It's hard to believe but the dining room redo is finally complete. The last part was making dining room curtains. I kept going back and forth on whether to do panels or panels with a valance. I had seen a photo of panels to the ceiling with 3 wicker plates above the window in between them. I ending up choosing to do the valance because we had a dent between the top of our windows plus our wood blinds didn't have a nice cornice. It's a lot less money to sew a valance.
I knew exactly what I was looking for with fabric but it took a while to find the right pattern in the right colors. Our walls are kind of blue even though they were supposed to be gray and the furniture has been painted a charcoal black with a little gray inside the cabinet. The walls being blue-ish made me think that something with black, gray, and a cream white would contrast nicely. I'm not a big floral gal so was hoping to find something with a paisley pattern. A friend & I went shopping in the fabric outlets and I found one that was close but had more of a true white in it which isn't that good with our cream window trim & moldings. I ended up finding the perfect fabric at JoAnn's and was a Kelly Ripa pattern, Pretty Witty- Ebony. Luckily it was on sale and they had additional coupons to use. I had to go to 2 stores to buy all I needed but ended up buying too much. That happens when you're not working from a pattern. I also bought lining but only ended up having to line the valance.
I'm not going to do a how-to post but will talk a little about how I did it and the problems I had. I googled how to make a pleated valance rather than buying a pattern. Al & I bought a long board to the width I decided I wanted. He put it up with 3 small brackets. I chose not to wrap in fabric because the valance was going to be long enough to not see it. I wasn't sure about the panels but ended up buying an inexpensive plain rod that was installed close to the board so also wouldn't be seen. Lining the pleated fabric was a bit difficult and I ended up shorting myself on the width of the valance itself. I really couldn't do anything other than add some lined fabric to each end and it looks fine even though I was mad at myself for my miscalculation. We were going to use staples but needed longer ones and I ended up using thumbtacks which worked fine.
The panels were so easy because of not lining them. They're going to stay open because we have blinds so lining them wasn't necessary. I had Al install the rod before I hemmed them because we've been stung in the past. Once up they made such a difference in the room.
The dining room has been process but is finally done! We tossed around getting a rug but a decorator we had in when we were looking at getting the hardwood installed, said that a rug would fill up the whole room and you wouldn't see the wood floors. I think she was right because it's not a big room. It was all a lot of work but am so happy with the outcome. Next on our list is replacing carpet but not for a while. I'm happy to have some time for crafts.
