Shower curtain rescue

Thursday, August 7, 2014

So here's the situation: I have an extremely ugly shower stall in my master bathroom. The tile color is fine (I actually like it), but it's suffering from a distinct lack of upkeep. As in, don't get too close or the rust and dry rot may eat you alive. I have scrubbed that place to within an inch of my fingers' lives, but it just won't clean up. 40 years of neglect by an endless rotation of tenants will do that, I guess.

Shudder. Sorry to subject you to that. But take heart, I've found a sorta fix! Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick did a post on her own bathroom and she included a picture of the super cool curtain she put in front of her own less-than-awesome shower stall. Hallelujah! I can cover up all that nastiness with a nice ruffly curtain and no one (other than anyone who's read this post...) need ever know what's behind it! Woo hoo!

Lots of the bloggers I love have used canvas drop cloths to great effect for all sorts of decorating projects, so I thought I'd try my hand with one of those. I now know why so many people use drop cloths: they're awesome! After you wash it, the canvas takes on a wonderful, nubby texture, and the color is a really nice taupe. It ruffles beautifully, too. Here's the result:

When I went to Target to try to get a curtain rod I discovered they actually make stall-sized shower curtain rods. Who knew? I wanted to use drapery clip rings to hang the curtain so I could avoid punching holes into it, but the rings I bought were way too small to slide along the curtain rod. My solution?

I just took double lengths of jute twine and sewed them to the back of the curtain, then knotted the ends over the curtain rod. Pretty easy, huh? It actually looks prettier than the clip rings did! The loops of twine slide beautifully along the curtain rod, so even my husband likes it. When I first proposed this idea, he was less than pleased with the idea of the extra 1.00000078 seconds it would have taken to get into the shower in the morning after pulling the curtain aside. Lame-o. Here it is pulled back!