Continuing on from the last two posts–as part of the studio renovation, we ordered remote-control motorized blinds via Blinds.com and matching drapes. Installing the blinds proved a tad tricky; instead of paying the GC who did most of the remodel/renovation work a chunk of change for him to do the job, we managed, with the help of our huge extension ladder, to get them in place ourselves.
The more difficult task actually proved to be finding curtain rods that would support the very heavy matching drapes. I wanted the curtains for the sliding glass doors to be single panels for each door instead of separate panels. This meant that each panel was 104″ wide x 91″ high and weighed somewhere between 30 and 40 lbs. The problem was that all commercially available rods capable of supporting the load and spanning the necessary width have a central support, which simply wouldn’t do for a single panel curtain. So after a lot of research and thinking on both my and Agent Smith’s part, we decided to wait until a houseguest with welding skills came to stay with us.
Last June a friend, Agent Todd, came to visit and built us a curtain rod. He started off by making some brackets (first pic below).
We purchased some steel pipe from Home Despot to serve as rods, and some plugs for the ends (second pic).
The most difficult bit was the corner bracket. We need to do a bit of wall repair eventually, as Agent Smith and Agent Todd took out a small chunk of it when installing the rod (third pic).
The result:
And one last bit of decor arrived from Australia and was finally assembled and moved into place last September–a Smith family heirloom to be exact. It now serves to stow away our small console video game collection.
Then there was the downstairs room. We purchased shelving for inside the closet and for along the inner wall. While the closet now stows away things like luggage and Christmas decorations, the shelf in the room is the staging area for stuff I need to get rid of (except for the birdcage, as that will eventually go outside). Right now the space is a bit messy as I have a box of old furnace register covers and return vents to rehome, but in general the area works pretty well for us.
Finally, after months of work and and even longer to actually post the full tale, the studio project is done!