Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

When Josh and I were younger and moving from here to there and back again and living in all kinds of places that were never really our own, I put up with a lot of ugly! A LOT of UGLY! But it never seemed worthwhile or financially smart to bother trying to improve the surroundings much because we knew they were temporary. The one thing that annoyed me the most though, were those long vertical hanging ridiculous excuses for window treatments. With small children especially those things are the worst because the kids pull them down and since they are plastic that means they’re broken and won’t go back up so then you have all these irreversible gaps in your ugly window treatment. They also never seem to pull smoothly or lay correctly and they catch on things and did I mention that they’re ugly? So anyway, imagine my dismay after the initial euphoria of homeownership had settled when I realized that my new house is FULL of those stupid vertical hanging window treatments! Well, we have lived here for two and a half years now and I have finally had ENOUGH! But now the problem seems to be finding something else that will work in the space and match the decor. The main problem is that most of the places that I’m wanting to replace the darn things are in doorways–the sliding doors out to the deck from the kitchen (which the kids use several times each day to get to and from school) and the french style doors in the downstairs that remain locked at almost all times but should still be somewhat accessible just in case. So I need something that can cover large areas and be easily moved out of the way, and they have to match the rooms–and that, I am finding is NOT such an easy task. I’ve been looking in all kinds of stores for weeks now ranging from places like Goodwill and fabric stores to Penney’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall’s etc. I’ve even tried looking for things like shower curtains and bedsheets that I might be able to make work, but no luck. The only place left that I can think of that might even sell curtains or something that I haven’t checked already is Kohl’s and I don’t know why but I just don’t really like going there. Of course I could just get any random thing to cover the windows, but the whole point is that I’m trying to make it less ugly and more “MY” home. (And when I say “MY” I do in fact mean “OUR” because of course I want the rest of the family to like it also and Josh has been looking and brainstorming with me as well.) So…anyone have any good tips or suggestions for me?