Enlarging a Window With Zero Construction

Nope, you didn't read that title wrong. All it takes to make a window larger - or at least appear larger - is some strategic curtain hanging. Seriously!

During our make-it-work move-in days, I bought two curtain rods (without measuring the window, per usual) and two curtains from Ikea, threw one of each up in the bedrooms, and washed my hands of the whole situation.

Where we left off in our makeover story most recently - Low single curtain to no curtain and a re-paint.

Bleached out, but you can see: Low hung, single curtain.

Now as the two rooms are getting both mini - and maxi - makeovers, it was time to make things right. I really wanted blackout curtains for the baby room so naps would be easier, and found a great option on Amazon for a decent price. True, I could have made them for cheaper, but there's been just a little bit on my plate this summer, and wrangling feet upon feet of fabric through a temperamental sewing machine didn't exactly sound appealing.

So! Ordered and hung they were. But with the tiny curtain rod, we were missing out on half the window.

Improved, but not perfect.

One hardware store later and a little presto-change-o, and boom: Enlarged window. The curtains being hung higher allows the room to look taller by drawing the eye up, and pushing them out to the edges of the window allows all the lovely light to come in full-force.

New rod in an oil rubbed bronze finish instead of silver.

 As promised, a zero construction window enlargement! Have a few panes that need it in your own home and just can't picture it? This drawing floating around Pinterest might make it clearer than my over-lit photography skills:

Very happy with my before and after, and definitely plan to do the same mini-makeover in other rooms. What an easy enhancement!