Curtain Call: How to personalize your windows on a budget

If you have large windows or a wall of windows, you know how expensive a large curtain rod can be.  In my case, I needed a 16-foot long rod.  A curtain rod that long runs at least $200.  I knew I didn't want to spend that amount on something as basic and utilitarian as a curtain rod, so I decided to make my own.

Instead of spending $200, I bought some metal pipe from Home Depot for around $2.00 and curtain rod brackets for a few dollars. 

The ends looked a bit bare, so I picked up wood finials and spray painted them silver.

I hot glued these on to the ends of the pipe.

I love the look of custom drapery, but it can be expensive.  The height of my windows would have required yards and yards of fabric.  Super-long premade curtains are also pricey.

I bought some white panels from Target and sewed navy fabric to the bottoms to get the length I needed.  I also found greek key trim on Etsy that I used fabric glue to attach to the both sides of the panels.  I think the trim was the most expensive part of the project.

Trim is the easiest and fastest way to give your store-bought curtains a custom look.  Anyone can do this project.  Here are a few other trimmed curtains that caught my eye.

Anthropologie currently has these pompom fringe curtains:

Source: anthropologie.com via Jodie on Pinterest

But, how easy would it be to make your own? 

Source: leafandletterhandmade.blogspot.com via Eleanor on Pinterest

I think these are darling for a nursery.  You could sew (or glue!) a fun fabric onto your panel and then add pompoms.

Source: littlenannygoat.blogspot.com via Kath on Pinterest

Pompoms aren't your thing? There's always greek key and many other ribbon-types of trim.

Source: livinglivelier.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Source: decordemon.com via Carine on Pinterest

Source: asoftplace.net via Heidi on Pinterest

Prefer a fun fabric?

Source: nameisgrace.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

These are by Cathy at Room Rx.

A solid band of fabric can add quite a punch too.

Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

As you can see, the options are endless!

Please feel free to pin any of the pictures taken by me to Pinterest.  However, if you would like to pin one of the other pics, please go directly to the source and pin from their blog/website.

Linked here:

Striped Curtain Tutorial

I am obsessed with all things striped.  Look in my closet and you'll find stripes.  Stripes in the hallway?  I've got those too.  Lately I've been loving the look of striped curtains.

I've got a little round-up of striped curtains that other bloggers have made using different techniques, then I'll show you the striped curtains that I whipped up. 

The Nesting Place was one of the first places that I noticed horizontally striped curtains and started thinking about putting them in my home.  She used striped fabric to sew panels.

Perfectly Imperfect painted her curtains with chalk paint.  These look so beachy to me.

Source: perfectlyimperfectblog.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Camilla at Effortless Style used spray fabric paint on white panels to get this look.

Source: blog.effortless-style.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

Sarah at the Yellow Cape Cod used a different technique.  She already had white panels and used fusible fabric webbing to attach strips of black fabric to her panels.  Then she attached grosgrain ribbon along the edges.  The ribbon gives such an elegant, finished look.

Source: theyellowcapecod.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

These curtains at A Thoughtful Place were made by sewing strips of different colored fabric together.

Source: athoughtfulplaceblog.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

I have no idea how these were made, but I love them too much not to include them here.

Source: reasonstobreathe.tumblr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

I am not the best seamstress and the thought of having to sew perfectly straight lines was too frightening for me.  I knew I wanted to start with premade white curtains and the easiest way to make stripes was to paint them on.  I painted stripes in the hallway and it was surprisingly easy.  So, I decided to use the same technique for painting the curtains.

I purchased some inexpensive white panels from Target.  I think they were around $20 for a pack of two panels.

Next, I taped off my stripes in seven inch intervals.

I used regular old acrylic craft paint to paint the stripes.  However, I added a fabric medium to the paint.  The fabric medium makes it so that the paint will not wash off when I wash the curtains.  Since these curtains are going in a child's room, it's essential that the curtains are washable.

I started by using a foam roller to roll the paint on.  The paint did not want to spread evenly across the fabric and it was taking forever to get the fabric covered in paint.  After two stripes, I switched from the foam roller to an old paintbrush.  The paint went on much better with the paintbrush.  Be sure to put some cardboard under the fabric as the paint bled through.

