Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Custom Curtain Valances for My Kitchen



Since my husband and I bought our old farmhouse from the 1860's 6 years ago, we have slowly been painting and re-carpeting a couple rooms a year. The last two rooms to get a face lift were the dining room and the kitchen. We chose Valley Mist by Behr found at the Home Depot for the color. I must have brought home 200 paint colors to match the color to the curtains in the dining room, and the curtains were bought to match the fabric on the dining room chairs. Then we wanted to paint the kitchen a shade of green. We decided to paint the kitchen and dining room the same color. When my husband finished painting the walls in the kitchen, I looked up at the valances and thought, "These have got to go!" So, I took a paint sample to the fabric stores in search of home decor fabric to match the walls.

I am very glad that I know how to sew. We looked into getting custom curtains for the library/den in our house when we redid that room. For 5 windows, the estimate was something like $2,800!! And that did not include the drapery hardware. The sales lady told us that we really had to look at curtains like another piece of furniture. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought curtains and rods that look just lovely for under $200.

Now I needed a pattern. I looked in a book about curtains that I had bought several years ago. Nothing jumped out at me. Then, I looked online. I found a nice tutorial, but not really what I wanted. So, I used the old valances for my pattern - which is actually a very simple pattern for a valance. I took pictures as I sewed so that I can write my own tutorial later on. If you can sew a straight line, then you too could make these valences.

I really like the brown with the green-blue striped fabric, because it helps accent the wooden windows. Click Here to see my tutorial on how to make these yourself!

3 comments:

Annie Howes said...

Nice valances! I love the fabric!

Annie
http://anniehoweskeepsakes.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that fabric. It makes me want to make curtains, lol.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, custom curtains can be quite expensive when you get big local retailers involved. I just get mine from www.prioritywindows.com. I sat down and figured how much time and money I'd have to invest to do it myself and it just wasn't worth it. :(