Upholstered Cornice

I've been on a long blog break. Don't worry I had plenty to keep me busy. My hiatus consisted of getting my house ready to sell in Texas (huge job), keeping my house clean for showings (next to impossible with kids), living without my husband while he started work in Ohio (hated it), finding a new house in Ohio, preparing for the house to be packed up and moved (so thankful the company took care of that part) and then unpacking everything in the new house in Ohio. I can't tell you how ecstatic I am that there is a basement and I can just hide all the boxes I don't want to unpack yet down there. Now that things have settled down, I'm hoping to post more on the blog again.

First project for the new house, an upholstered cornice. The house has sliding doors in the back with vertical blinds which are NOT my favorite! I considered switching to draperies, but with 2 dogs and 2 kids I didn't think they would stay clean. I opted for the upholstered cornice.
They are so easy to make and don't require any sewing.

Materials

Wood (for frame)

L brackets 

Batting

Fabric

1. Build the cornice out of wood.  I used a 12" width so I could cover the track for the vertical blinds and give the sliding glass door some balance. My frame came off the wall 8" on the sides. You can adjust the measurements for your window. 

2. Attach batting to the front of the cornice board. I doubled the thickness of the batting and wrapped it around the edge and stapled it to the back. 

3. Next staple the fabric to the cornice board. I stapled it on all the edges in the back to get the fabric centered. During this step you need to make sure you pull the fabric tight to give it a nice flat appearance. 

4. I like my cornices to look nice on the back as well. I used white fabric and covered the back and attached it with hot glue. It hides the staples.

5. Attach L brackets to the cornice and install to the wall.

Roman Shade

It was finally time to change out the curtain I had in my master bathroom.  It matched absolutely nothing in my room and came with the house and even my husband hated it.  If he didn't like it then you know it's bad because he rarely has opinion on that sort of thing.  Of course I bought the fabric some time ago and just recently decided to go with a roman shade.  My mom found a youtube tutorial that shows you the basics of it, but it doesn't go step by step.  She made one for my sister in law and I took what she learned and tried to make my own.  We had to track down the supplies, which we ended up buying from a drapery supplier. We had to change how the battens or ribs were attached to the fabric because the glue didn't work out.  We ended up drilling small holes in the battens and sewing them onto the fabric.  I probably could have sewn channels for them to slide into, but I don't think I would have liked the extra stitching on the front of my fabric.  The shade was more work than I figured and I guess I was hoping for an "Oh Wow" moment when I hung it up.  I just sort of looked at it and went, hmm.  I mean it was okay.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I did add the trim along the top and the bottom and I definitely think that helped it.  I do like it now and I think it had to grow on me.  Here is a picture of the shade when it's down.

Here is what it looks like when it's pulled up.  

Faux Roman Shade

 As promised, I have a picture of my new faux roman shade.  I opted for the center pull look instead of the tails. I'm not sure if it was because I wanted it to be higher up and it just wasn't working for me.  Here is a picture of what I originally wanted to do, but as seen in my previous post, it looked nothing like this.

This is why sewing window treatments make me crazy.  I can't tell you how long I stood in the bathroom trying to make the curtain work when it wouldn't.  I scrapped it and made one that was much longer so I'd have a little more fabric to play with and could have a few different options.  After polling the household (my husband, 4 year old daughter, 1 year old son and our 2 dogs) the consensus was to go with the center pull roman shade.  Phew, that's done.  Thankfully, I had plenty of the Marimekko fabric leftover to make a second one after I messed up the first curtain.

Resolutions

Now that it's a New Year I started thinking about some resolutions that I would like to have this year. My first resolution is to get my bedroom draperies done.  I've had the fabric sitting on a roll in the corner of my bedroom for a year and a half, maybe longer.  I had been putting it off because I wasn't sure what style I wanted and if I wanted to use that fabric, etc.  Seriously though, my mom was doubting that I have a degree in Interior Design since I was so clueless as to what I wanted for window treatments.  :)  I'm not sure what took me so long.  I think I was waiting for the sewing fairy to sew them up for me.  I worked on them this weekend and I have to say I love them.  My bedroom is starting to look like a real bedroom rather than a prison cell.  My bedroom is the last room that I spend money on and it really is depressing.  So, I'm making it my mission this year to make it beautiful and to finish up window treatments in some of my other rooms.  My other resolution is to get some pictures printed and start working on the kids' scrapbooks.  I did place an order for pictures today for almost 300 pictures.  Good grief, I haven't printed pictures in ages and I'm sure there are more on the computer that I need to print out.  Aaack.
So, I can show you that I got one thing checked off my list, here are my bedroom drapes.