A few months after I added a screened-in porch onto the back of my home, I wanted to soften the hard edges of the porch. I decided the way to do that would be by adding curtains to the windows. Since there were a lot of windows, I needed to find a frugal way to do it. On a whim I decided to try sheers and I found them for just $5 a panel at a big discount store.
They have worked out beautifully in this space. After six years hanging here on the porch, they surprisingly still look great. They never show any mold or mildew, even after our monsoon rains this past summer. I’m guessing it’s because they are made of nylon or some type of synthetic material.
About once every year or two, I toss them in the washer with a teeny bit of bleach. I’m amazed at how well they have held up. When it rains they dry very quickly, which may be another reason they never show mold or mildew.
In addition to adding a lot of movement to the porch as they billow in and out in the breezes, they can make life “interesting” when I’m trying to photograph a table setting.
I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the pictures I didn’t use in my tablescape post on Wednesday.
So here are the pics that didn’t make it into that post .
Fun to see and experience, but not so great for photography! Ha!
I hope your weekend is a breeze! 🙂
Hahaha….I just got a great visual of the turkey….Salome’s dance of the seven veils.
lol Love it!
I love the pictures with the curtains dancing in the breeze!
Thanks, Rinny!
Wonderful, as usual. I’ve been loving your porch for months and months. I often wonder where you store all the tablescapes for every holiday and every season. 😀
Thanks, Rosemary! It looks like I have more dishes than I do because I mix and match and reuse all the time. I store everything in cabinets in my kitchen, laundry room, a hutch on the porch and a china hutch in my dining room. I also turned a closet that was wasted space into a small dish closet. I posted about it here:
https://betweennapsontheporch.net/a-few-changes-to-my-china-closet-welcome-to-the-35th-metamorphosis-monday/
Love the closet, great idea. We can always use extra storage. Guess you’ve had to answer that question once or twice.
Yup! 🙂
Love the photos of the billowing sheers! Hope you had a chance to enjoy this beautiful day!
Thanks, Jane! I did…played all day for a change. 🙂
You made me smile. Yesterday while trying to photograph a dessert I was making the sunlight kept coming and going. It felt like someone was trying to play tricks on me. Needless to say my battery needed recharging by the time I was finished. No one warned me about this. 🙂
I know exactly what you mean, Madonna…definitely have experienced that! 🙂
I have always been entranced by those sheers … happy weekend, Susan!
I see some shots in there I would have used.! 😀 I think they are pretty .
Hope you are enjoying the weekend.
Thanks, Glenda! I definitely thought about it. 🙂
That was a fabulous price for such pretty sheers! And here i thought i was so clever using shower curtain liners at six bucks each lol.
Doreen, it was good ole Wally World to the rescue. 🙂
Lovely porch. The sheers look so beautiful blowing around you turkey decor. This is my favorite table- very elegant and yet cute with your white turkeys. Really like how you mixed the plates. It makes it interesting for each course. Have a great weekend. I am working on getting the Christmas decor out. Need to get motivatived.
Peggy, I’m busting to my wreaths on the front of the house but I was worried, “what would the neighbors think?” That worry was banished when I got home this evening and noticed a neighbor a few doors down has Christmas lights on all their shrubs. Katie, bar the door! Here I come with the wreaths! 🙂
Love that you showed us all that everything is not always so perfect. Everything you do seems so perfect, so glad that we know now you experience Mother Nature problems to when trying to get that perfect shot! I thought it was just me! Thanks for the reality check.
Your the greatest!
Thanks, Carol…definitely not always perfect! lol That I can surely attest to!
