Living Room Drapes Hung!!!

I am in LOVE!!!!!

I am so excited to finally have my living room drapes hung up! These are what really make the room since I designed everything around these and you couldn't really tell where I was going without these.

I have to give a disclaimer..... My camera does not take good pictures when there is sunlight in a room, it creates this weird glow so of course these pictures don't do it justice! But it gives you an idea... I will post better pictures if I can get them as I progress in this room.

Here they are!

You can't tell real great that there is red in them... love the red!

We live on a corner lot and get a ton of sunlight in this room so it really is hard to get a good picture when the sun is shining in here pretty much all day.

This is a terrible picture I know (window on each side) but I wan't to show the pillow that I made on the chair with the drapes.

These drapes were purchased at Target and were about $22 a piece. The thing that makes these look so great and more high end is the fact that I didn't sheer them onto the rod, I purchased rod rings for them. I have said it before and I will say it again, rod rings add length as well as a more high end look as opposed to sheered on their.

My husband picked out the rod hardware all by himself and I think he did a fabulous job! Once again, notice the rod is a thicker rod which is more substantial looking and makes it look more expensive and higher end.

My funny little $10 ksl chair is starting to make more sense in the space isn't it? I just want to get the wood stained to a darker color and I will be happy with it.

I still have to get some stuff on the walls, pillows on the chair and sofa and some tables or build an ottoman or something..... I am still trying to figure out the best way to layout this room since the furniture isn't centered with each other.

But.... I am loving going into this room now with those drapes up and I LOVE how they completely warmed up the space and made it very inviting!

Tip Of The Week - Drapery Placement

This is a tip that I honestly thought was common sense and after looking at some pictures online this week, I am discovering that it isn't, so I thought I would share.

I wish I had other pictures to show you but I am lacking in the drapery panels in my house at the moment (haven't gotten that far in most of my rooms).

Tip #1 - Drapery Panels should ALWAYS come to the floor!

This is a picture of when I had just made these window treatments in my old house. I am actually doing what we call "puddling" here (where the drapes puddle onto the floor). I guess I didn't realize that people didn't know this, but you should never hang your drapes to high to where they don't at least skim the top of the floor.

Unless you are planning on a flood parading into your home anytime soon, please follow this rule. It is definitely something that can completely ruin a beautiful drape.

Tip #2 - Always hang your drapery panel at least 12"-18" past your window.

The drapery panels in this window are completely functional, they are intended to screen the window and keep the light out.

What you don't see in this picture, is that when these are open, NONE of the drapery is blocking the window (sliding door) so that light can come in entirely.

Here is a perfect picture to show this. The right side of this drapery panel just touches the edge of the window.

People want the most sunlight in their home during the day, and if you hang your drapes in front of the window, you completely lose the light as well as the beautiful picture of a window.

This rule also goes for valances. Hang your valances higher to where they don't come down and cover the window. The only exception to this is if you are hanging it inside of the window frame. If you are doing that, you just need to be careful, each situation is different there.

Like I said before, I wish I had better pictures to show you but I don't want to take people's pictures that I have seen online and post them here of what not to do.... just wouldn' t be kosher.

Making Of - Brooklyn's Balloon Shade

I have been asked how I made Brooklyn's balloon shade in her nursery, so I hope I can explain it well enough for everyone to understand. This is such a simple window treatment to make and I think it is such a cute alternative to the standard nursery valance that usually comes with the crib bedding sets.

I did not have my blog started when I made this so I don't have step-by-step pictures.

*The first thing that you need to do is measure your window. My window was pretty much a perfect square window I believe at 47". Since my fabric was only 45" wide, I had to purchase more fabric and lay it lengthwise to fit. I cut 2 separate pieces, one that is on the top above the ribbons, and the main full piece. I wanted it to hang about 2" over on the sides and the bottom to make sure that is blocked out sunlight, so I measured an extra 2" on each side plus an additional 1 1/2" - 2" for the hem on the back. The top piece needs to be an additional 4" for the rod pocket on the very top. The fabric I used was a flannel type fabric, I wanted something that didn't wrinkle terribly when tied it up.

*I wanted my shade lined for black out purposes for naps so I measured the liner 1/2"-1" shorter on each side so that the hem wasn't to bulky when folded back and sewn.

*I bought 2 spools of 12' ribbon and just used one roll for each side.

SEWING

*Take the large bottom piece and lay the liner on the back side of the fabric.

*Take the ribbon off of the spool and fold in half, mark with a pin. Do this to both spools of ribbon.

*On your main fabric, measure in about 12"-14" from the sides and pin the ribbon on the top of fabric at the center point where you pinned earlier.

*Place the smaller fabric (that is the top section) on top of the main fabric and ribbon. (Half of your ribbon should be hanging out the back side.

*Sew straight across.

* Hem the 2 sides and the bottom, folding over about a half an inch and then folding over again so give it a cleaner look. Sew

*After the sides and bottom are sewn, fold the top down a half an inch and then approximately 3"-4" and sew straight across, this will create the pocket for the rod to go through.

