Category Archives: window treatment

Customized Curtains

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This week is Design Week in Portland and I love that my job allows me to see some of the serious talent this city has to offer.  Today, I dropped by Show PDX 2012 and was blown away by amazing custom furniture.  Some pieces were all about clean lines and beautiful function… others were true sculpture.  I took a ton of photos and will share more details later this week.

Instead, I already had on deck to tell you about one of my own customized projects.  In July when we upgraded Tessa’s drapery panels, I decided to give Evan’s a boost as well. Both kids have west facing rooms and although they have amazing views, they get a lot of sun making them the warmest rooms in the house.

The Project:

I had picked up Evan’s panels at Target when we re-decorated his room several years ago. The fabric was the perfect look for the space, but the panels themselves had a few issues:

  • They were too narrow for the window.
  • They were also a little too long.  At one point his bed was in front of the window and now the cabinet is in front of it.  The fabric hanging to the floor continually gets bunched up and looked messy.
  • The panels needed to be lined to help reduce the amount of heat and light the room gets in the summer.
  • I really wanted to raise the height of the current rod.  We had originally hung it just above the window and I wanted to take it all the way to the ceiling.

Determining Size – Width:

Since we were knee deep in other projects, I decided to make this as easy as possible on myself.  I knew I wanted to extend the curtain width by adding a border of red fabric (that I already owned) to the outside of each panel.  I then let the width of the blackout fabric determine how wide the border would be.

The original curtain panel was 43 inches across and the blackout fabric was 54 inches.  I cut my border fabric 12 inches wide giving me an 11 inch border with half inch seams.

I attached the new red border to the stripe curtain panel.

Determining Size – Length:

I then needed to decide how long the panels should be.  Currently, Evan’s cabinet is in front of the window so I figured that the length should come down below the window sill, but skim the cabinet… 63″.  This also accounts for the added inches we needed to raise the curtain rod.

Putting it All Together:

Once the blackout fabric and newly widened curtain was cut to size, it was just a matter of spreading everything out, front sides together, then pinning and sewing.  I stitched the sides and bottom together, leaving the top open to turn the panel right side out and to do some finishing work. Seriously… it was like creating a giant pillow.

Finishing Details:

I also created an additional tab for the top of the new red border so that the new section would hang nicely from the rod.  The existing tabs were 2.25 inches wide and 3.5 inches long.  I then cut a piece of the red fabric 4.5 inches wide and 7 inches long.  This allowed me to fold and stitch a long strip that I could then fold in half creating a loop.

The tab was ready to attach.

Finally, I added the tab along the top making sure that it was spaced the same distance apart as all the others.  And then I stitched the entire top closed.

The hardest part of working on a project like this is the scale.  You are working with A LOT of fabric and the blackout can make the whole project HEAVY.  I inevitably stabbed myself multiple times with the pins which made me want to yell and throw things.

But the results were worth it.  Evan’s room was much cooler this summer and I like that the window treatments go all the way to the ceiling and no longer bunch up at the cabinet.

Have you customized any furniture or home decor lately? Have you seen any new local art in your city?  What’s the most memorable piece of furniture you’ve ever seen? Looking forward to sharing my favorite with you Friday.

Drapery Goodness

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Confession time.

I can’t believe I’m going to tell you this… and this is coming from the girl that shared how we got hit with lice earlier this summer.  It’s just so trashy… I can’t even believe it.

So… this is what the window treatment looked like in my daughters room for the last THREE YEARS!

Fancy, right?  It’s so bad, I couldn’t even bear to show this photo in my planning post for the room.

The window didn’t always look like this.  Once I made pretty drapery panels that hung on a decorative rod.

And then I got this grand idea that I was going to turn the panels into a roman shade. They needed to be lined because the room gets so much sun this time of year.  A roman shade would be a lovely solution.

I got everything measured and lined, but then I got stuck.  Maybe it was procrastination. Maybe it was fear.  I’ve never done a roman shade.  What if I screwed it up?  Because whatever I messed up would be SO much worse than this, right?

Fear is stupid and irrational like that.

Did I mention it was hanging up there with thumb tacks?  THUMB TACKS!!  Anything I would’ve done would’ve been a serious upgrade from thumb tacks.

Good grief!

Needless to say, with the planning of this room, I was personally excited to be getting rid of my own unfinished business.

For the new window treatment, I was really interested in pulling in more gray.  I thought a graphic print could be fun too.  I had seen these options at West Elm and Ballard Designs, but they were out of my price range.

The kids and I decided to check out Ikea to see what we could find.  As a side note… Ikea has the best, most affordable drapery options.  (Why am I only now discovering this?!) And coincidentally, we ended up being there on our stores anniversary day sale, scoring us bigger discounts.  I was able to buy hardware and four panels for about $70.

I originally picked up Sanela velvet panels in gray that are gorgeous! But once they were hung, they were too dark for the room.  Of course, I didn’t take any photos of them and I can’t find them online.  You’ll just have to trust me… they are rich and dramatic and I highly recommend them.

So back we went.  On a Saturday.  My husband is a saint.  We bought these beautiful Anita panels in white.  The light color works so much better in the space.

Tessa’s favorite is having them pulled back with the Renate sheers that she picked out hanging down.

She also added these sweet decorative rod caps.

I love the gather at the top.  It has such a pretty and feminine look.

The new panels are a huge improvement… which I know isn’t saying much.  But I’m so happy to have the window finished the way it’s suppose to.  And the white and purple look so elegant together.

Through this process, I am struck again by how much having this blog keeps me accountable and focused in getting things done.  So… thank you.  Because of you, our home is becoming a better place and I am having to face those projects that are LONG overdue.

So let’s hear it…  Are you as trashy as I am?  Do you have a project in your home that you are completely embarrassed that you haven’t taken care of?  What’s holding you back from finishing that “to-do”?

Oh… and in case you were concerned that I might abandon my trashy ways… no worries.  Remember my decorating helpers?

They decided to add their own personal touch to the new window.

New ventilation.  They’re such givers.  Now we have a window on the third floor that needs to be re-screened.  Hopefully this project won’t take three years.