The fabric seemed to take the paint differently.  Some areas did not absorb the paint very well.  I think you need to goop lots of paint on the fabric to get good coverage.  As you can see, I still need to do a second coat on some of the stripes.

The stripes are a bit stiff and crunchy, but I think they will soften over time, especially after being washed.

As you can see, there are lots of ways to make striped curtains.  I'm happy with the paint method, but check out the other links if you want to try something different.

Suzy's House Party #21 - Link Up!

Christmas is just a little over a week away!  Are you ready? I think I've got almost everything done that needs to be done.  I love this time of year and can't wait for the big day arrive.

This week has been a slow week of blogging and projects for me.  Christmas projects are done and now I'm busy going to kids' parties, caroling, present wrapping, baking, and the like.

Here are the features from last week's party.

One of my favorite things about this time of year are all of the Christmas cards we receive.  Mine end up shoved in a card holder, but I wish I had a creative way to display them so that we could actually enjoy the pictures.  Living in the Woods came up with a great way to display cards.

Shelley at Crazy Wonderful created a wreath inspired by one of my favorite Martha Stewart wreaths.  The rest of her Christmas decor is pretty awesome too.  The first wreath is Shelley's and the second is Martha's.

First-time linker Cathy from Room Rx has been redoing her office and created these great curtains out of dropcloths and leftover zebra fabric for her office.  I love the graphic pop of the zebra.

<div align="center"><a href="http://savedbysuzy.blogspot.com" title="Saved by Suzy"><img src="http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd408/lizzygal18/Savedbysuzypartyblogbuttonchevron-1.png" alt="Saved by Suzy" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

•Link up your home decor project. Pretty much anything to do with you house is fine.

•Please provide a link back to my blog. A text link is fine, or feel free to grab my "Saved by Suzy" party button from the sidebar. The more people that know about the party and participate the better for all of us.

•Be sure to share the love and leave comments for others.

•That's it.

C's Curtains

Here's a little sneak peak of C's curtains along with the pelmet I posted about yesterday.  I can't give you a better view because they are not quite complete, but I wanted to get them up anyways to see how they would look.

Here's the fabric I used from my favorite fabric source, Fabric.com:

Source: fabric.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

C's Window

C's room makeover is limping along.  She has the most gigantic window in her room.  Not only is the window huge, it has a huge transom window above it.  It's great that her room is so nice and bright, but it's not so great when I would like her to sleep a little later in the morning and she is getting woken up with the sun.

Here's her room before any making-over began.  Just keeping it real for you, with the mess and all:

Here's a less scary pic:



My solution was to cover the giant transom window with a pelmet, a.k.a. cornice or valance.  I was inspired by this window from Hi Sugarplum:

Source: hisugarplum.blogspot.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

It looks so pretty and fancy....until you look at the back.

Basically all it is is foam board and duct tape. Simple, right?!?!?  Hi Sugarplum provides a great tutorial on how to make the pelmet, but I'll give you a few highlights.

Start with your foam board.  I got mine at Michael's for about $2.70/piece, but I just saw them at the dollar store for only $1.  I had to use 4 pieces and duct taped them all together.  To cut the board, just use a knife, score the board and then break it.



Here it is all laid out on my kitchen floor. This gives you an idea of what a beast this thing is:

Next, duct tape batting and fabric all over the thing.  Staples don't really work in the foam board, so duct tape is the best bet.  For fabric, I took some Pottery Barn curtains that K has had in her room FOREVER and just cut them up to fit.  I didn't want to spend a lot on fabric, because I was kind of dubious about how this project would turn out; and, because of its size, if it would even hang on the wall.

Here she is getting ready to be hung:

You can see a seam over on the right side where the fabric wasn't long enough and I had to add an extra piece.  To hide the seams, I just used fabric glue to glue on some white grosgrain ribbon.

Here it is covering the transom window.  It is so hard to take a picture of a window with the light streaming in!  Sorry for the dark photo.

Come back tomorrow and I promise you better pictures!  You will also be able to see the curtains that I made.  I know you're excited!