Updating a Faux Roman Shade~

I have been slowly working on our kitchen.  As I have mentioned before, we are renting right now.  That puts a limit on what I can do to the kitchen.  But one thing became very apparent to me very quickly.  The kitchen really needed a bit of softness.  So I decided to add a valance to the window above the sink.

Because the dining room and the kitchen are open to one another, I wanted to use a fabric that blended with the drapes in the dining room.  So I chose Osnaberg which looks like linen, but costs a fraction of what linen does.  And I created a faux roman shade...which involved little more than folding the fabric in half (didn't even have to hem it since the selvedges were the exact width of the window), hot gluing the fabric to the existing cornice from the blinds, folding the bottom and tacking it in place to create the look of an unstructured roman shade.

But the end product was a bit, how shall I say it?  BORING!!!!!  And so I decided to make it a bit more interesting with the addition of some $1.98 grosgrain ribbon.

Here's what I did...

1. I took the shade back down, picked the few stitches I had placed in the folds, and unfolded it. (Sheesh....one of the more boring photos I've ever posted on this blog.)

2. I measured and cut some grosgrain ribbon to length, and hot glued it down the side. (Folding over and tacking the excess to the back with a dab of hot glue.)

3. I followed the same procedures along the bottom and the other side.  Adding a little interest by having the ribbon intersect at the corners.

4. I refolded the shade.

6. I tacked the fold with a few hand stitches.

7. Hung it back up and VOILA!  A custom look that is definitely more interesting than it was before!

And the great thing about this...it was sooooo easy!!  Hot Glue Rocks! This would be a perfect update for roller blinds as well!

Have a great day~