DIY: Custom looking Window Treatments

Window Treatments can take a big chunk of your room budget if you decide to go custom. I have some pretty great seamstresses that I work with whose rates are very budget friendly, but add to that loads of yardage that I would have needed for my bay window and I knew I had to go the DIY route.

One of my favorite go to places for budget friendly window treatments that look luxe is JC PENNEY. The best part is that they normally have some sort of promo code going on. So when I purchased my window panels they were on sale and then an extra 20% off!

Now I wanted to add something a bit more custom to the window and give a bigger impact so I knew a padded cornice would be a good solution.

After a quick trip to Home Depot we had our supplies:



and



Now it will be different for everyone, but I cut down my main piece to size and then decided that I wanted my side pieces to be 4".

The side pieces need to be at least 3 and 1/2 inches, because of how far my curtain rod stuck off the wall. I purchased an inexpensive rod set by Umbra at Century 21 for $10!

Side profile of my curtain rod:

Once you pick your size for your side pieces you need to cut them with your table saw:

Cut pieces:

You will then use your liquid nails to hold the two pieces of wood together and start to nail it in place:



Then you can add your L brackets for support:



Now for the fun part adding the fabric! I picked a neutral for my window panels so I knew I wanted to keep it neutral on the cornice. Since I knew it would be hard to find a fabric that totally matched in shade and texture I ordered one additional panel in the 108" length and used that as my fabric to wrap around my cornice. It was the perfect solution!

Before you add fabric you need to add a cushioning so with some quilting batting and spray glue you can get to work:



We did this outside so that spray glue wouldn't get all over the place. You never think it's going to get everywhere, but based on numerous past experience it totally does so if you can spray outdoors I would do so.



Then wrap your wood cornice:



Almost finished now! Now make sure you've ironed your fabric and cut it to size and you can start stapling it on:



Once you staple it into place you are all finished!

Here is a little design tip that I used for my window situation. You all know I hate short window panels. Well of course in my excitement of ordering my window panels on a crazy sale I ordered the 84" length when I really needed 86"!!! Whoops! Turns out 86" version didn't exist anyway and the next size up would have been 93" and therefore require some hemming. I didn't want to hem so I stuck with the 84" and due to my cornice and some clip rings I made it work!!!

Clip rings totally saved they day! I bought a bunch of inexpensive ones at Ikea and went to town! Now my curtains just kiss the floor:

Here is my before:


And the after:

Another tip into helping your curtains look like they were custom made is the fullness of the panels.The number of panels used to cover a window should be enough fabric to cover two times the width of your window. I ordered 4 curtain panels to get the amount of fullness for my bay window.

How to hang on wall: