This weekend I decided to implement an idea I had about how to make Maggie's alcove a more separate area upstairs. I thought if we just hung a curtain across the space, then we could make it dark for her even if we had a light on elsewhere up there. Maybe it might muffle sounds a little too. Great. Sounds like a cinch. So I went to a chain bedroom/bathroom decor store and got myself a tension shower rod and a curtain that had big grommets to fit around it. I even splurged and got a $3 hook to mount halfway up the wall to anchor the curtain when it's open. Maggie's happy reading a book on the floor. Should be done in five minutes tops.
Four hours later it looks like this.
Ugly.
What went wrong? Well, basically everything. My measurements were wrong. Instead of being 72 in across, it's more like 82. So the tension rod that goes up to 72 inches is a dud. I briefly toyed with the idea of padding each side with 5 inches of something nonslippery, but dismissed that as unsafe. I also decided against trying to get the flat ends of the shower rod to push against the slanted walls farther up (where it would be even less than 72 in). This seemed difficult as well as unsafe, not to mention there would then be areas on either side of the rod/curtain that would be open to light/noise.
The curtain I picked out (it was on sale!) is also too long and about half as wide. I didn't pay attention to which measurement was which dimension. I read 84 by 54 and thought "perfect!" Other way around. Not perfect. So why not just flip the sucker on its side? Ah, those convenient grommets that would have made for such easy installation. Can't have them on the side with nothing on the top to attach to the (now) hypothetical rod.
My solution in the end was to go down to the basement and raid the box of unused closet organizer hardware that the landlord left behind. If I put two skinny little rods together (which at some point I serendipitously discovered fit one inside the other -- no twisty ties needed after all) it would span the opening just below the slanty part of one wall and just into the slanty part of the other (nothing is symmetrical upstairs). This is of course 3 gaping holes in the drywall later. Turns out I should have placed the rod a bit further into the alcove because as it is now there's a good section of uncovered space between the alcove wall and the curtain. And the curtain hits the middle of the bucket of blankets and toys instead of between them and the crib.
Now all I have to do to fix this is move the rod back about a foot. And maybe replace the rod with one that doesn't sag tremendously in the middle and is way too thin for the huge grommets of the curtain. And buy another segment of the curtain and hem them both to be the right length. Maybe another curtain altogether with another rod that matches it.
The best thing I can say about what I've done is that when the whole thing comes crashing down, it's not over Maggie's crib to smother her to death. Way to go, me.
