Our coat closet under the stairs has been bothering me for years. Because the coat closet is narrow, at first glance all that can be seen are coats. Unfortunately, as soon as the coats are moved aside or my glance trails to the area under the coats, the beast is revealed. This is where I hide all the bins with Christmas decorations and the huge box with the Christmas tree. This area needs some tweaking just like my kitchen pantry that I finished a few days ago. My goal is to hide the bins more effectively and attractively.
My solution is using a flat curtain to hide the huge box and multiple bins that stretch back about 7 feet. I bought a tension rod then rummaged through my stash of fabric (which should be my next project by the way).
I was rather proud of my solution until I looked at all the other ideas on Pinterest and now my idea seems a little anticlimactic. However, my idea is simple, easy to accomplish and provides me with the desired result.
The fabric I have looks like ticking. Originally ticking was a very stiff fabric with a very tight weave, therefore when it was used for pillows and mattresses, feathers did not poke through easily. The look of ticking is popular now because it has a vintage appeal and I never get tired of it.
Since the curtain will only be appreciated by me, I cheated a little. Instead of getting out my sewing machine, I used stitch witchery to iron the seams together. (Stitch witchery is a thin mesh with glue that is activated by the heat of an iron, bonding two pieces of fabric together.) I doubled the fabric so it would have enough weight to stay in place and used the stitch witchery on three sides. The top where the fabric was folded in half was left open so the tension rod could slide through. Then all I had to do was adjust the tension rod to the correct width of the closet and put it in place behind the coats.
Of course the whole point of clear storage bins is the convenience of seeing what is inside, but in this case I am so happy the beastly storage is hidden from view.