All in a Day's Work

Saturday was a FANTASTIC day! At 10, Kate had her 4th birthday party...check out Sister's blog for pictures. It was a wonderful Princess party with a HUUUUGGGEEE bounce house - the kids loved it!

After the party, Jessica (bestie who I've posted about several times) and I began the most wonderful adventure...fabric shopping for my new curtains! We headed out to Harry Hines to check out the fabric warehouses and wholesale shops. After 2 hours of shopping through MASSES of fabrics and fringes, we were finished. Next stop, Wal-Mart for all of our "stuff" to make this all happen! Last stop...HOME!!!


PROJECT #1 - Formal Dining Room

My first priority was really my formal dining room...I have three beautiful windows, but they stretch across the entire wall, so a curtain rod has been difficult to find...not to mention I haven't really found a great fabric or color I wanted to put up there. To have "something" on the windows, I put there simple panels up about 6 months ago...so we first began by taking these down (but remember them for later). Next, we pinned up the new floor-length panels on each of the end-windows. The fabric is a sheer and light-weight dark brown (by the way, only $2 a yard!!!) Sorry the picture is a little dark, but you can somewhat see them.




For pins, we used Upholstery Tacks that I found in the Hardware department at Wal-Mart...only $.97 per package! Great advice from the Nester.




Then we took our valance fabric and folded it until we reached the desired size. The fabric I decided on is a great paisley pattern with blends of red, khaki, chocolate brown, and black in it. It beautifully pulls together the formal dining and living rooms. anyways, we folded the fabric to the size we wanted. To hold it together, we used Bonding Tape...you place it where the fold will be, iron it, and the heat bonds the fabric together...similar to double sided tape, just better. Once we were finished folding and bonding, we pinned the valance above the wall panels.





To hold back the all panels, I bought metal tie-backs at Wal-Mart for less than $10.00. We measured where these should be, then screwed them into the wall.






Then, in less than 2 hours, our mistreatment was COMPLETE, and absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

This is a close-up of the fabric so you can see the print. I just love it!!!

This Finished Product! What a difference window treatments make. Look how the treatment makes the room look much wider than the picture with the red panels.

PROJECT #2 - Master Bedroom

This room was our toughest. I choose rich, textured chocolate brown fabric (for only $4/yard). Similar to the dining room, we folded the fabric to our liking, then bonded it together with the iron tape. Instead of fringe, I found a great "woven" khaki and red stitching that I hot-glued onto the fabric to add in a few additional colors from the room.

After "stitching up" our fabric, we played with different treatment effects...we tried Nester's idea here, and we "gathered" the bottom...but nothing seemed quite right. We had such a rich fabric, that using what we had made the space look very small. So, we trimmed the fabric, then went back to Wal-Mart and got a hook rod. We folded the fabric over, and I hot-glued the fabric down and made a "loop" for the rod. Then we hung the rod, then the valance...and VOILA!

My beautiful new bedroom treatment!

PROJECT #3 - Kitchen Plant Window

The plant window is above my sink in the kitchen, and since we were out buying fabric already, I decided to pick some up for the kitchen. I found this great red and cream striped material ($3/yard)that make a great, simple mistreatment. I then of course added some fringe to add a little personality! We folded it, bonded it with iron tape, hot-glued the fringe, then pinned it up across the window.

In less than 30 minutes, I added some color and "pizazz" to my kitchen!

How cute is this?

After we finished this, we took the red treatments from the formal dining room and hung them on a tension rod in the breakfast room, which also didn't have any treatments before today. What a difference it makes in this room...

So within a 12-hour period, Jessica and I created three fabulous window mistreatments, and spruced up the breakfast room. My total out-of-pocket with 4 different fabrics, 2 curtain rods, hot glue gun, glue sticks, upholstery tacks, lots of bonding tape, fringe, and tie backs was only $100. I fell like I've had an entire home-makeover just by window treatments!

So "thank you" Nester for great inspiration and "thank you" Jessi Mae...I could NEVER have done this without you. I have GREAT friends!