Summer Pinterest Challenge: faux roman shade

It is that time of year again when some of the best home bloggers out there (including Sherry from YHL as well as Katie’s, Kate’s, Michelle’s blogs) challenge all of us to stop just pinning and start actually doing some of the wonderful stuff we’ve pinned to Pinterest!  Last Winter I ran out of time to do the cool paint-chip art project I had my eye on, but still did complete a cool sweater vase that was perfect for the holidays and beyond.  This time though, I was determined to do something for our house that I had been wanting to do for a very long time: make a roman shade for our kitchen (which I’ve been in the process of redecorating for several months now!).

I love the look of a roman shade, but custom ones are easily several hundred dollars.  Plus, the options for fabric are often limited.  Thus, I decided I’d have to DIY a shade for the kitchen.  I’d had my eye on some fabric from Spoonflower for some time, and I finally decided to go ahead and order it a few months ago.  You can see it here in my kitchen inspiration mood board:

This Pinterest Challenge was the perfect kick-in-the-pants that I needed to get moving on this project.  So last week I had to figure out which of the roman shade ideas that I’d pinned to use.  I was first thinking of this one:

Source: involvingcolor.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I’ve actually tried this one before (more on that soon!) but didn’t have the best luck with the raising/lowering mechanism.  Plus, after consulting with DH we decided that we actually only needed a faux roman shade–that we wanted to keep the wood blinds that are already on the window.  So I then turned my attention to this one:

Source: thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I thought I might like the more relaxed look of this one, but after playing around with it a bit, it just wasn’t doing anything for me.  So, I moved on to option #3:

 

Source: impartinggrace.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Not only was this one the easiest, I love that if we move someday, the fabric is basically only sewn as a huge rectangle with finished edges so that if/when we finally move, I can easily just take it down and use the fabric for another shade or pillows or whatever else my heart desires at the time!

So without further ado, please meet my new kitchen “roman shade”:

To make this a true Pinterest Challenge item, I did alter it just a bit (but you should totally go check out the tutorial from impartinggrace.com here–it is brilliant!).  So my version was not a true “no sew” shade–I did finish the edges with a sewing machine rather than with hem tape, although this was in part due to my desire to spend as little time as possible with a hot iron during the 100+ degree heat wave we had over the past week!  I also love that I can easily change the overall shape of the shade if it doesn’t look just right because literally, as you’ll see if you read the tutorial, this is just a rectangle of fabric and four tension rods!  Seriously, anyone could do this.  I especially love this idea for renters because it is so low commitment but still high-impact!

Just to give you a sense of the evolution of this little corner of our home, here’s what this window first looked like when we moved in five years ago (before we remodeled our kitchen) with a weird valence thing we inherited from the previous owners:

Here is what it looked like post-remodel, but before all the new redecorating I’ve been working on (this is from about 2 years ago):

And now  the in-progress space, complete with new faux roman shade!

Why are things still “in progress?”  Well, do you see the paint cans at the bottom left of the above picture?  Even though I love the new paint color in the kitchen, I let the guy at home depot sell me on kitchen/bath paint (rather than just use the regular eggshell we already had purchased for the dining room) and it really bothers me how shiny it is.  Just look at how much the flash reflects in the picture above!  So I’m planning to do a coat of regular paint to help combat the unfortunate shininess.  I also need to trim the wood blinds that are behind the the new shade (do you see how the blinds are bunched at the bottom because there are about 1.5 feet of extra ones?).  I can’t believe that the previous owners never did this and that I still haven’t after 5 years!

Finally, looking back at the mood board, there’s one big change coming up: painting the kitchen door gray.  What’s that?  Gray you say?  I know I had toyed with the idea of a black door for a long time, but DH was more than not on board with that idea.  Now though, I’ve now sold him on the gray door as a compromise, and I’m super excited to see how it turns out.  I think it will really help add some visual interest to this part of the kitchen and bring together the new color scheme:

Once the door is painted, I plan to make a matching shade for the window on the door.  I’d love to leave it as-is, but DH really misses having a shade there (read more about that here!).

So that’s my Pinterest Challenge for this Summer.  What about you?  Have you recently tackled one of your pins?  Please share!