Custom Window Treatments......from the store?????

Window treatments are a lot like shoes – they can make or break a room.  Sometimes all that is needed to turn a room around are nice window treatments.  Believe it or not, there are still great window treatments available for purchase that can be made fabulous with a little bit of additional creativity. 

I always start with a panel that has a lining on the back.  This will keep your room insulated while simultaneously creating a uniform look from the outside of your home.  Please try to keep the colors on the inside – you don’t want everyone in the neighborhood to know that you have red window treatments in your living room :o)  To embellish your store bought panel, look for trim such as a braid or a tassel, and then you can start to very easily customize your window treatment.

For this project, you will need:

A panel window treatment – from your favorite store

Fabric glue – can be found at Jo-Ann or any fabric store (or a sewing machine)

Window Hardware – Lowes or Home Depot

Pinking Shears (or Scissors that will cut through the trim)    

Instructions:

1. Make sure to measure your window from top to bottom to determine the appropriate size of the drapery.  Most windows can use the standard 84” panel.
2. Purchase the draperies and then decide on an appropriate and a coordinating trim.
3. Determine where you want your trim to be placed.  Do you want to line your trim along the bottom of your panel – or do you want to go for the WOW! factor and trim the panel along the leading edge of the panel (the inside edge of the drapery where you handle the drapery to pull them open and then back closed).
4. Lay the drapery flat and measure the trim corresponding to where you want the trim to be placed (bottom edge or leading edge).
5. Cut the trim, ensuring that you leave some extra on both sides.
6. Bottom edge or leading edge, glue the trim, in sections, to the stitch on the draperies making sure to press the trim firmly to the drapery as you go.  If you opt to use a sewing machine, which I personally do and recommend, omit the glue and stitch the trim in place.
7. Tuck the extra trim remaining on each side of the draperies to the back of the panel and glue to secure.  With the sewing machine, omit the glue and stitch the trim in place to secure it in place.
8. Let the glue dry for 24 hours and then hang the panel.  If you have used a sewing machine, the panel can be hung immediately.

 

 

A brown velvet Pottey Barn panel very simply embellished with a bottom edge tassel trim. 



Easy enough, right?? 

La Toya Michelle

~You are only limited by your own imagination!