Hi, Susan,
This post really made me laugh because as a brand new tablescaper and even newer “photographer” (I use that word very, very loosely), I have had to reshoot a whole table again and again because I didn’t realize the dog food bin was right in the line of a shot or in one I had a whole load of unfolded laundry on the family room couch!! This hobby is really one where you live and learn every aspect!! It would be fun to have a site where bloggers send in “the tables that DIDN’T get posted!” Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Rosie
Rosie, recently I set a table and when I finished, I kept thinking, “This table sure seems kind of flat…doesn’t have any depth.” After taking a few pictures I realized it was missing the glasses. lol That might explain that lack of depth problem! 🙂 Check out these two posts, I think they will give you a laugh.
https://betweennapsontheporch.net/between-naps-on-the-porch-bloopers-2009/
https://betweennapsontheporch.net/blogging-bloopers-party-2010/
Oh, Susan, thank you sooo much for the laughs. I especially loved the post about the “six-legged visitors”!! And I KNOW my living room had that carpeting in 1974!!! Rosie
🙂
Haha, awww. Your tablescapes always look so perfect, and I have wondered how long it takes you to create and photograph them … it is funny to see that things don’t always go smoothly. 😛
But look at that weather! Gorgeous. Things suddenly got dreary here. I can live with the cold a lot easier when there’s sunny weather to go with it. Oh well … make lemonade, right? When it’s rainy and dreary, it’s time to bundle up and get cozy … hot cocoa, a good book, a rom-com movie and all is sunny again. 🙂
Sounds like the perfect afternoon/evening to me!
That makes me feel so much better about all my photo bombers. (cat and dog) I love the sheers and the photos.
Now, that was funny……I like it when you keep it real!!!!
Haha I just love your photos Susan- I always believed you took the perfect photos of the perfect porch – now I know you are just like us!!!
Suzy
Your sheers are one of my favorite things on the porch-of course I have many favorite things on that porch. Have been in the bed all week with a shocking cold so am hoping I can get some things done today. My Thanksgiving tablescape was started November 1 and is STILL not finished yet!!! Will send pics whenever I get it sorted out!!!
Sandi, sorry you’ve been sick. I think I have a cold right now…must be something going around. Yuck! Feel better!
Thanks Susan-can’t remember one making me feel so bad. I haven’t had one in a couple of years so maybe I have forgotten!!
Mornin’ Susan,
Great behind the scenes pics… I always love to see out takes. I also love the sheers on your porch.
BEWARE the next time you wash them as the Bleach People have decided to “improve” their product
by making it concentrated. What was a teeny amount is now much more POTENT. I ‘m on the lookout for
the original. It is not to be found even in Wally World up here!
On a better note , Best Wishes for a lovely Thanksgiving…
SheilaC
Sheer Joy!
Ha 🙂 Mr. Turkey is stoically standing through this with *sheer* energy!! 🙂
Susan, since the topic of this post was tablescapes, I came back to ask you, do you know of any really Thanksgiving-y Thanksgiving dinner dishes? I had found some online a month or so ago that had words on them, like, Blessings, or something along those lines. I can not find them again! Even when I look at amazon, I most get paper plates. *rolling eyes* Meh .. just thought I’d ask. You seem to know about this stuff. 😀 Thanks. +
I can’t think of any right now. Check Pottery Barn online because they sometimes have that type of thing. Also, if you have a local Cracker Barrel, they get in some really cute dishware around holiday time. I don’t know what they have this year but you may want to check there to see. Dollar Tree sometimes has cute glasses that have “family” expressions on them, but not sure if they have any right now.
Thanks. It’s surprisingly difficult to find nice Thanksgiving themed dinnerware. Christmas is a cinch, but Thanksgiving is more of a challenge. I’ll keep plugging away. 🙂
Our TJ Maxx in Columbus, Ga. had some of the Johnson Brothers Thanksgiving plates a while back. Sometimes the y have the Churchill pattern too-both have turkeys.
Thank you so much for the info on the sheers … I will begin scouring those discount stores immediately! Only $5? Love that! Another thing you did that really softened the look on your porch are the horizontal wooden “scallops” at the tops of each framed panel. I intend to add those to my screened porch, as well, to conceal Cooleroo shades. The roll-up shades will be hidden between the “scallops” and the screening. Just what I needed to make them disappear when not in use!!
Thanks for the inspiration, Susan!! : )
Thanks, Carolyn! I found the sheers in mu local Wal-mart. It’s been around 6 years but hopefully they still carry those since they are such a popular item for a lot of homes. I love your idea with the shades!
I’m amazed at your turkey tur evens. I love the clean white and the hint of grey…where did you get those? I hope to dress up my table Thursday with something similar. No luck at PB
Thanks, Nadine! I found the tureens in Old Time Pottery about3-4 years ago.