Going Paperless: A Window Treatment Transformation

For the past five years, I’ve been on a mission to destroy all of the temporary paper shades that we put up to cover the windows when we first moved in our house. It’s been a slow process because A) I just don’t want to spend a lot of money; and B) some of our windows are odd sizes which makes it a bit tricky. But so far I’ve gotten through our living room and master bedroom, and this past weekend I finally de-papered the guest bedroom.

Close-up of the shade in all its pleated, papery glory

This particular window is about 45” wide by 46” high. Based on my experience, I hadn’t seen any window treatments to fit those dimensions, and I wasn't going to pay to custom order something. So I was going to have to get creative. There's definitely no shortage of DIY curtains on Pinterest, from drop cloth curtains to tablecloth curtains to no-sew roman shades.

Blinded by the Light

You might remember my window woes from last month. While I received some good suggestions, I still haven’t fully envisioned what to do with this wall of windows. However, I did decide that we needed to bite the bullet and at least get some real blinds up to replace the temporary paper shades. I figured it could be my Christmas present – that was all I really wanted, how boring is that?

Old paper shades. Ugh.

After browsing through the window treatment options at Home Depot once again, we decided that spending several hundred dollars for custom blinds was not going to be in the budget. That left us with the boxed blinds that you can cut to size. We chose faux wood, which hopefully won’t be a decision that we regret in the future. We got white to keep the room lighter, plus we also have other white doors and trimwork in the house, so the blinds don’t look out of place. Luckily, we found a size that matched our windows almost perfectly (35” x 72”), so we didn’t even have to trim them!

But before we could put them up, the two-year-old paper shades had to die come down. Initially I was worried that they would stick to the trim and leave gooey paper residue, but they peeled off pretty easily. I must say, removing them was quite satisfying!

Nekkid windows

The installation process for the new blinds went surprisingly smooth as well. Luke worked on that while I touched up some paint in the bathroom, providing assistance as needed (and taking photos of him hard at work, of course).

One down, two to go!

About three hours later (including a break for lunch), our blinds were installed!

We still don’t have the valance pieces up yet because they need to be trimmed down a little bit so they’ll fit inside the window frame. But I just couldn’t wait any longer to post about them! It’s amazing how much more natural light we can get; I got so used to the temporary shades which always covered the top half of these south-facing windows. And at under $30 a pop, these blinds were pretty economical, so I don’t know why it took us so long to finally get some.

Phoebe approves.

Our living room feels almost like a “real” room now, but it’s still missing the warmth and homey-ness of curtains. I’d like to try making my own if it means saving money, so I think I’m going to take a field trip to Hancock Fabrics to see if I can find some inspiration there. Anyone have any suggestions on colors, patterns, types of fabric, etc? (If I do make them myself, I’ll be using the no-sew method and ironing the seams!)

Window Woes

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Christmas decorating is in full swing here now, so you can expect to see all of that soon (although there's a bit of a preview up in my header). But, first things first.

I was trying to hold off on posting about our living room windows until I had actually done something to them. But obviously -- as our "temporary" paper blinds can attest to -- that's not happening. Yes, it's been two and a half years and these $5 blinds are still hangin' on, long past their intended life span.

(Yes, that would be Phoebe in her favorite spot. And yes, I need to replace a light bulb.)

It's a little embarrassing, because I've become so used to them that I almost forget they're not real window treatments. I mean, they've got these nifty plastic clips to fold them up and everything. Classy, right?

But I just know that our living room would feel so much more homey if we had real blinds or even curtains. I just can't decide what to do!

The windows in our office and master bedroom also have paper shades, but no one sees those as often and I think they'll be easier to tackle. Sadly, there are only two other windows in our entire house that have been appropriately dressed:

Entryway

Guest bedroom

Both these windows were rather large, but the only real difficulty was finding 96" curtains instead of the standard 84" length, and that wasn't really all that hard. But this wall of windows in our living room has been far more intimidating. 

So, I need some window covering counseling from my fellow stylish and thrify bloggers. What would you do? Blinds? (Wood or faux? White or matching the trim?) Roman shades? Curtains? Any inspiration photos to share? Something must be done, if not just for aesthetic enhancement, then at least to add a little more of a barrier between the drafty windows and us (especially now that winter is right around the corner).

And obviously it would be ideal if this project could be done on the cheap. If it comes down to DIY, I may not be able to sew, but I can Steam-A-Seam!

Oh, and for what it's worth:

- These windows are south-facing (so it's nice during the winter when we can let some sun in).

- The loveseat under the windows pretty much has to stay put. Our living room is small and our three big pieces of furniture only fit a certain way. *sigh*

Sidelight Solutions: Create privacy without sacrificing style

Since I just started this blog in November, it seems like most of my posts have been related to the holidays and Christmas decorating. As much fun as that was, now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty of everyday living! I've got a lot of things to cover--both past and future projects.

I thought I'd start with a little DIY project that we did shortly after we moved into our house last year. Here's what our front door and entryway looked like back then. (A frustrating space to work with, but more on that some other time...) Ignore the random folding chair--the realtor sat there during open houses.

At first, I loved all of the windows, and how much natural light they let in. But after living here awhile, this facade also left me feeling a little...exposed. I knew we'd end up getting curtains on the picture window at some point, but I still had a privacy issue with the sidelights and the window in the door that allowed any ol' Joe Schmoe to peer into our living room. Luke scoffed at my paranoia, but needless to say, I eventually won that battle. :)

Our options for covering up the windows included changing them out for custom frosted glass (too expensive), or installing small curtain rods and panels (too hard to find something stylish). Then one day while browsing at Home Depot, I discovered Artscape decorative window film. After doing some research online, I figured it was worth a shot.

There were lots of patterns to choose from, but I decided on the Rice Paper, which was the most subtle while still achieving the desired effect.

Sidelight Window Film 12" x 83"

Sidelight Window Film 24" x 36"

I didn't take any pictures of the process at the time (who knew I'd blog about it someday?), but applying the film was really pretty simple. After cleaning the windows, we just had to peel the film off the paper backing, spray the window with a mixture of water and dish soap, and then press the film against the window (on the inside, of course). The most time-consuming part was trimming the film to fit the window once it was in place. We also used a squeegee to make sure there were no air bubbles.

This is a really bad picture I took during the day (before we covered the door window), but you can see how the light still shines in through the film.

Since we were covering the two sidelights and the window in the door, it made sense to cover the transom above the door as well. But I wanted to change it up a bit, so I had the idea (*pats self on back*) to cut our last name out of the film, so that part of the glass would be clear. Since Hubby has the most precision and attention to detail between the both of us, I let him tackle that part. He printed out the letters on separate sheets of paper and cut them out to use as stencils. It took a couple of painstaking hours, but he did a great job. Plus, when the porch light is on at night, it shines through our name into the house and onto the wall in a funky, distorted kind of way. A nice little effect that we didn't plan on!

Night-time view from the outside

 

The overall cost of this project was about $60 for the three rolls of film we used. For being a quick, economical solution, I'm pretty happy with it so far. The film still lets some natural light in, and when we want more light or to see outside, we just open the curtains on the picture window. And, if we decide someday that we don't like the film anymore, it's supposedly easy to remove!

This film would also be great for a bathroom window or any other room where you want a little privacy without sacrificing style.

(New pic taken after we painted our walls gray. It's been seven years since we applied this window film and it still looks great!)

So what do you think of the faux frosted glass effect? Would these windows have bothered you, or was I crazy to let my paranoia take over and cover them up? (You can tell me the truth.) What would you have done?

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