Very pretty stripe. I would definitely take the curtains all the way out to the wall. No middle panel.

I'm assuming you really like the border, so I'm torn about height. Wait to hem the panels until you've been able to check how high you'd like them to hang. My first instinct it to not cover up the border because of the interruption it would cause as your eyes go across.
If it were me, the border would be gone and the rod would be close to the ceiling...but that doesn't help you.

I too would ditch the border. I was a great fan of borders, but they are so out of style now and do bring the ceilings down and make a room look smaller. Love the striped fabric and would hang from ceiling and the width of that window wall. Then I would put colorful artwork on both walls, maybe one large framed piece on the left wall with sconces on the side and 3-4 pieces of an art series on the other wall where you have the 2 small pictures now. Larger than what you've got there now, possibly botanicals.

Thanks!! I'd like to ditch the border but DH might ban me from any other home makeovers if I do that...lol..this was our first project together in this house. He's a little upset I'm doing away with the red on the bottom already. To top it all off, we start a bible study in our home in 10 days and I got this bright idea to re-do this room.

I'm definitely going to do the width of the wall. I'm considering the full height, too. I will never have the drapes closed fully so you could see the border in the middle, just not the two corners. Will it be too awkward?

I know I need artwork terribly. Artwork is my biggest fear in decorating and most of my walls are bare. I never know should I go abstract, florals, scenes, specific objects. Then I get scared if I buy something for one wall do I have to do the same design/pattern for all the rest of the walls. Thus, I never buy a piece. Any suggestions on how you decide what type goes in what room or color scheme?

Your art does not need to match. I love the look of an abstract in a tradtional room, so if you find something like that go for it. You can also mix objects like mirrors, plates/platters, sconces, etc. in an arrangement.

Here is a little article from Mary Carol Garrity's blog. She likes to really pack in the goodies and most of the pics are from her stores, so remember it can be pared down to your sensibility. Check out some books from the library and you'll be sure to find a photo that says "this is it!" I like to look at her books and Christi Carter's "Art of Accessorizing" has a lot of ideas. They both tend toward traditional with an English influence but try to look beyond their particular style to how they did something.

Here is a link that might be useful: Titled

Good for keeping the border! I never liked borders when they were hot and everybody was putting at least one up somewhere, but I like yours, especially with that fabric. What I'd do if it were mine is paint the white walls, perhaps a midrange color from the border, to bring the various elements of the room together. That would also allow you to keep the red, if you cared to, which does look nice with that border. You don't say what color you're planning on painting, but whether one color or two on the walls, I think I wouldn't want all light walls, leaving that border to look rather heavy up there all alone.

Personally, I would not take the drapes to the corners, which just strikes me as too much, especially since your ceilings aren't high. I had to learn by experience that drapes are best kept fairly simple when ceilings are below about 10' minimum. Long ago now, but I literally cut off half the drapes I had just personally hand pleated (sewing was never my thing, either). A little bare wall would be just fine.

As for art, it's such a cliche, but what pleases you guys. Truly. Design allows a lot of latitude in this matter. The farther away you go in style, though, the more you might want to echo some element from the rest of the room, like green and cream in an abstract piece. If you want to be safe, frame some nice pen-and-ink drawings of anything you guys are into. Birds. Classic motorcycles. Scale and proportion are a LOT MORE important than subject, or even style. Draw yourself a picture on graph paper with pictures of various sizes on one of your walls to see what looks right to you. In the meantime, how about a nice big rectangular mirror on one of those walls, roughly echoing the shape of the currently white area in its shape?

How long ago did you put up the border and do this room? My dh is like yours and doesn't want to redo the kitchen because it's already been redone. Yeah, 15 years ago! I told him that if we bought any other house with with this kitchen, we'd gut it in a heartbeat, but because WE did this, he thinks it is still new. It's not. That did sway his thinking and he is on board with the redo, just not enthusiastically.

I'd also ditch the border, and move the rod up higher.

As suggested, ask him if he would suggest adding this border if it were not already there.... Might get him to consider it more objectively.

I am not a hater of borders, but this one is too wild looks more dated than others. The room will look more grown up without it.

Most men will always fight change and rarely understand what it means to "update" when decorating. He just has to be brought along with your thinking, especially so that it doesn't involve work he rather not do. By the time you're finished he'll swear it was all his idea.

Tell him you have found a professional painter who will remove the border and prime the walls to be ready for painting, either by him or by the painter, and won't the new colors look fabulous and fresh. Don't make his choice be whether the border is coming down; his choice is whether he will remove it or your painter will. Don't worry about a 10 day time period with a group coming into your house. Do the redecorating after the bible study. or during it for that matter. Your friends will understand and will be pleased for you that you are "updating".

Rosie--We are doing the bottom in Tuscan Tan. Thanks for the artwork suggestions.

I love the comments about the DH...Marti8a I used your technique since it has been 7 years for us. He said he knew this was coming...based on his response I guess I'll be paying someone to take it down.

Thanks Alexa for the link on the art.

Yay for your DH to listen to you. We're redoing the guest bath (the only room we've never redone in the 13 years since we built the house and the only one we've ever done with a "theme"), and my DH spent yesterday removing DD's lighthouse border. DD came over and actually had tears in her eyes. I told her she could have the lighthouse lamp and the lighthouse watercolors and the lighthouse towels and the remaining unused border and make her own room in her own home. We're moving on!! So are you!
Dee

Your room is going to look great! I really like the material you picked for drapes.

I'm glad you're taking down the border. You can do stripes and floral certainly together. But you had two problems with your mix - the colours of the border and the curtains were both strong and would have overwhelmed the room. Also your floral pattern was large as was the stripe, again you had a fight going on between the two.

The stripesd curtains are going to look good in your space -better than the border was. Your rod should be hung 1/2 way between the window frame and the ceiling and from wall to wall. Would you consider crown moldings - do you have them elsewhere in the house? They would look nice, I think.