Pergola Styling: Curtains

Back in November we went to Ikea and bought a long black curtain rod and two sets of gauzy white curtains for the pergola. I couldn't wait for spring to put them up. I thought they would look beautiful blowing the breeze and provide just the right amount of shade/light diffusion in the mornings when the roof doesn't quite provide shade yet.

Well it was finally spring, so I decided to put them up. Installing the curtain rod was as easy as installing one in the house and only took a couple of minutes with the drill. Then I put the mosquito netting curtains up with visions of tropical breezes…

… and well, it looks like a wedding dress. Or a giant bridal veil. Either way, our pergola isn’t getting married. I thought the white would be clean and fresh with a hint of the tropics. Instead all I see is wedding, wedding, wedding.

I sat for a while on the patio trying to weigh my options and decided it was the color that was the most problematic. So I ordered some RIT dye off of amazon in teal to see if I could come up with something that would look similar to the chairs or the umbrella. I figured the curtains were so inexpensive and will probably only last a season (maybe 2 if we’re lucky?), so what do we have to lose?

I'll share my adventures in dyeing when my teal dye shows up...