Window Pains

When we bought our house, it was a little rough around the edges. We managed to fix it up, with the exception of a few major upgrades we have yet to work on 
(aka afford...)

Major upgrades that could still be done?

Countertops
Windows
Siding

Someday... Someday.

We looked at getting new windows installed as they are pretty ugly and old, but as our energy assessment told us, they actually are not bad when it comes to their energy efficiency. To upgrade them would change our house's energy efficiency so minimally that an immediate upgrade was immediately put on the back burner. 

Except for this window, the rest were in fairly good shape. Unfortunately, replacing even this window just wasn't in the budget. A little tape just to keep the wind and rain out seemed like a good option. Then I got the great idea. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 
And thus began yet another project.

Ta-da!

It is times like this where I wish I could follow instructions, but of course, I like to learn the hard way, which has me ripping out stitches and try, try, trying again. I originally saw the Roman Blind tutorial by Martha Stewart, but I just wanted a fake one, so I didn't follow any instructions in the end.

 I'll be brief and let you know what worked, and leave out most of the exciting failure stories.

I wanted something plain for the bathroom, but not too plain, so I opted for a faux Roman blind. I had picked out a linen that would have worked perfectly, but it was $19 per yard, so I decided I'd settle on the less expensive linen that would still be ok... thinking the less expensive, second choice linen was $12 when it was actually $21. Damn dyslexia. I took it home, and the colour just didn't work. I wished so badly I went for the other first choice of material, but no... I told my mom about the mistake, nearly in tears, and when my sister came to visit me last week, she had sent a flat sheet that she scored for $4. Of course, mom's ALWAYS know best, and the colour worked perfectly.

I went with a three inch pleat for the top. The seam at the top was a straighter than I expected it would be (score for me!) and I only had to sew it once. I also did a simple zig zag stitch on the raw end so the top wouldn't unravel.

I used a scrap piece of wood that conveniently fit inside the window frame after a little chop saw action. Then I got out the staple gun and started stapling away. I feel like I'm cheating on a project using a staple gun. It's just so easy! But it's what the job needed, so I just did what I had to do. Bam!

Next tool up was the hand saw. Oh boy. You'd think a 1/4" dowel would be easy to saw through. I did it, but it looked like a beaver on crack got at it. At least a little sandpaper fixed that hack job and it wasn't going to be seen anyways...

Adam screwed the shade up for me, and it was looking good. So was he! Not much sexier than a man with power tools listening to me telling him what to do.

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Next up was the second dowel. I covered the ends with purple duct tape (the colour choice is optional) and placed it in front of the shade. Tension is what is holding it in place, so that duct tape is not only hiding my beaver like cuts, but it is also providing grip and that extra 1/8" that the hand saw thought I didn't need. 

A simple fold over the dowel, and there ya have it! A broken window hider. I was pretty excited. 

All in all, this cost about eight or nine dollars. $4 for the sheet, and $5 for the three dowels I bought, but I really only used two. That, of course, is not including the $21 per yard of material I had originally bought for the project. I'm still kicking myself over that, but now I just need to brainstorm what I could do with that one yard of material I've got. Basement bathroom window? Perhaps... 

Hope you appreciate it as much as I do!

Happy broken window hiding!

Jena xo