*I bought a cheap $5 rod at Walmart, this is just a real skinny one. I knew it would be covered by the cornice box.

This is such a simple project, it probably sounds more difficult than it really is. I hope I explained it alright. In the future when I make treatments, I will either take pictures of the steps, or I will make a video of what I do.

Window Treatments

Sorry, it has taken me longer to post this than I was expecting. I sometimes toy around with posting things because I am afraid of offending someone. Please know that I NEVER want to offend anyone, so if you have in your house what I say not to do, please don't be upset with me or offended. If you love what is in your home, that really is all that matters.

I have posted a bunch of pictures to show you different window treatments and I will discuss certain things about each one. I can't really say that there are set rules with window treatments, but through the years I have seen what works and looks good and what doesn't. *Sorry if you don't like red, red is my favorite color so I use it alot.

DRAPES AND CURTAINS

These are the most basic and popular kind of window treatment and they happen to be my favorite. I think that a nice, quality panel can do so much for a room. There are so many different type of panels also, you have Tab Top (more casual), Rod Pocket (standard), Grommet (more modern), and my favorite Curtain Rings (more formal). In my home, I pretty much only use the curtain rings. I use them because they do tend to be a bit more formal, I think they hang much prettier, and they add length to the panel.

This first picture is of my bedroom. Like I have mentioned before, I am still in the process of getting my room together, but I just got these hung just a few days ago. I purchased these at JC Penney a few years ago for my last house for approximately $30 a panel. I want you to notice 2 things in this picture: 1-Notice how thick the curtain rod is and 2-Notice that it is touching the floor. Far to often, people hang their drapes to high and don't have them touching the floor. This is something that can draw negative attention that you wouldn't want in a room. Also, a thicker curtian rod tends to give a higher quality look and will make your entire window treatment look way more expensive. I will never use a skinny rod in my home ever again. I used one in my last bedroom and it looked so cheap and ruined the whole treatment I thought.

These next 2 pictures are of my family/dining area. Again, I have a thicker rod and they come onto the ground. I actually made these window treatments myself and I will tell you why. I would normally tell a client to find window treatments first and then pick a paint color off of them, but I did it backwards. I painted my burnt red walls in the room first and when it came to finding drapes that matched that color, there was none! I had to find some fabric and have it custom ordered in for me. I did end up spending around $250 for the 4 panels and cornice box but I have been VERY pleased with them and I think they were worth the money. A window treatment really is something that can ruin the whole look of a room. If you can, spend a little more money on draperies, it really is amazing how they can make your room look really expensive or really cheap.
These are completely lined on the inside. We don't like vertical blinds, so we opted for these panels to block the sun out with. Make sure that if they do get direct sunlight, that they are lined curtains so they don't fade.
This next picture is of my mom's bedroom. She asked me to create a window treatment for her bedroom and it had to work with her shutters. We went and bought like 20 something yards of fabric and I ruffled this to what it is. There was no sewing at all, actually, you would probably laugh if you saw how I put it together but it created the look we were going for.

Here are the panels we have up to the cabin. These are held up by the Rod Pocket Top and are a very heavy panel. This shows another way that you can display a panel, with a tie back or hook.

VALANCES AND CORNICE BOXES

I have been asked the question "What is a window treatment I can use in the kitchen that won't get gross above the sink." My answer is a valance or cornice box. I am personally not a huge fan of the valances that you buy at the store, so I have created my own for various locations.

This valance is one that I created to go on the inside of the window. It has such great molding that we didn't want to obstruct it. This is actually just some trim sewn onto some fabric and the fabric is wrapped around a 1"x2" board and screwed into the top. It was so simple to do and it didn't cost a son of money.

This is a cornice box that is made of wood, wrapped in batting and then finished off with the fabric and trim. These are also really quite simple to make. As you will see, I have made a lot of them (even others that I don't have pictures of) and they look great in a kitchen, children's room or over a roman shade.
This one is made the same, I just sewed the fabric how I wanted to wrap it and had my husband cut out the pattern in the wood.
Here is an alternative to a normal valance and it turned out darling. This is a balloon shade with ties. The thing that I love about this, it is fully functional. I can untie the ribbons and it blocks out the sun so that my daughter can sleep better during her naps. This was also really quite simple to make and really quite cost effective.
Here is the cornice box I have made to go on top of the balloon shade, but I haven't been able to get my husband to help me hang it yet.

There are other options out there that you can do in any room, these are just options that I had to show you. This really is one area that is worth spending a bit more money on. I can't emphasize enough how much this can make or break your room. One of the first things I notice when I walk into a room is the window treatments and whether or not they are a cheaper cotton type drape that doesn't hang very well and is completely see through or on a really flimsy rod or if it was done well and it makes the whole room look put together. If I can tell you to spend a bit more money somewhere in the room, it would be here on the window treatments.

If anyone wants to know how things are made, let me know, it is hard to explain on here without pictures.