A Burlap Roman Shade for My Kitchen Window

It’s pretty.  It’s functional.  It’s finally done!

This project took longer to think about than to make.  I will think on something forever before I move into “get it done” mode.

Before this window treatment I’d never had anything over my kitchen window.  We have an arbor in front of the window that is completely covered up in grapevine during the spring and summer months.  So privacy was really only an issue in the winter.  But another issue is this window faces north and putting up this roman shade has helped keep it the kitchen warmer.  Crazy to think that a lined shade can really make that much of a difference, but it does.

We really only keep the shade down in the winter, and then only on the coldest days.

Before I got the shade up, I lived with just the valance for a few months and even that was such a nice change from just looking at a plain window, even if the window is full of lush green grape leaves, and cute “bug eating” geckos at night.

The valance was pretty easy to make and install.  I just used some left over tapestry type material and a scrap piece of wood I found in the garage.  Cut the material to size and wrapped the board and stapled.  I also had some L brackets left over from our mantle headboard project, so that part of this project was really cheap.

My thought was to make roman shades for the two dining room windows too, but I decided not to for several reasons, one being my sewing is not one of my best skills and I prefer leaving my blinds down and open rather than up everyday.  This of course could change someday, but by then I’ll have moved onto another preference in material and color.

I do plan on making some simple valences out of burlap and the tapestry used on this cornice board.

I found the instructions for making this roman shade on YouTube but now I can’t find the video, soooo….I will have to hunt that down, but in hindsight, the tutorial I used was really detailed and I thought rather complicated.  There are tons of videos on YouTube that will walk you through making roman shades.  A lot of the videos are for the “no sew” method.  I chose to go with the sewing, lining and installing the rods to help make the folds.  But if I were to do it again, I would opt for the easy-peasy tutorial.

Since taking these photos, we have installed a cleat to wrap the cord around and keep it locked.  That was another option I didn’t want to put into my shade, the locking device for the cord.   The cleat works fine for this window, but finding one in any color other than silver and metal, was next to impossible for me that it.  So I bought the silver and spray painted it in oil rubbed bronze, screws too.

Also, now that this shade has been up for over a year now, the nice straight edge at the bottom is no more.  You see, burlap stretches a lot and since we keep the shape up most of the time, where the material is attached to the rods inside the shade, this has caused the once straight bottom edge to have a scalloped effect.

Live and learn.

I guess it’s a good thing I like a scalloped edge

I love the texture of the burlap and the color.  So I’m a happy lady.

peace. love. rust.