Ah, window treatments….just thinking about designing something fresh and new can be daunting for the Parade of Homes or for a client, and they can be inspired by bedding, a rug, pillow, a painting…which makes it such a relief when the answer presents itself.   While working on the Master bedroom design for the Parade of Homes, the budget for window treatments ran thin, so when it came to the Master,  I knew that I would end up doing something myself.  

I found online some beautiful rods that actually swing out when you want to let more light and air come in through the window, then swing the rod back to close the curtain over the window.  I ended up using 2 swing rods for each of the 2 larger windows, and opted for white sheers for a lighter feel for the room.  For the other 2 smaller windows, I split of pair of sheers for a draped swag and had trimmed the ends with black ribbon.  If I had had more funds I would have done cornices and shades for all the windows.

The color scheme for the room, was black, cream, white, and gold.  The bedding was a white background with cream and gold and a black squiggle shaped design.  I knew I wanted to do something to the sheers, for I don’t do “solid” or plain very well…I love to layer, add texture, pattern etc most of the time. for to me, it’s more interesting and draws me in to a wonderful world!  I happened to be at the Dollar Store one day…I find myself there when looking for off beat items, and found rolls and rolls of narrow black ribbon.  I’m talking huge rolls…industrial rolls.  What a steal of a deal!  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all this mile of ribbon, but for a dollar, it was coming home with me!

While I was laying out one of the sheer curtain panels across the table, I glanced over at the bedding.  My eyes kept going to the squiggle pattern, and then I looked at the black ribbon I just bought spewing out of the bag.  This was risky for I hadn’t tried this before, and the thought of hand sewing ribbon onto 4 panels of sheers…the little voice in the back of my head was saying, “are you crazy?”  So, with needle and thread and black ribbon in hand, I decided to tackle it and tack the ribbon free hand- patterning along the way, squiggling as I went up from the hem to about midway up the curtain.  I stood back to look, and I loved it…just enough pattern to balance the pattern from the bedding, but not too much design to take away from the light streaming through the sheers.  The Fabric Mill, who had been making the window treatments for me in the other rooms, graciously offered to add a black fabric edge at the bottom of the panels as a finishing custom touch, so sweet of them!   The panels were light and breezy, just what I was going for.

I may not hand sew on every curtain project I design, but it does feel, that I usually do something to tweak them a bit….just to be a little bit more interesting!
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