It's Curtains For Us

Since I've finally recovered from Chad's disaster of a birthday, I'm moving on to talk about more important things--like our new living room curtains. This blog topic is one on which I'm really hoping to get some input, because neither Chad nor I really have much skill in the area of interior decorating.

This month we decided to make a few home improvements in our living room, and we found some curtains at Target that we totally loved. We brought just one panel home at first, just to make sure that we liked them as much once they were up. We loved the color and stripes, but the panels themselves were so much wider than the previous curtains, one panel covered the entire window with fabric to spare. Once we put two panels up, there was so much fabric we could hardly open the curtains to let any light in at all. We widened the brackets and the curtain rod so we could let a little more light in, but now the curtains hang several inches beyond the actual window, which kind of makes it look like we're trying to make the window appear bigger than it is. We can't decide if there is really "too much" curtain, or if we're just not used to the way they look, or if we just have no idea what stylish windows look like. Maybe it's all of the above.

So here are a few pictures so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Two panels

One (Pre-Cut) Panel

The New Curtains vs. The Old Curtains

Maybe part of why it doesn't look right is that I so don't care for the white windows next to the wood trim. When we replaced our rotted out wood windows a couple of years ago, we didn't want to go to the expense of replacing all of the woodwork in the house to match, thinking that we'd eventually get used to the contrast. I'm afraid I'll never get used to it, so maybe trim replacement is in the cards a few years down the road!

So anyway, our thought is, to make these curtains work, maybe we could cut them in half lengthwise and sew the cut edge finished. The two half-panels would still completely cover the windows, and it would allow a lot more light into the room because the curtains could open farther and wouldn't be so bunched together. The question is, would this look too weird, like there was "too little" curtain? I really just don't know!!

I'm really hoping for some input here, people. While I always love comments, this time I actually need them! Would you a) leave them as pictured, or b) halve them. Please give me your two cents! I would totally appreciate it!