DIY Fabric Roller Shades (AKA, no more crack den curtains!)

Woot! Remember those painted vinyl roller shades I told you guys about? Finally, they have been banished to the basement to be used as drop cloths or something. Yesterday I spent about 2 hours ironing and gluing my way to fancy new window treatments for the guest room. Here's the result:

Yikes, sorry it's so dark. MAYBE THE SUN COULD COME OUT SOME TIME.

Edit: I got another, better photo:

I was so excited to get started on these I didn't even take before shots. I am the worst blogger ever. Suffice to say, sloppily painted white vinyl is not pretty. Not even a little.

I followed this tutorial, but the process was pretty simple: measure, cut, "sew" hems on 3 sides with hemming tape, and use this miracle glue to glue the top, raw edge of the fabric to the cardboard tube from which you ripped the offensive white vinyl.

This was a really economical way to dress these windows. And economical is a really nice euphemism for cheap. But still, they turned out nicely and I'm happy with the results. Full curtains would have been expensive and not very practical since the giant desk at which I blog and Pete does his homework butts right up against the wall. And I don't know if you've noticed, but nice-looking curtain hardware can be really expensive! These roller shades were only $7, and the mounting hardware was already there from when the previous own had her curtains and shades up.

Oh, if you want to actually be able to see the fabric, here it is:

It's a print by Waverly called "Lovely Lattice" in the Jungle color. I bought 7.5 yards of this stuff when I foolishly thought I would reupholster a sofa I got on Craigslist. I paid $10 a yard at Joann during a sale. The sofa now resides in the burn pile at my Aunt Sue's farm.

So since I had the shades, hardware, and fabric, this project only ended up costing me $5 for a bottle of glue (using a coupon, of course!). If I had to buy all the stuff I still think I could have gotten it done for around $40 or $50, depending on how much I spent on fabric. I searched high and low online for something else, but nothing caught my eye and it finally dawned on me I had a huge stash of something that would work sitting in the basement.

Also this weekend, the search for a new coffee table to replace the brass-and-glass monstrosity ended. Seriously, never buy a glass coffee table unless you own stock in Windex.

I went to my very first estate sale and found this beauty tagged at $50, but then the woman running the sale said all furniture was half price, so I jumped on it. Well, not literally. I had write my name on a piece of painter's tape, which she gingerly placed upon its surface.

Say hi to Pete's legs and sock! Also, yes, I did use the same fabric for that lumbar pillow in the middle of the sofa. How else do you use up 7.5 yards of fabric?!

It's a solid slab, about 1 1/2" thick, and has just the right dimensions. The only thing I'm torn about is the legs. They're kind of skinny, almost 70s colonial-style turned legs with tiny brass caster feet. Although I love the caster feet with my whole shriveled heart, I kind of hate the legs. They feel very old-lady to me. I'm trying to get Pete to agree to replace them with something tapered to give the whole thing a more modern feel, like this one:

We shall see. Maybe I'll learn to love the little old-lady spindly legs.

So do you like the roller shades? Do you want to come stay in my guest room? It's nice, and yellow, and now it has non-scary things to cover the windows! Yippeeeeeeee!

xoxo,

Leigh

P.S. - Here's a lovely shot of a couple of cute paintings I got at the thrift store for $1 each. They're obviously not masterpieces, but I love the colors with the yellow walls (and now green-and-white shades!) and anything nautical is a-okay in my book.