Curtains can make the room

About 4 years ago my boyfriend bought a cottage in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. Besides being close to some great ski areas, one of the bonuses of the house for him was the fact that it was fully furnished. The woman who owned the house was leaving everything... beds, furniture, linens, and housewares. It was "move-in" ready basically.

But when I set foot in the cottage for the first time I saw it as a blank slate. In the past few years I have gotten rid of almost all of her tacky floral 70's style bedspreads and curtains and replaced them with various cottage themed linens. They were tough to find but I searched every store until I found things I liked.

But there was one room I hadn't touched and that was the upstairs bathroom. There were red gingham curtains (picture a tablecloth) and a tomato bath mat. That bath mat haunted me. I needed some inspiration and found it in some fabric scraps given to me. I decided to use the scraps and make curtains. It's a great way to use some pieces of fabric that aren't quite big enough to use for anything but you can't give them up. I just bought some cheap fabric for lining... and here's the results.

And here's another room I made curtains for. I think the curtains bring it all together.