Curtain Issue Solved?

Many of you know that I've been keeping my eyes open for affordable curtains for....well, for a while. 

The blanket I have at one, while not horrible, is still...a blanket. And since last year I've had two panels of fabric I bought at Ikea hung half-hazardly (not hemmed or anything) at the other.

My ideal curtains are these Linen ones from Potter Barn:

But they are out of my budget...

 at Pottery Barn

Or something beautiful and custom as seen in Aubrey & Lindsay's home:

sooooo perfect....

But I refuse to do custom curtains in my rental....
So I've been looking for more affordable solutions.

Enter Ikea.

I've really been considering the Aina...
But  I can't remember why I've been hesitant about them.

I blogged this amazing small apartment here

This weekend my sister gave me her Vivan curtains from Ikea. She was going to use them to hide her laundry area but for whatever reason decided against. So I scored 2 panels. 

They are SUPER sheer though. More so than I was expecting them to be.

But since privacy is not a huge issue I think they'll be nice for the summer.

They feel summery and easy breasy.

(I'll take a picture this week)

But, just this past weekend through a series of click I discovered some wonderful new decor blogs.

And on one I came across an ingenius idea that is new to me.

Drop cloths as curtains!

Yup, drop cloths that you use to avoid making a mess while painting - as curtains!

Have you heard of this before or am I the last person to come across this DIY?

Seen on Apartment Therapy

This blogger further customized it by sewing black sheets
(yes regular black sheets!) to the bottom as an accent:

As seen over on Beneath My Heart
(if you consider doing this project the blogger gives good info on drop cloths -
not all are created equal! lol)

(Do a google search and you'll find many more examples...)
I like that they have that structured yet casual feel that I want and they come in multiple lengths.
They also (so I've read) have a feel and texture similar to linen. Nice.

Best part? They are totally affordable.

All the examples I've seen have left the drop cloth as is - but I'm wondering if I can dye it....

That would be PERFECT!
(actually now I'm thinking maybe I can dye the Vivan curtains....)

At any rate, one more thing added to my project list for this Summer.

Updated to add:
Okay, so I wrote the above on Sunday night while at my Mom's house.
I'm now back at my apartment and have had a chance to really look at the curtains my sister gave me hung next to my old 'ikea' fabric panels.

You'll have to forgive me. The picture isn't the best...
Because of the light coming in it's hard to capture accurately:

new curtains on left - ikea fabric panel on right


I actually really like them!
And I love the way they gently move when the breeze goes by...so lovely.
So I decided to hang 'em
(I'll be buying two more for the other window just to the right of the gallery wall)

(ugh. do you see the horrible wall colour I've been talking about? not so bad in some lighting but particularly yucky in this photo)


My only thought now...can I dye them?
(FYI - I moved the fabric panels to my bedroom. I really like them there. They finish of the window, which only had blackout roller blinds, and provide more sun blocking quality. Win-win!)

Perhaps the drop cloth curtains will be for Fall - when I want something a bit heavier.