The Chemist and I recently purchased our first home in a nice little neighborhood in the city of St. Paul. We are now just two blocks of a lake and regional park in a 1.5 story house built in 1950, but fully renovated in 2003-2007. We are only the third owners of the home in its 60 years, as the owners we purchased it from, in turn, purchased from the family that built the home (more on that later).Like many homes in our neighborhood, there is a half-story upstairs that originally was nothing but attic space. The previous owners finished the space, and added about 800 square feet in the process, including a master bed and bath, a sitting room and a walk-in cedar closet (love!).
As such, the walls only reach a height of about 4 feet before giving way to the sloped roof. I like this feature in the bedroom as a whole, as it makes things feel cozy in an otherwise large room. But it becomes a pain when dealing with one surprising feature of the home: the shower.
Yes, our master bathroom has a tub and shower with a sloped wall/ceiling. Not a huge problem, as there is a full stall-size space with a normal, non-sloped ceiling height, but the issue is how in the world I am supposed to hang a shower curtain.
Enter Ikea, Target, Jo-Ann fabrics and a little someone called Pythagoras.
I did some online searching before we moved in, trying to find a solution to this problem. The best I could find was the suggestion of using suction cups to hang a plastic curtain, and manually moving them to get in and out. For someone who fancies herself (right or wrong) as a bit "Martha Stewart, MD" this wouldn't fly. Then I remembered some curtain wiring I had purchased---but never used---from Ikea a few years ago for an ill-fated decoration project in my studio apartment.
And I came up with what you see above. Both more functional and more fully-fashioned than the suction cup idea, I'm pretty proud of the end result.
So, here's how it's made:
What you need:
-Standard full-size fabric shower curtain and plastic shower curtain liner
-Shower curtain rings of your choice (full rings---not hooks---work better in this case, though)
-Dignitet curtain wire from Ikea (one full wiring set, one or more corner pieces)
-Fast-set, water-resistant epoxy
-Masking or duct tape
-Steel tape measure
-Large eyelets with anvil (found---for cheap---at Jo-Ann fabrics)
-Small (approx 5 mm) eyelets
-Thread to match curtain
-Ever-so-rudimentary sewing abilities and supplies (it's not scary, I promise)
Here's how it's done:
1) Measure the tallest and shortest heights of the walls of the shower, as well as the overall width. Measure the length of the sloped portion of the ceiling. If there is an un-sloped portion (or a portion that is taller than the shower curtain and will not require an angled section, as mine above), measure the width of that as well.
2) Spread out the shower curtains flat on the floor, and apply those measurements and mark with pins.
3) Take the time to use the pythagorean theorem (yea!) to make sure your measurements are the same. Our roof is a convenient 45-degree angle, so there weren't many surprises.
4) Cut away the unused portion of the fabric shower curtain, leaving 1" seam allowance (nothing fancy, just make sure you have enough extra fabric to turn under later.
5) Cut the plastic liner similarly, but don't worry about seam allowance (duh).
6) Fold the extra 1" of fabric under, and sew to hide the unfinished edges. Again, no need to be picky, shower curtains are meant to bunch up a little, so it won't be noticeable.
7) Again, bust out the pythagorean theorem to determine the spacing of the holes for your rings on the fabric curtain, so things look about evenly spaced compared to the un-sloped portion. For example, the curtain rings were 6" apart in the un-sloped portion, and since we have a 45-degree roof angle, each ring on the diagonal was 8.5" apart.
8) Follow the instructions of your eyelet kit, and mark the areas to place the eyelets and cut small holes in the fabric. Push the longer half of each eyelet through the holes.
9) Insert eyelets in all holes according the instructions. Use a good, solid hammer or mallet and when they say to use the anvil on the concrete, they aren't kidding. I tried doing this on a different flooring surface, and it didn't work. As soon as I moved to the concrete basement, that's when the magic happened. So to speak.
10) Time to install the wiring anchors. Plan out where you want your anchors to go, making sure they are aligned at the same depth relative to the front of the shower. I only placed one corner piece to hold up the wire along the slope of the roof, but I plan to install two more, just to keep the wiring taut.
11) If you're brave enough to drill into tiles to install the wiring pieces, go for it. I, on the other hand, was afraid the tiles would crack, so I used epoxy instead. It's important to use the right type, so I double-checked with our local hardware store that it would work for this purpose. Even though I used fast-setting epoxy, I still used duct tape to hold the pieces in place while they set.
12) Give the epoxy a full 24 hours to cure before installing the wiring. Install the wiring per the package instructions, except before tightening down the sloped portion, slide on enough small eyelets to accompany the number of ring holes you made.
13) After the wiring has been tightened down, slide one eyelet up the wire to where the first curtain ring will go (the same distance where you made the first hole). Use a pair of pliers to clamp the eyelet firmly onto the wire, leaving most of the eyelet up to create a ridge for to keep the shower curtain ring from sliding down. Repeat with all small eyelets.
14) Hang your fabric shower curtain, and punch holes with the shower curtain rings to hang the liner as well.
15) Marvel in your ability to use an anvil. And a sewing machine. And math.
Really, it's not that hard. Really. And the end product is much nicer than any suction cup-based idea.
Regarding style, I went with a simple cream-colored waffle textured curtain from Target. It is a nice, clean feel for the bathroom, but just to mix things up, my next project will be to make some "swappable accents" of color (as coined by The Chemist). Stay tuned for that.
Signed,
Majin, MD
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