My First Foray into the World of Window Mistreatments

Two of my favorite blogs are Nesting Place and A Soft Place to Land. Every Thursday, Kimba at ASPTL hosts a DIY Party where readers post links to projects they've been working on. Check it out here! Today she's giving away some Gail Pittman pottery from Southern Living at Home, so you know I'm all over that! Here's a link to where I drooled over some of what I already have.

The Nester emphasizes that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful," and one of her favorite techniques for decorating on a budget are "window mistreatments." She gives various examples of this, but most involve various lengths and types of fabric, upholstery tacks, and possibly a glue gun. (Actual hardware is optional!)

So a few weeks ago, I excitedly began to "mistreat" some existing valances I already had.

Turns out, mistreating is not as effortless as it appears on the blog.


This first result doesn't look too bad in the picture, but it just didn't look at all right in person.

So in the end, the curtains ended up back in their "standard" position on curtain rods that were left behind. Not bad, but not the exciting creation that I had envisioned.

Not to be deterred, I eventually got up the courage (and found the time) to tackle my laundry room window. I found this fabric called LuLu's Lounge back before we left Alabama.

Well, a few folds, some clips I already had, and some upholstery tacks later, and this is what I had:

Not too bad, I suppose. Again, I had visions of something infinitely more wonderful, but nevertheless, I have a cute window for very little money!

I think it looks even better with this plate I bought for a couple of dollars at Tuesday Morning! I would love to paint the walls a nice, bright color, but that's pretty low on the priority list....

I had better luck (and spent much more time) on the curtains in Megan's room. Let me start by saying that I realize the pink on the wall and the pink in the curtains is a little "off." The curtains were based on her bedding, and the wall color will be changing in the near future to either the right shade of pink or a sage green.

Everything was bought at Hobby Lobby. (LOVE that store!) The topper is just a remnant I found in the clearance bin!

No sewing machine was disturbed at any time. The curtain panel was hemmed and attached to the liner with stitch witchery - an iron-on adhesive. And the trim was attached with my handy-dandy glue gun.

I also found this crystal doorknob at Hobby Lobby and thought it would be great here. (I just hammered a tiny screwdriver end into the wall, and twisted and pushed it in!) You can't see the trim very well, but it's the same as the tieback.

I'm not sure I want to leave the valance like this. Right now, it's just been mistreated with some upholstery tacks, but I do think it has a bit of a princess-y feel to it.

So there you have it, folks. Cheap and cheerful - two of my favorite qualities in home decor!