Allow your creativity to uniquely transform the existing window treatments throughout your home. Easily dress up boring windows, draperies, curtains, or curtain rods without spending a lot of time or money, only the price of a few supplies.
Decorator curtain rods can get expensive, so why not be imaginative and figure out ways to achieve the look you want in less traditional ways? Take for instance a unique walking stick from your last mountain hike, which can be spray painted, and replace an outdated curtain rod as demonstrated in a “Branch Out” window makeover.
Or ditch the rod altogether and use easy-to-hang hooks to drape bunched-fabric valances, or softly knotted ties, as in “Knotty Issue” and “Drape and Gather” . Be sure to notice the old curtain rod moved onto the side of the kitchen counter, displaying kitchen utensils for easy retrieval (at photo bottom).
Rolled Blinds
Updating bamboo shades can be accomplished by painting, and then adorning with colorful fabric bows, to create a cozy country kitchen “Cut Up” display. Or leave bamboo blinds unrolled for privacy while allowing “Natural Shade” and filtered sunlight in without disturbing earthy tones.
Hide older white roll-up shades in plain view, behind stark white walls, with vividly-colored accents, as shown in a “Disappearing Act”. Or add trim borders around neutral Roman shades (with your hot-glue gun) for a “Perfectly Tailored” look.
Flat Fabric Panels
Tacking down flat fabric panels to create a tailored look for privacy, can also be gathered up in different ways to welcome in daylight. Two distinctive ways to gather up flat panels can be viewed, for gathered edges creating a look of “Relaxed Shades”, or with contrasting ribbon-pulls gathering up the middle for a “Feminine Touch.
Use interesting flat-fabric panels to hide eye-sores, such as covering an unsightly concrete wall in “Colorful Cover-Up” (notice the design repeating on the ground). In place of curtains, ribbon streamers can be permanently attached to an interior-window overhang, or affixed straight to a window frame for pizzazz, as shown in “Post It Pretty” where the streamers cover a bulletin board.
Private Spaces
What about creating extra private spaces using your imagination along with unexpected draperies? A “Cabana Cool” space can be created on your patio, simply by hanging a series of weather-proof shower curtains between patio support beams.
For extra sunshine remove the old window treatments completely, replacing with a couch or window seat, stacked high with oversized pillows, meeting an array of hanging lamps, wind chimes, or mobiles as eclectically displayed in a “Taste of the Tropics. Replace worn out or frayed window coverings, or canopy-bed mosquito-netting, by tying grass-shack hula skirts in place for sultry “Warm Woods” appeal.
Eye-Popping Color
Instead of tossing out those awful louvered wood blinds, paint them in brilliant jewel-tone colors that beg to be opened, as displayed according to “Expert Advice. Or add just a pop of color (without overpowering) in permanently-attached, scallop-edged valances as shown in “Trimming It All”.
You can easily accomplish any of these window redecorating ideas by tailoring them to your home d©cor and color schemes. All the illustrative photos are from Better Homes and Gardens online (bhg.com) and My Home Ideas online (myhomeideas.com) for the express purpose of inspiring your window treatment creativity without spending a fortune.
