DIY Roman Shades

If you love hot glue, saving money, and sleeping in you will love this post! Here is how you make some black out roman shades using your regular $4 mini blinds! Lots of pictures and very easy steps- sew, disassemble, measure, glue, hang!
Let me also say that these are great because they function as an attractive window treatment as well as a privacy blind!
1. Buy black out liner and top fabric. Liner always on sale for about $2.50 a yard at your favorite fabric store. You will want about 1/4 inch wider than blind size, and actual length of your window.
And for your top fabric of choice about 2 inches wider on all sides.
FYI when buying blinds they always run a half inch shorter than size stated on package.

2. Cut the liner about 1/4 inch wider than the actual size of the blinds. Then lay the top fabric under the liner. Fold top fabric over twice so no raw edge is showing and press, pin, and sew- so it looks like this, but better. It's easy I promise :) I have also seen no sew ones where the ladies fold and glue directly over the back of the blind.


OK you will have a nice sewn rectangle that should measure slightly smaller than the inside of your window, and slightly larger than your mini blinds. If you want to get fancy like I tried, you could make a smaller rectangle and sew it to the top- for a more finished look.
OK all sewing complete!

3. Fun part! Start with your regular mini blind and disassemble as follows. Pop off the caps on the bottom of blinds using screwdriver.
Locate the ladder cords that separate all the blinds vertically.My blind had 3 ladder cords and 2 main cords on the sides. DO NOT CUT the Main Cords. So cut and remove all ladder cords. See picture.


4. Next remove most of your mini blinds off the remaining 2 cords. You didn't cut those right ? ;) This is what it should look like.



5. Measure how many separations/folds you want and space your mini blinds evenly. Remember that this measurement will be divided in half visually -because when the blinds are pulled the separations will be folded in half.

6. Glue 2 blinds on top of each other for more stability and weight. Be careful the glue can burn you through the blinds. :(
7. Glue blinds to your measurements on your fabric. Do not glue the cords or the openings down. Because we are using blackout liner the hot glue doesn't show through. If you use a different liner I suggest a strong fabric glue.

8. Making sure the cords are fully extended tie a knot at the bottom and cut off excess. You can choose to make your last fold before the bottom, so it had a "skirt", or go completely to the bottom and it will fold.

9. Next cut a hole for your pull strings, make sure it is wide enough.
(I had to cut mine a bit wider than this) No the raw edge doesn't bother me-but you could sew a button hole here instead- I'm just too lazy. :)
This is what you have, beautiful!

Even though I didn't(please learn form me) I suggest gluing some blinds at the bottom for added weight so they go down easier.
10. To hang them you will have to pull back the glued fabric on the top for them to fit in the brackets.
Enjoy sleeping in with your new black out roman shades! Really they are easy to do once you get going.

The Heart of Our Home

So here it is- our Kitchen. I am not completely done but I like it so far. :) It's a little romantic/shabby/country, a bit traditional, with a touch of fun and quirky.

I started decorating with the things I already had, which was white ceramics. I also love a kitchen with lots of white, it is "so fresh and so clean clean."

I added the chair pads to the chairs to tie the lighter color over in this area and soften the look and the bum :). I normally have a white bowl full of green apples here when I don't have fresh flowers. I will make a fun little table runner for here too.

Curtains, Ahh. I can't count the number of times I changed them in this room, so important but so hard. I decided on these because it ties the brown of the cabinets around the room and they went with the red ones in our family room, which are right next to these. Our family room is completely open to our kitchen. Light colored ones looked nice but were out of place next to our family room. Plus these ones were thermal and only $15 a panel.

The wall color I chose is Home Depot Cypress Grass. Yes this wall needs work. Thinking of putting vinyl above pictures or making a gallery wall with lots of pictures. I also plan on painting the kiddy table. I love that my kitchen has room for this, it is so easy to feed my girls snacks and breakfast here.

Keepin it real with all the art still on the fridge. Chandlier $40 from Craigslist.

The Little Things

Love my Scentsy & it's ribbon wrap, the cute little calendar blocks my MIL made me, and the white and blue tile. It came from Germany from my baroness grandmother's estate. Love having meaningful stuff like this in every room. I made the table runner. It's a great pop of color, especially for Spring.

I made this little flower wrap and to match the table runner on our island. Continues the punch of color around the room. I plan on making and covering a cookbook in this material. You know cuz every thing has to be in 3's or 5 or just more than 2. :)

I got his birdcage about 6 years ago on clearance at Tar'gae. It used to be black but I painted it white to give it some contrast against the cabinets and sanded it down to give it that antique look. MMMM LURVE IT.


My grandmother gave me these bar stools. It took me 3 tries but I finally got these right. First black, then brown,(cuz that what I had on hand) finally the beautiful antique white that they are. I used Ace hardware's spray paint. So easy and pretty fast. I had to do multiple coats, but each chair only took about 1 can or $3.50. I think they look great with the bead board. They kinda have a fresh beachy feel now. Oh and one more bar stool is on it's way.

Got to have a little vinyl somewhere right? I got this plate stand for $5 and turned it into my fruit/onion :) holder. cuteness.

I just love my new little pot scrubber. It makes doing dishes kinda fun! really. $5 at TJ Maxxers.

So if you read all of this thanks. I found some time and did it all. What do you think? Any suggestions for the kiddie table/ wall?

Warm Windows & Ebates

With everyone getting so much snow lately, I thought I'd do a post on thermal curtains. Yep have you heard of those? They are lined with "foam backing" and help to cut energy costs. They claim to reduce heating and cooling costs by 30%. They are also light blocking.

Well our house was curtainless in January and our two story family room and kitchen were getting quite cold. I thought I give thermal curtains a try. We got them up and man can I tell a difference. I don't know if our energy bill has gone down at all, but I can tell that the room is WARMER!! Yes, a good investment. And it is supposed to help in the summer too.

I found my 95 inch curtains online at JCPenny.com for only $15 a panel and free shipping, they are normally $50 or more. Let me also say that it is impossible to find 6- 95 inch curtians in any store. No I am not getting paid for any of this, but I thought it might be helpful for some of you peeps who are freezing your little buns off now and want to save some money. What are some other energy saving ways you have kept your house warm?

Another good tip I have discovered recently is ebates. It is an online site where you get cash back for doing your regular online shopping. On average you get about 5% cash back. Almost every store that is online you can use through ebates. Macy's is 6%, Target is 4%, Jcpenny 3%. You also get $5- just for signing up. Hope this helps someone out there. Has anyone else used ebates?