices are going to come down heading towards Xmas and curtains for many with financial issues will be very low on the priority list. Maybe Spotlight as an option too. They have lovely fabrics so no need to beat yourself up. Just a thought. Only a day trip for you?

OOhh ooh Spotlight...oooohh Spotlight.......need a fix.......tell me if you go I'll keep you company....ooooh

Hey didi, Harveys was one the places I checked out, the range here not that great (and yet last time I got quite a few of my curtains from there).

MM, yes, will check out spotlight, will let you know when but you've got to hand me your credit cards before you go in [}]

Settle down MM! Tigger I loved the colours of the curtains in your last house. What colour are you going this time?

Calm....calm........ I am calmmmmmmm! Breathe in..............out.....

I loved the curtains and colours in the last house too, TKP, but they wouldn't suit this place...going more grey/brownish (I know that sounds awful, but some lovely tones) with some burgundy/reddish in there too. The carpet is charcoally grey with flecks of light grey and dark brown in it (again, sounds awful but looks fantastic).

Hubby and I are having a girlie day today checking out colours, curtains and coffees to make some decisions...

We are still living in a shell with base coated walls and i am slowley working my way through the house painting i have done the family room and my walk in wardrobe..and unlike you i have chosen my paint wiatangi quater..very nice dulux colour and the paintwork is half strenth, i never doi white ceilings, personally i dont like them..not sure why but i dont, so i do the whole lot the same and as the light is different on all the walls you would never know, it looks really nice As for surtains, hate them too so i am hoping for blinds...but right now there is no one around here so we have nothing, i have made my mind up that i wont go for second best this time, much like you Tigger, i wnat it to look really nice in the end so i am not making do or i will have them for life So it may take a few years for blinds in every room.
Enjoy the shopping, it is good fun but draining going through all the swatches etc...it took us months to decide on paint...not looking forward to the blinds at all tiles are all sorted and only carpet in the lounge and bedrooms..they are not locked down as yet! we need to fight a bit more about them....it took 6 months to decide on a spout for the bath...we still have the pipe hung out of the wall waiting for the said tap to go on.,..lol

Natural tones are where it's at, and there are some yummy ones out there! Ours was done on a budget, so we basically had one choice of carpet, and premade plain curtains, am happy with how it looks though, and the carpet is great - hides a multitude of sins.... The only thing it doesn't hide is red wine - have yet to find a carpet that I could live with that does though!

When we moved in I made just the linings & put them on lining tape, it was great we kept out the sun & the cold & the curtains were made & attached so easily as & when we were ready, some rooms were a year or so

Also was a lot easier than making huge curtains with linings & trying to lug them around the machine.

Oskatd I have light green carpet & when that B red wine gets spilt I pour on water & use about 1/2 dozen towels & keep pouring & mopping. There is not a sign of it on the carpet

I admire your resolve Tigger. I may well be stuck with calico linings forever as the thought of choosing anything else is just too daunting.

Well I must say one thing we are good at is finding stuff we like and making decisions rather than faffing around

Got 30m of a very nice textured fabric from Spotlight at $12.99 a metre (strangely enough the roll of the same stuff next to it was $14.99 a metre, guess which roll we took to the counter [}]) that will do both offices and the spare room. $300 and something for the three rooms in total.

And we even found a lovely material for the den and master bedroom that we both liked, but... it is...$60 a metre [:0] once we picked ourselves off the floor we worked out that even at that cost, the whole house will be well under $2000 because...

After much discussion and coffee, we decided not to put curtains in the living room/dining room at all. It is a hard one for me to get used to, but once we thought about it, it seemed right. We have three tall narrow windows that will look out onto a fernery that will be night lit, and big French doors and bifolds that will also look over night lit areas, so why hide them? The colour contrasts will come from cushions and art work and perhaps a rug. We have privacy in those areas, esp when the landscaping is finished, so will stop thinking like townies who need curtains at every window.

So pretty happy with that. Haven't got the expensive material yet as to painful to part with that cash at the moment, but the shop tells me that is a material exclusive to them that they don't go out of stock on, so will leave it until we need it.

Now busy playing in the big house with sample pots of paint and bits of concrete board left over from the soffits

And jumping for joy that we didn't even need to glance at net curtains, yayayayyayayyayay!!! Hate them, but necessary evil in town...

oskatd;214265 wrote: The only thing it doesn't hide is red wine - have yet to find a carpet that I could live with that does though!

When someone [}] knocked a full glass of red wine over the carpet recently I poured lots and lots of soda water onto the stain and mopped with towels as Granny Mary said. There was no sign of a stain at all next day [8D][8D]