I can't tell you how much I'm itching to make window treatments for the house we are living in now...but since there are plenty of other things I need to do first, I thought I'd post some of the window treatments I made for our house in Hawaii (the one that's been vacant since December...talk about a pain in the pocketbook!) plus some pics of the treatments I made for my neighbor right before we moved. Sorry for the lousy quality of photos, I just went through our empty house really fast and took some snapshots as a final means of remembering the rooms...
This was Eliza's room, and it was my favorite room in that house because of the vine I painted all across the top of the room. I'm in love with that color of blue, too - it's called Lively Tune by Behr, and I actually have it half strength (just ask the paint technician to put half the amount of prescribed pigment for that color formula). I painted the vine with a brush, and used a ton of q-tips to make the circle flowers (each q-tip gets all fuzzy after a few flowers because you dip it into paint, then gently rub it in circles on the wall). The little valance on her small window isn't fully functional, I just have it rolled up with a wrapping paper tube inside the roll and tied the ribbons to hold it in place.
This was Hyrum's room, with the funky wave painting wrapping his room. Here's a detail of his drapes, which I made with inexpensive 60" wide lengths of blue cotton and lined with dark blue sheets so not much light showed through. I made tab tops that were sewn in behind the panels, which creates an easy pleated look without the work involved in making real pleats. When I make my drapes for our current house I'll show you how.
Here's a detail of the bottom, which I made by adding a pieced strip of quilting weight fabrics about 5 inches from the bottom. Don't look too closely - you'll see that I hadn't finished hemming these drapes yet! They're just pinned. I'm so bad that way - I'll get 90% done with a project, then I'm off to something else instead of doing the tedious finish work. I honestly can't remember if I hemmed these before packing them away...I went around the whole house and hemmed all the drapes that I left in place for the future renters, but whether or not I did these is a blur.
Here are some more valances in our old house, and again I used the wrapping paper tubes to create the nice roll without having to use a bunch of extra fabric. Cut the tube so that it is about 2 or 3 inches in from each edge so you don't see it peeking out when you look into the roll from the side.
This curved window presented a special problem, because I didn't want a big ol' straight curtain rod hung across the top of it, thus destroying the top curve of the window. I wanted to acknowledge the curve with the line of the drapes, so the solution was to attach finials to the wall (those are bamboo finials from IKEA, originally blond, which I stained a dark brown with wood stain) and hang the drapes with pretty cord from each finial. I hung the finials by screwing a dowel (by drilling a hole into the center cross section of it, then sending a long screw through the hole and into the drywall) that was slightly smaller than the interior diameter of the finial into the wall, and sliding the finial onto the dowel and tightening the little fix screw that was part of the finial, thus holding it securely to the dowel.
The drapes were cut at a curve at the top edge to echo the curve of the window; if I hadn't done that, the lines of the drapes would not have fallen straight down but would have been all bunchy in places. I sewed a 3/4" red ribbon to each inside edge of the drapes, and as I do with all my drapes, I don't hem them until after they are installed to be sure that the length is just right. I use that fusible hemming tape, so I just set up my ironing board right in front of the drape I'm working on and do it while the drape is already hanging in place.
These valances were sewn to the top of white drapes from IKEA. After they were up I decided to add the red bias tape, but I was too lazy to take them down to sew the bias tape on, so I just used some fabric glue (the smelly, flammable, clear kind that dries super quickly...sorry I can't remember the name of it. The packers wouldn't pack it so I don't have it anymore).
So here we are at my neighbor Sharon's house, where we outfitted her entire breakfast nook with the same type of valances that I have in my kitchen. Sharon's house was originally filled with everything the same tone of tan...the walls, the floors, the blinds, the cabinets (they just bought the house from the original owners) so she really wanted to bring in some color. This tropical print really enlivens the space dramatically, and how appropriate of a pattern to have in a house in Hawaii, eh?
Below is her kitchen sink window, she emailed me this photo so hopefully I cut and pasted it correctly.... I'm such a non-techno-genius it's scary. You can't really see, but the olive green fabric is actually a woven basketweave print that is very fitting when paired with the tropical print. Originally we just put the 2 bands of off-white fabric to hold the roll up, so I suggested she take some wide red ribbon and put it over the top. Sharon ended up using some remnant fabric from the breakfast nook valances and added skinny strips over the top of the neutral bands of fabric, which I like even better! Great idea, Ms. Sharon.
This is Sharon's front room (no, she doesn't have a Christmas tree up in March...I took these photos in December!) and I don't have a "before" shot but just imagine a room with absolutely no color and that's what it looked like. They had a tan rug and the existing tan furniture, but no drapes. We found that great rug on clearance at Lowe's, which immediately added a ton of impact, and I made the dupioni silk drapes from fabric I bought from Fabric.com (back when they had $9/yard silk in colors other than tan and brown). I like to make drapes that go nearly to the ceiling, even if the windows are much shorter. It adds a ton of drama and height to a room. I helped her organize and arrange her furniture and the accessories too.
Here's a closer shot of the silk drapes...these pictures do not do them justice. I love dupioni silk - it's so shimmery and rich, but since it has the natural slubs woven into the fabric it provides visual interest and can be dressed up or down very successfully. In real life these drapes have a tremendous amount of "WOW" factor.
Here is Sharon's dining room. The espresso brown shelves used to be...you guessed it...blond finish, and the bottom part of the walls was a seafoamy green. Sharon's husband (the ultimate "HoneyDo guy", I might add) painted the bottom portion of the walls the same color I had in my house (it's a very subtle green/khaki/olive color) and we attacked her inexpensive imitation wood shelves with many, many cans of espresso spray paint. They look much more sophisticated now, and grouping them together in the middle of the wall grounds the room with a substantial focal point.
We went out and bought some new accessories to go with her existing ones, and I helped her arrange everything into little "vignettes" on the shelves.
Okay, abrupt change of subject, I know...but as I continue to unpack I found some cute little (1.5" across) Valentine heart ornaments that I made several years ago and forgot about. V Day is long over, but I thought you might like to see these for ideas for next year!
These are made of Sculpey/Femo clay, and I originally had them hanging with some other heartsy things from a little Valentine tree (I'll do an Easter Egg tree soon and show you how).
Happy belated Heart Day, everyone!
Oh how I wish you could come decorate my house! I am putting off making roman shades for my newly painted dining room. How do you accomplish anything with 3 kids!?
Posted by: Morgen | March 05, 2009 at 05:52 PM