An Alternative to Cabinet Doors

If you think this post is about the lack of cabinet doors in our kitchen, you would be partially right. Remember how we made the decision to 'bare all' when it came to our upper cabinets? Well, if you are good little blogstalkers, you may also remember that I told you about the special treatment that the under-the-sink-cabinet would be getting.  Just in case your memory is lacking, I had decided that I wanted to put up curtains.

Can you see the radiator in the above picture? Well, because of his presence, there was an ugly cabinet door that covered that side of the cabinet. It looked something like the picture below, except it was only on the one side and the slatted area was smaller and in the center of the door.

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It was a serious eyesore and something that would just collect dust and get really gross overtime. So, I decided that some pretty cabinet curtains were in order. For awhile, when people would walk into our kitchen, they would see the nice wall color, the pretty floors, and then they would look to their right and see this.

Cleaning products anyone? Not very attractive to say the least. Yet, I knew that it was something that  I could easily remedy. That is why I set out to make some curtains.  I knew that I had some leftover fabric that would work perfectly! I had planned to make curtains for the windows in our apartment but I never got around to it. I knew the patterned fabric and the colors in our kitchen would compliment each other nicely.

As fate would have it, I had made one panel before I nixed the curtians in the dining room. The gray fabric was darker than the gray on the walls, but I thought it would be a nice accent.

I also really liked that the green in the floral print and how it complimented the green color of our dining room walls. And since the dining room and kitchen are open to each other, I thought that the fabric would bring it all together nicely.

The curtain panel that I had already made measured about nine feet long, due to the really big windows in our apartment. I also knew that I needed to have at least two, maybe three, curtains for the cabinet. I wanted one to hang on both sides and possibly have one in the middle for filler. (Since this curtain panel was already a specific width, I knew that I might have an issue covering the openings and may need a little filler.)

Now that the fabric aspect was taken careof, I needed to figure out how to hang the darn thing. Thankfully, when we purchased the house, the previous owners left all of their curtains and hardware. So, I hunted around the house and found a rod and two hangers that would work perfectly. Only problem was, the hangers were still attached to the window. So, I just unscrewed the nails and pulled them off. Now I  need to sand down the area and repaint it. Add that to the list of 234236 little things that need to be done around here.

After devising a plan, I got to work. I took the panel that I had and measured the area of patterned fabric. I then divided that number in half and cut it. I was left with a scrap for the new panel I needed to make and then an extra long panel that was already put together. I then measured the opening of the cabinet, taking into consideration where my curtain hardware would be placed, and cut off the gray area. My curtain ended up measuring 32". Here is a picture if all of that mumble-jumble is a bit confusing. 

After that, it was a bit of hemming on one side, creating a curtain hole on the other side, and then creating a new panel with the two fabric scraps. With my two panels created, I decided to try them on for size. 

I got out my hardware and installed it. Ha! If only it were that easy in real life.Picture me contorted in all sorts of weird positions trying to screw in the hardware. It made for a fantastic ab workout though. I want to see you install hardware on the inside of a cabinet where you can barely see. Anyways, the hardware was put up and then I threaded the curtains onto the rod and put her up as well. I was left with this:

Well, a less blurry version of this :) Sorry...Anywho, notice how it is puckering out at the bottom? I wasn't a fan. Basically the curtains were a bit too long. So while they were hanging there, I measured and realized that they needed to be another inch and a half shorter. Back to the sewing machine they went and I threw in another quick hem. At this point, I also decided to add in a bit of the extra fabric just to see what it would look like. The possible third panel. 

The shorter curtains were worlds better, but I wasn't sure about the extra panel. It just seemed to be a 'dead' zone in the midst of the other two. I liked the fact that it made the other two panels have some movement to them, but I wasn't satisfied. 

Off came the filler panel and on went the two panels on their own. I was really happy until I noticed that they weren't covering the outer edges as well. A couple small nails later and they were looking a lot better. I'm really happy with the final result and I think they look a heck of a lot better then the open cabinets or the old cabinet doors.

So, once again, here is the before.

And the seriously better after. 

Ahh...so much better. :)