Master Bathroom Progress

  Master Bathroom Window Treatments

I completed a few projects before I decided to record the process in a blog, and well, let's just face it - window treatments take priority in a newly built home (unless you like peeping toms, I suppose!). As a basic measure, my hubby installed 2" wide faux plantation blinds from Home Depot (to replace the brown paper that we placed over the windows during our first week!).

The walls throughout our house are a bright, neutral cream and we love the airy, light look and feel of the color. With the cream as a foundation, I wanted to add a bold splash of color in the bathroom. I am teaching myself to sew, and had planned to make a swag for the window, but could not find the right fabric.

On a trip to World Market for some other items, I stumbled across the "Tree of Life" curtains and fell in love with the print.  It had exactly what I was looking for - a bright, fun color combination in an interesting pattern.  (It also didn't hurt that it has chocolate brown and bright pink in the pattern, which are the colors of our current towels.)  The curtain panels were the standard 84" long panels priced at $34.99 each.  I waited to purchase them until I had a 20% coupon through their Market Explorers rewards program.

The window is 47 1/2" wide, so I purchased two curtain panels in order to create a longer drop on both sides of the swag (I used one and a half panels). To add interest and texture, I purchased two types of trim from Hobby Lobby, using the weekly 40% off coupon. I wanted a trim that hung down over the edges of the swag, originally planning to pick up pom-pom trim, but settled on a beaded one instead. I wanted a more sophisticated edge on the trim than the plan woven one standard on beaded trims, so I found a beautiful chocolate brown. 

To begin the project, I cut the second curtain panel in half cross-wise, and sewed it to the other whole panel, lining up the pattern as best I could. Note: I kept the wide seams in back aligned so that I could thread the curtain rod through the long side of the curtain later.  This was the top of the swag.

Next, I attached the beaded trim to the opposite long end of the fabric, to form the bottom of the swag.

I then sewed the fancier trim on top of the beaded trim for a more finished look.  Each of the curtain panels came with one tieback.  I had another use in mind, so I also attached this top brown trim to both sides of the tiebacks.

To hang the curtain, I used a 48" cafe curtain rod from Wal Mart, a rod thin enough to fit through the hems which were already sewn (as side hems) on the purchased curtain panels. In addition to the cafe rod, we hung two hold backs ($9 each, also at Wal Mart) underneath the cafe rod at the corners of the window frame. (The rod holders are flush with the holdbacks.) For correct placement, I centered the fabric over the window, allowing to rest in the holdbacks, then marked the areas on the back of the curtain for the locations to create openings for the rod. I then cut the openings and threaded the rod through the middle section of the top of the swag. After draping, I wanted to hide the holdbacks while also adding interest and dimension to the swag.  Using a hot glue gun, I attached the tiebacks to the holdbacks:

The finished product is bright, fun, and whimsical and we love it.

As the bathroom progresses, I will add more, but we have family visiting for the weekend, so I'm off to make my mom's famous banana pudding :-)