Wall of curtains

Our bungalow bedroom doesn't have much wall space to accommodate a queen size bed so we were left with having to place it in front of the windows. This isn't really my first choice, but it is the only space where we could fit two nights stands and allow both of us to get in from our own side. I'm too old to have to crawl over him to get to my side of the bed! So in front of the windows it will be.
The windows take up most of the dormer wall but with the headboard blocking the windows I thought extending the curtains all the way to the corners and having a "wall of fabric" was the best solution. I didn't want to have separate curtains for each window because I thought it would look too busy. We have an open wrought iron headboard so we already have a lot of lines happening. I decided to treat the two windows as one window and have two curtain panels total.
I bought a plum colored raw silk at Daisy Kingdom before they closed and had been sitting on it for years before I finally undertook sewing my own curtains. Actually I started this project right away, but My seam between the silk and the lining wasn't straight and I had to rip it out which made me discouraged and I put it away for awhile. Fast forward 5 years...
The first thing I needed to do was get a curtain rod long enough to fit end to end. Since my lamps are brushed nickel I decided to go with Rejuvenation brushed nickel window hardware with mushroom finials. They provide nice detail without taking up too much space. The other big reason to choose Rejuvenation was because you can order the rods in custom lengths so there is no overlap and the curtains won't get caught up on the transition between the two sized rods. That drives me batty! I 'm so short and I hate having to fight with curtains. Since the bed would be in the way too I felt it was well worth the extra money.
Due to the length of the wall I would need 3 brackets to mount the curtain rod. However the top casing goes right up to the low dormer ceiling so I didn't have the option to mount it above. I could have mounted the brackets on the top casing but didn't want the center bracket to be off center. To remedy this we cut 1x8 flat stock to fill in the whole wall like one continuous top casing. Here is the after we installed the curtain rods. (I still need to caulk it so you can't see the seams.)Sewing the curtains was much easier than I thought it would be! I don't know why I waited so long!! All I had to sew was straight lines so it was a real confidence booster. I read about a designer lining her curtains with flannel because it helps them drape nicely as well as provides some insulating factor. Considering we have single pane windows and one sash is cracked I felt this would be a good idea. When I bought the fabric five years ago I also bought a cute ribbon trim which I planned to use on the center edge of each panel. Each panel is double wide to provide a luxurious wall of fabric when closed and the stack back is nice and full too.I wanted to do pinch pleats and my mom had recommended I by this self pleating tape. In theory it works great, but I made the mistake of scrunching it up before I hung them which I think was the wrong idea. Some of the strings stuck a bit, but if nothing else it creates a nice gathered effect at the top which works well enough for our bedroom.
Here they are hung in the room.And here they are open, we still get all the light from the windows because the stack back is completely to the side of the window. Only having two panels makes it look simple and not too fussy.