Listener Questions 3 - Cafe Curtains and Frosted Windows

In between full episodes we will be fielding listener questions about their renovations. So if you have a burning question send us a voice-note on Instagram at @ripitup_podcast_official or via email to ripitupearlybird@gmail.com.

Items mentioned:

• Ikea curtain fabrics
  • Hilja - Kate’s original
  • Stockholm - new and improved
• Wundaweb - iron-on hemming tape
• Net curtain wire + hooks
• Tension rods for cafe curtains
• Glass film suppliers:
  • Coatek
  • Glassfilm.eu
• Link to Kate’s cafe curtain tutorial

Follow the podcast on Instagram @ripitup_podcast_official, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to Rip It Up, the Renovations podcast. 

Kate: In between full episodes, we are gonna be fielding listener questions about their renovation. So if you've got a burning question, send us a voice note at Rip It Up Podcast official on Instagram, or send us an email at rip it Up earlyBird@gmail.com. 

Jen: Welcome back to the podcast decade.

Kate: Hi, Jen.

Jen: How's it going? We have a short one. We're into our listener questions. Uh, guys, we love you sending in your questions. Thank you so much for everyone who sent them in. Um, we'll put the links in the show note. You can email us or you can at DM us on Instagram.

Either voice note or just send us a message, whatever you prefer. All right, let's get into it.

Kate: I got one this week and it's, so, it's one I've actually gotten a lot because I think a couple of years ago I did one of those, um. Instagram videos where I just showed people how to make cafe curtains and people went nuts for it. So this is a question. Hi Kate. I love your house and I've been following for years and listens to podcasts.

I'm hoping you can offer some advice. I have an en suite to the front of my house, which opens onto a [00:01:00] balcony through a tilt and turn door. We elected not to go for frost glass, but I need window treatment. Blind and shutters don't make sense as it's a door and needs to be opened. I was thinking sheer curtains like your cafe curtains, but I was wondering, do they still offer privacy at night when the lights are.

Inside. Thanks. So like it is a great question and I get it so much because I, for one hate frosted glass. I hate the privacy glass that comes with standard on windows. So I don't know, do you wanna give your 2 cents and I'll give mine?

Jen: So, yeah, and I, I loved your cafe curtains. There's just something very, kind of very dreamy about cafe curtains, isn't there in a, in a bathroom or something. They're really nice and I've gotten this question a good few times as well, um, on news talk kind of from people who are looking for ways to brighten up a room.

Keep privacy and, you know, don't nec, you know, need to kind of move curtains or move, um, uh, leaves outta the way. So I don't mind frosted glass, but I only like a very kind of plain [00:02:00] frosting or redid frosting. Those are my two preferences. Um. And I do have frosted glass in my upstairs, uh, bathroom door 'cause there's no window in that bathroom and the light needs to come in from the hallway.

So it does a good job of doing that. Uh, but I also love your cafe curtains.

Kate: Yeah, like frosting still gets rid of some of the light that you get through probably blocks. About 20% of the lighter diffuses it so it doesn't seem as bright. Um, the other option is redid glass. Obviously there's not very many window places putting in redid glass. Um, and I did read a glass in my last bathroom, but on old sash windows, so I didn't wanna put in the read a glass because I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

And I also didn't know if I wanted it vertically or horizontally. So I went off and I bought, read a glass film from a place called EU Glass Films. There's other, I think there's another Irish site called Cortex. I haven't used them, but. That was a fantastic option and it's so realistic. The film is not just a fake kind of print, it's kind of a 3D film.

It's pricey for what you get, but it's worth it. I [00:03:00] think it's worth getting the more expensive films. If you wanna do films, super easy to install. You just need a sharp blade, kind of a spray bottle, a squeegee. So that's a great option. If you want

Jen: And you can take it off crucially if you don't like it. If you get sick of red glass, rip it right off. That's key.

Kate: a million different types.

Like now reading, fat reading, there's like antique glass, which I think is quite cool at the

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: Um, there's that slightly wobbly kind of antique glass if you're not, if you don't wanna commit to the real glass in your windows. This is a great inter interim option and no one ever asked me does it not read it glass like you would be absolutely convinced unless you went up and inspected the corners and tried to peel them away.

So that's a great option if you don't wanna go frosted or in the actual glass.

Jen: You can even do stained glass with those films if you wanted to. If you really wanted to, you could try something out.

Kate: yeah. Leaded glass and stained glass and stuff. There's options for that as well. Um, there's some hideous ones too, but there's some really cool ones actually. They've come a long way, you know, they're not, they're not as old fashioned as they used to be.

And then Cafe curtains, I love them. I did them in my bedroom last time. I did [00:04:00] them, my front. Uh, en suite front room, which is an en suite, and we had huge sash windows into an en suite. So people were like, how are you going to do privacy there? So I did just the bottom half of the sash actually, you usually don't need the top half, at least in sash windows because just the perspective for viewing.

No one can see they're looking at

Jen: Yeah. Especially if it's upstairs. Yeah.

Kate: directly overlooked opposite you at that height. People can't really see in that one. And usually, at least in my windows, the top height of sash, all people would see is your head anyway. Do you know,

Jen: And how often are you standing anyway? Like unless you're in your kitchen, most rooms in your house, you're probably sitting down or lying down most of the time. So this doesn't really need it.

Kate: So like think about perspective and what you actually need to block. And then when you're getting cafe curtains, obviously you can go to kitchen or curtain places or blind places and get them made. They're super expensive, but you could do that. Um, I've kind of made mine and they're actually super easy to make net curtain wire.

