Half-bath Makeover Part 2: Treating the Window

Now that our half-bath is no longer a beige box, it’s time to dress up the window with something a little fancier than simply mini-blinds, which are necessary for privacy. The catch: the fabric must coordinate with the valances in our dining room, because the bathroom window is clearly visible from the dining room.

The dining room valances are a pretty paisley print with green, brown, blue, and cream:

In this “before” photo, you can see how the bathroom is awkwardly placed right off the dining room. The goal of this makeover was to coordinate the bathroom’s colors with the greens and blues of the dining room, while also making the bathroom recede into the background. The dark blue wall color definitely achieves that effect.

I ordered a few swatches from Lewis & Sherron Fabrics, but while all of the patterns were pretty, they were all too large and would compete with the paisley. After hunting around my local JoAnn Fabrics store, I found a green and cream print on sale for a mere $7/yard. Score! I picked up some lining fabric (also on sale with a coupon), and brought in the big guns: my mom. She spent a Saturday at our house with my sewing machine (hooray – it’s out of the box!), and stitched together a professional-grade valance that was inspired by one in my mother-in-law’s kitchen.

Mom followed the instructions for a lined rod-pocket curtain, and I used cream grosgrain ribbon (held in the back with safety pins) to create a little flounce. Since the window is quite small, the rod was installed about 4 inches above the frame to allow maximum light. At the same time, lining the curtain keeps the light from filtering through the print fabric in the wrong places so that you can’t tell that window is smaller than it appears. If it was unlined, light would filter through the bottom few inches, but not the top.

I’m really happy with the way the print coordinates with the dining room valances:

Using the ribbon to create a little “pick-up” also creates a soft edge that works well with the scalloped valances.

Thanks, Mom!