Beauty Garden Journal

Eco Chic & Holistic Skincare

in Wellness + Lifestyle

DIY: Faux Window Treatment

I am so excited to share today’s post! It’s one that’s been in the making for awhile… Well more like I had this project idea circulating around in my imagination for quite some time. My little office is upstairs in my home and gets flooded with lots and lots of natural light! I usually tend to gravitate towards curtains or draperies for window treatments but in this case I really wanted something to dress up my windows without taking up floor space in my little home office. It just wouldn’t do to have full length drapes in this space. I decided a faux window shade was exactly what this space needed and what my bank account would thank me for as well. This project was incredibly easy to do, requires NO sewing and is indeed very budget friendly. All you need is to carve out a bit of time and get your DIY mindset going, and you can create a beautiful window treatment of your own! Scroll through to get the instructions!  
Materials: 
Fabric
Ribbon
Glue (Aileen’s Tacky Glue)
Sticky Back Velcro
Iron on Adhesive (I used Heat n Bond) 
Iron & Ironing Board
Good Scissors
Large Ruler or Measuring Tape
Wrapping Paper or Butcher Paper
Pen/ Pencil

First, measure your window and determine how long and wide you would like your faux shade to be. Take into consideration proportion, fabric choice, and how much light will be filtered through or not based on your choice. I measured mine based on scale and proportion and knew that my white linen fabric choice would still allow lots of light to shine through. Once I had my measurements I cut the exact size of my shade out on a sheet of wrapping paper that I already had. You can also use butcher paper or newspaper as well.

Next I placed my fabric below my pre cut wrapping paper shade pattern and started cutting. I made sure to leave approximately 2 inches extra around the perimeter of my fabric (as shown above) This is extremely important because you need the room to hem the edges to give your shade a trim, neat and even look!

Now that you know where your two inch marks are, you can attach the No-Sew Iron On Adhesive to your fabric! I creased my fabric and followed the crease line to help me determine where to attach the iron-on-adhesive. Once I rolled out the adhesive tape I cut the tape to the length I needed and folded over the extra fabric. Using a warm iron, run the iron over the fabric. The iron on adhesive is sandwiched between the fabric and the heat will activate the adhesive to bond to the fabric. Its so easy and quick too!

Continue this process until all sides are hemmed… You may cut the remaining fabric that you did not use in the adhering process.

This next step is optional… Once I finished my no-sew hemming, I went right into embellishing my fabric. Since I was going for a classic look for my office space, I added simple black grosgrain ribbon to my white linen fabric to dress it up a bit. Using Aileen’s Tacky Glue, I glued my ribbon about 2 inches inside from the hem, following the same linear shape as my shade. It took 3 parts of long ribbon to accomplish this look. 
While the glue is drying the ribbon in place, move onto the next step. In my office I already had blinds which have standard valences to them. I took the plastic valence part off and adhered Sticky Back Velcro right below the indented part of the valence (shown below). Now, there are two sides to this. The first side was the rough velcro side, which I attached to the plastic valence first. Once that was secured, I placed the fuzzy velcro side on top to attach the pieces together. I then peeled the plastic cover from the velcro which protects the sticky side. From there I placed the top of my faux shade in line with the sticky back velcro. Smooth the fabric where you have placed it on the sticky back velcro. This will secure it in place and get rid of any little bumps or air bubbles that occurred while adhering. 
   
Hang your valence with its new window treatment back in place, and voila!
Here is the finished product! Please let me know if you have questions or comments! I’d love to hear from you!

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Comments

  1. Blake Bennett says

    This is really amazing! It’s easy to do and very practical. You can even free your fingers and avoid them from being pinned by the needles. Haha! Another thing, is that it looks perfectly neat, especially if you choose a light-colored fabric.

    Blake Bennett