All about our family room and dining room curtains+ Ikea Vivan Review

Hey there, as I’m writing this, the family is feeling a little spoiled today (and yesterday) sitting indoors all day in ac. It’s been 100 degrees here the past few days and I am aware this is nothing compared to other places in the world, but here we aren’t used to this heat. And even if I moved to where it did get hotter than this, I still wouldn’t get used to it. It’s just not in me. Well today, I wanted to share all about our Ikea Vivan curtains because I get so many questions about them and decided I should have a place to direct y’all for the next time I get a question about it!

So if you haven’t noticed in these pictures, these are actually not the curtains we’ve always had here.. Well, Alma, why would you do that when people are interested in the curtains they’ve already seen.. Totally get it. But these are actually the same exact curtains just in white, as opposed to the soft grey ones (found here and here) that I decided to try in the rooms upstairs while I give these white ones a try downstairs for a while.


Anyway so like I said, these are the exact same brand of curtains from Ikea called Vivan, but just in white. I really wanted to try white in here to brighten it up a little and I’m loving it so far. I also like to keep my curtains pretty simple and clean and add pattern and interests else where like in pillows, a fun print on the wall, a cool vignette on the table and so on. Also, I like to keep both windows (well the dining room has a sliding door) draped in the same curtains to give the room one nice clean flow. It’s really important for me to keep it simple like that because of the small space we have. It’s also easier on the eyes.


So what do I think of these curtains?? I love love love them. For one thing, you really can’t beat the price. They are $9.99 for a pack of 2 ($5 per panel) and they come in a few other colors but I love my grey curtains and now these white ones also. At that price, it was pretty affordable for me to cover the large windows. I bought 4 packs which is perfect with 4 panels per window. I could totally have covered both windows with just 2 packs but I like the fullness of 4 panels on each window. I also love the way they give you an alternate way to place the curtains on the rod. There’s the original way where you slip it in through the opening at the top but they also have this other way (refer to picture above) where it can also be hung and I love this way better because it prevents it from looking super bunched up at the top and it just looks cleaner to me. They are simple. There’s no design, no texture really. This could be a bad thing to some, but for me, that’s exactly what I was looking for. Last, I love that they are sheer enough to let light in (both the gray and white) but still giving the privacy you need at night.


The one issue I have found with these curtains is the material (for both gray and white) was really crisp and tough when I first bought it. But all I did to relieve the problem was washed them in hot water and dried it with dryer sheets 2 times. Yep I washed and dried them 2 times to really get the softness to kick in. But you may only prefer one wash to get it as soft as you’d like. That pretty much solved the problem and I was happy. Oh, but another annoyance I did have, was I noticed with the white curtains, they needed to be ironed (I already had them hanging when I realized this so I steamed them). Whereas with the gray curtains, I never needed to iron them. But I think, if you do want white I would just pull them out when they’re still a tad bit damp, and hang them like that so the wrinkles could come out easier. The wrinkles weren’t the worst ever, but it was obvious enough to wanna hit it with some heat. And for the price, I can’t complain!

So, can you tell that I love them? I’ve owned 4 sets of the gray for 4 years and still love them and now 4 sets of the white curtains, so that says enough! LOL. Anyway, hope this review was helpful. For more info on dimensions and things, you can find that here. Hope you’re having a great week!