Home Improvement

As the night's stay lighter longer, we knew Gilbert's room would be in need of some 'blackout' shades or drapes to keep his room dark during sleeping hours. We have horizontal blinds in his window now, but light could still creep through during the daytime naps and the fluorescent hue of the street lamps at night could cast rays of light in as well.

Sunday was project day and it was my responsibility to hang some drapes, curtains, or whatever you want to call them. Looking to do something economical, but cool Kristen picked up some denim blinds from Target and she decided to go with an industrial look for the hardware. So, we bought a ten foot length of conduit that I cut down with a hacksaw and hung the drapery on it. The new drapery rod hung from industrial fasteners and we used pipe connectors on the end to mock a finial. All in all it looks good.

But like every home project, it was not without its challenge. We hung the drapery from below a sofit, but I knew from painting the duct work was not directly behind the drywall. Oops. Of the three hangers the duct work had dropped not allowing for enough depth to use drywall anchors. Long story short, I solved the problem with machine screws. Quick on my feet, yes, I know. Thank you. However, I had to drill another set of holes, so of course I need to patch and paint. Damn!

In the end the drapes look good. To me. The resident designer wants to make improvements, so chances are some color will be added.

The real effect is Gilbert's room is substantially darker during the day. Hopefully leading to longer naps in the day and a fitful full night's worth of sleep (for him and us!). He oversaw the home project from the comfy confines of his exersaucer and like union help was resting most (see top photo) of the project.