Ten years ago I sewed these cafe curtains for our breakfast nook area. Although I liked the rust-colored fabric, it always felt heavy and dark in this space.
We lived with those curtains for many years even though they were too short. I ended up adding a complimentary fabric to the bottom so they would be the proper length. I also replaced the glass table with a larger wooden table and recovered the chairs with matching fabric.
After having these curtains for so long I was ready for a change. I wanted the breakfast nook to look brighter, lighter, and more updated. I was looking for something less traditional but still keeping within my original color scheme.
While looking at hundreds of fabrics at Joann's it was actually my five-year-old, Sophie, who picked out the fabric for our new curtains.
This fabric is heavy-duty indoor/outdoor fabric which will not fade. It was easy to work with too. For those reasons I decided not to bother lining them. I sewed four simple panels and used rings with clips to attach them to new curtain rods. The curtains rods were made from electrical conduit (really cheap and very sturdy) from Lowe's. My husband sprayed painted the rods and cheap unfinished wooden finials a gorgeous metallic bronze color. Our traditional, dark, and heavy breakfast nook was transformed into this:
The new curtains on the left and the old cafe curtains on the right
I love them! Our space seems so much brighter, lighter and more modern.
Before
After