I don't even buy the poles 'cause the net curtain wire is invisible. It just hides in the seam of the cafe curtain. You can't see it. Can't see [00:05:00] the little hooks. It's just

Jen: And how do you install that? You just put two little hooks on either end.

Kate: They're literally twist in by hand. Tiny little hooks on either end. Then you feed the wire through the neck curtain. You cut it short of the window, so you kind of stretch it taut and hook them on either end.

It's so easy. You'll get like 3, 4, 5 meters of the, the stuff with all the hooks on Amazon for like pits, like couple of euros, and then to make the cafe curtain. I have found a new favorite. It used to always be Ikea JE that I used H-I-L-J-A. Um, but the more recently, the Stockholm one. Do you know that Stockholm range?

They do in ikea, the kind of

Jen: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Kate: a certain number of items. So there's a Stockholm

Jen: a little bit more tightening, a bit more texture.

Kate: It is, it's, and it's more liney looking like there's no shine on it. Like I think if you go for the cheap ones, they look cheap. They're like. Pure, brilliant white, and they're like shiny and they're like Avo, you know, AVO, you wanna kind of avoid, they look super cheap.

So I go for the gel, which is a nice matte one, uh, but it's a finer weave. And [00:06:00] then the Stockholm one in Ikea is a lovely kind of liney texture. And what I do is I use one of the seams that are already on it, or the hems cut the squares and then either do iron on hemming on the slides or whatever. If you have a sewing machine, great like, but

Jen: When you say iron on hemming, is that like the wonder web

Kate: Yeah. Wonder Web. Yeah. Yeah. Any of that iron on kind of stuff. They just stick down the edges to get a nice crisp edge on the sides. And the same for the seam on the bottom. Like if you have the sewing machine out, great, you can run a quick line of sewing on it. But if you don't need, um, if you don't need a, like a proper pocket for another, uh, wire on the bottom,

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: just do the iron on hemming all the way to the edge.

But I've done tot on the bottom and tot on the top in some windows, which is. Handy for a window. You need to open and close. So this

Jen: To on the bottom, you have the wire in the bottom.

Kate: Yeah. The same net curtain wire goes on the top and on the bottom. And the reason I'm saying that is this lady specifically asked, the door needs to open, so the blind needs to kind of be fixed to [00:07:00] the door.

Obviously you could have the end loose just flowing, but it's a bit annoying. Then if you're closing the door and it's getting caught. So you can do the neck curtain wire just on the top, or you can do a top and bottom. Um, and when you have a top and bottom, you can kind of gather the fabric as much or as little as you want, you know, depending on the level of privacy you want and the amount of light you wanna keep coming through.

So I think that's a great option. It's actually so easy to do, like it sounds like, oh my God, I can't make curtains, but it's not making curtains using a bit of Wonder web, and all you need is a snips to snip the wire short and all the other little hooks twist in by hand. You don't even need tools for it really.

So that would be

Jen: you probably could even just use a, a really small tension rod if you wanted to,

Kate: You could,

Jen: like, if even screwing in the hooks was a bit much you and you weren't sure, like of the positioning or something.

Kate: you can, yeah. You can actually get, um, tension rod specifically for this, for cafe curtains. I just think. They tend to add a little bit of bulk, sometimes depe,

Jen: Yeah. They're

Kate: open space, you won't notice it. But for this person who wanted it fixed on the door [00:08:00] itself, I think something like neck curtain wire is probably, um, the tidiest option.

So a great example where I did this in my current house, my bath in the en suite is in, in an oral window, like, or in a kind of a bay window,

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Kate: bay window. And it's surrounded by sash windows and people are like, how are you gonna have a bath there? You know? Because I said I didn't want frosted glass, so only the bottom sashes.

I've done fixed cafe curtains, you know, with just the neck curtain wire. And it gives such a lovely soft, I use that IKEA curtain as well that I mentioned. The Stockholm wood, it gives such a lovely diffused light,

Jen: Yeah.

Kate: I have the top half, completely clear. I can see the kind of trees up high or whatever, but no one can see in those windows.

And it's just, I think it's the perfect balance.

Jen: Yeah,

Kate: there's all these options for vertical blinds and plantation shutters, but like, I think a lot of these, you know,

Jen: they really block a lot of light.

Kate: they block a lot of light. Yeah, they do. And I think a lot of the time when you're putting in a door, you're putting in a window, it's probably to keep the light in [00:09:00] that space.

So for me, they're not for me unless you have an abundance of light and huge windows in your house.

Jen: Yeah, I think that, yeah, I think they're beautiful. I, I love that. Um, there's not that many opportunities to like, bring fabric into your bathroom for good reason, right? 'cause bathrooms are not really fabric friendly, but. Especially with a bath, like the addition of just that lovely little bit of like light, sheer, floaty fabric just adds so much warmth, a little bit of movement.

It diffuses the light into such a pretty way all for it.

Kate: Yeah, the little, um, how to and how to make them is up on my page as well if anyone wants to go look at it. Um,

Jen: that into the donuts

Kate: yeah, but they would be my 2 cents. That's what I've done. Read a glass films, um, and nice soft cafe curtains.

Jen: and they're both super simple things to do yourself.

Kate: Yep. Absolutely.

Jen: Go for it. Do it this weekend. Alright, thank you for your questions. You can send more to us at uh, by email at rip It Up earlyBird@gmail.com or [00:10:00] dm us on Instagram. It's rip It Up podcast underscore official Instagram. We'll put the links and show notes

Kate: Or both our pages. Yeah,

Jen: or both the pages and we'll see you next week.

Kate: Bye.

Jen: Bye.