Lucite Curtain Rods..& A Question.

Raise your hand if you noticed my curtains were ready for a flood when I showed off our Christmas home tour.  Come on...admit it.  I know plenty of you were asking yourself what the heck I must have been doing when I hemmed my curtains.  But for the few of you who are kindly pretending like you didn't see them floating a good 8 inches off the floor in some photos, here's a lovely reminder.

And to answer the question in your head...no, I didn't do this intentionally.  In fact, if you remember when I showed off my DIY striped curtains last year, they were the perfect length that just slightly pooled onto our dark hardwoods.

Did I shrink them?  Nope.  I finally found the perfect curtain rods for our home, so our curtains can be hung where they should have been from day one...high and wide!!

When we first moved in, I wasn't sure what kind of curtain rod I wanted to get for our living/dining room area since the window width to cover was so long. To keep the price, work and wall damage minimal, I found inexpensive rods from Amazon and used these Kwik Hang rod supports as a placeholder. They went up quickly, and added a much needed softness to the space.

Two things bothered me about the set up.  The curtains were hung low {a major decorating no-no} and the rod and middle support were not pleasing to my eye...especially since we never use curtain to cover the windows.  I lived with things as they were for almost two years while I brainstormed what I wanted.  One day, it finally hit me and I was no longer afraid to drill something permanently into our delicate plaster walls...eeeeek!

It was lucite rods for the win!!  I thought they'd be beautiful in our home.  And I was hoping I'd be able to save a bit of money since I didn't need a rod that would span the entire width of windows...two smaller rods hung wide at the ends of the windows would work just fine, and get rid of some of the visual clutter.

I hopped onto the Internet and searched my little heart out.

As I predicted, lucite {or acrylic} rods can be quite expensive...especially when they are sold as curtain rods.  So instead of looking for home decor suppliers, I turned my efforts to finding plastic manufacturers who could make rods that I could cut-to-size myself.  The prices for the rods themselves were reasonable, but the shipping costs were out of control.  Thankfully, I came across a manufacturer who is semi-local {about a 30 minute drive}, who would make the rods, cut them to size, and allow me to pick them up.  I couldn't get my exact measurements and place my order fast enough!

Once that was completed, I was on the hunt to find the perfect curtain drapery rings and mounting hardware to go with the rods.  It didn't take long for me to come across just what I wanted on Ebay.  Sold!!!

After hubby picked up our rods and the hardware arrived, it was time to turn my vision into a reality.  Admittedly, I put this off for many weeks.  Drilling into plaster, making sure the rods are level, blah, blah...it's just not my jam.  I'd rather do many things besides installing curtain rods, but hubby and I got our bedroom done in one night and our great room done another.  I'm SO happy we bit the bullet and got them up!

So basically, {if you are still reading this...gold star for you!}, this was my very long-winded way to tell you about my awesome lucite curtain rods and now-too-short-curtains. :)

Do you like?!  I loooooove.  I could definitely use more lucite in my life in 2014.

Speaking of which....can you believe the new year is almost here?!  I can't!!  December passed in the blink of an eye, and now I'm scrambling to get the blog prepped for the new year.  Is there anything you guys would like to see/hear more of?  Or less of?  Let me know!  I'd love to get some input from you guys. :)

Happy Last Monday of the Year!!!