Laundry Room: Easy Fake Roman Shade

Happy Blogiversary to HOUSEography! Hard to believe that I first posted one year ago today. Thanks to everyone who follows and reads this blog regularly.

Yesterday I posted about my spiffed up laundry room. I think the critical change in there was this easy fake Roman shade. Clearly I don't need privacy in the laundry room so it never needs to be raised and lowered. I wanted the casual look of a shade instead of a more formal valance, so this is what I came up with totally on the fly with stuff I had around the house.

I purchased this fabric about a month ago at JoAnn fabrics. It was the end of the bolt and less than 2 yards so I am pretty sure I paid about $8 for it. I thought I had some white lining fabric at home but turns out I didn't, so I improvised and just folded the fabric in half and cut it. This made 2 pieces which were each an inch or two wider than the window. Then I flipped the top over so the wrong sides were out. I then sewed three sides as if I were making a pillow, then I turned so the right sides were out, and sewed the fourth side across. Easy peasy.

Now for the Roman shade part. Start by laying the fabric flat with the best side down (both sides were pretty much the same on mine but if you use white lining, put the good fabric side down), and then fold up to mimic a Roman shade. I didn't measure but you could if you are picky like that.

Next take a few stitches on each fold on both sides to mimic where the chord would be threaded through. Don't go through the top layer of fabric, only the fold and the lining - all still with the good side of the fabric down on the table. It takes probably 10-15 stitches on each side for each fold.

Then I needed a way to hang it. I remembered how my mom made the valance in my son's nursery by tacking it onto a piece of wood that is mounted above the window. I decided to take the same approach with this one. Handy Hubby pounded together a piece of wood which was about 2 inches wider than the window casing. You can see the shape in the picture below.

 I stapled the edge with the visible seam onto the top of the board.

Next I lured Handy Hubby away from the Bruins game to screw the piece of wood to the wall with 2 long drywall screws. (yes, his shirt has rules of beer drinking on it - let's just say it's a REALLY old shirt)

And here's the final result after about one and a half hours of work.

There's just something about a good window treatment to make a room feel "finished". Even if it's a laundry room. Love it.
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