chocolate: Customize Ready-Made

This is a picture of the window treatments I have up in my dining room during the Fall and Winter months. The coppery orange sheers are usually closed over and I love my victory valances that I found on eBay {I think they are Waverly}.

However, with the warmer weather coming, this gets a bit “heavy” feeling and while I could open the sheers like I did for the photo above, the walkway to my front door is right there. I hate the idea of it being so visually open. So, last year I bought these linen drapes and sheers from Target.

The linen panels were a great size {and $24.99 a panel} and I figured by the time I got done making my own or doing the dropcloth drapes, it would be about the same money, except I would have put more time into them. While it was a lighter feel, it was a bit bland for me.

This year, as I took them out of storage, I decided to fix that. After reading Sonya at Beyond the Screen Door’s blog since that time, I’ve become enamored of her window treatments and, specifically, her café style treatments. I decided to dress up the sheers that I keep mainly for privacy.

You remember I bought this fabric above and decided I’d like to get more and use it on a screen in my living room. Meanwhile, I still had the two yards I originally bought. I decided that the colors worked with both these treatments and I used it for this project. I also used another fabric I had {the Osnaberg} that matches the linen drapes and used that to make a sleeve for the tension rods that I have to use on these windows.

One of the best things I did was the sleeve for the tension rod! Let’s face it ~ these things are ugly, but sometimes certain windows call for them when a regular rod can’t be used.

I used my living room windows {which are the same as the dining room windows} as my “mannequin” and put the panel I was experimenting on up so I could see how it would look. I liked it okay, but wanted to add a little more "oomph” and whimsy; you know, make it a little more fun.

I wanted to incorporate another fabric into this mix and none of the fabric in my stash either worked or I didn’t have enough. I decided to go with an animal print I found at Joann’s. This must be from a zeraffapard {a mix between a zebra, giraffe and leopard}! It has all three in the fabric and I used just a bit of this to make a ruffle.

I also bought some new trim because what I had on hand just didn’t work with these colors, although I could have left it off altogether. I pinned the trim pieces to two of the panels to see which I liked better. I do like them both, but I think the wider trim hides more of my sins, so to speak.