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No-Sew Roman Shade by Guest Blogger The Cerniks!

Hi All! I’m Whitney and I am thrilled to be a guest here at Happy Hour Projects! You can find me over at The Cerniks, my little piece of the web in which I share the joys (and trials) of a new marriage and (literally) making a house, then making it a home.

Us Cerniks have had a whirlwind year! Last spring we were married and graduated in the same week! My husband began his year long residency (i.e. endless hours at the hospital) this summer. We thought we ought to throw one more thing on our plate, so we bought three acres and began building our first home in September. We share everything from step by step construction of our home, recipes, day by day life, outfits, home decor, DIY tutorials….you name it!



First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a mortgage….and a budget? As newlyweds, we need a lot of furniture to fill up our new house! Welcome DIY! To save money for important pieces, I have become a DIY obsessed decorator (and absolutely hooked on DIY blogs)!

We had a NAKED window in our mudroom/laundry room. The window needed jazzed up a bit and I adore Roman shades…just not the price! So, I searched the DIY mothership….Pinterest! I can’t sew. There, I admit it. This problem eliminated the majority of tutorials! Then I found this NO SEW faux Roman shade tutorial. Perfect. We really didn’t need a functioning shade, the best part of 3 acres is that no one is looking in!

Here is my version!
What you need:
  • 3 tension rods (mine were under $2 from Walmart)
  • fabric glue
  • fabric you LOVE
First, measure the width of your window and tack on an extra inch or so to each side. You also will need your fabric to be about two times the length of the window. My window is 28″x34″….roughly. I cut my fabric to 30×56 (because it was already 56″ long, lazy…I know).

Use a little Liquid Thread or a fabric glue of your choice and fold over your edges that run along the sides of your window (i.e. the left and right sides). I used Liquid Thread because that was what I picked off the shelf…no intention of picking a glue I needed to iron, it just happened (and I live 20 minutes from Walmart).

Voila!
Now that the sides are done, connect the bottom to the top!

This doesn’t have to be perfect either…check out my seam! Don’t worry, we will hide this!
Hang your fabric on a tension rod and place it at the top of your window. I placed my “ugly” seam at the top, just behind the rod.

Now, place the second tension rod several inches below the first and pull the front piece of fabric over. Repeat with the third rod.

After that, it just takes a little fiddling to get it right!
And there you have it…all in about an hour!

What to see our house?
My most recent project, our kitchen table!

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I love it when you love my work! All tutorials and photos published at Happy Hour Projects are copyrighted. If you would like to feature my tutorial on your website or share it on your social media you may use one photo to feature, as long as you provide a link back to the original post.

If you feature a photo, it may not be accompanied by the project tutorial or recipe, whether in my own words as it originally appears or paraphrased by you. This also includes personal sharing on social media and Pinterest. Publishing multiple photos from a project, or including instructions with an accompanying photo are not permitted and you will be asked to remove them.

I love to share my projects, and my tutorials, recipes, and e-books are ALL free for your personal use. However, photos and ideas that are published to this site are my protected intellectual property. You may print them at home, but please do not copy or distribute them. I also allow all designs to be made and sold at fundraisers, craft fairs, etc. If you are selling a piece made from one or more of my free tutorials in your online shop, I require that you use your own, original photography, and include a link back to my website to credit me as the designer.

I hope you enjoy what you read here, and please be fair when you share!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cel says

    Great article! Thank you…

    I have never used fabric glue or any liquid stitching. That’s very interesting!

    So, can you put your roman shades in the washer? How about on the dryer? Can the fabric glue hold them together without any “side effects”?

    Thanks.

    Reply

  7. Heather says

    Great idea! Question though: how obvious is it from the other side of the window that it is a faux shade. I ask because my kitchen window happens to look out right into a covered outside living room where the grill is. The actual fabric is seen from the back, correct? Thanks!! I love your fabric choice too!

    Reply

  9. Marti says

    Just did these today for one of my guest baths. LOVE IT. It has made a huge difference, and I think the entire project cost me 12 bucks! Thank you so much for sharng the idea.

    Reply

  10. Sammia says

    Very nice! But i have aQuestion. So these you can’t really adjust day to day with out taking the rods off right?

    Reply

  11. sue says

    I just wanted to tell you that I had made curtains similar to yours in the EXACT fabric a year ago and I also made them as roman shades! I bought the fabric at Joanne’s. I was just browsing pinterest and wanted to see other roman shades and found your site. Although the shades I made had to be sewn, because a pair needed to be hung on my french door. Yours look fabulous!

    Reply

  13. Diana says

    OMG I love this – I too am sewing challenged and this is a project I can actually managed. Thank you

    Reply

  14. red bottom shoes says

    Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m definitely enjoying your
    blog and look forward to new updates.

    Reply

  18. Kar says

    love the fabric…for a shade that small you might be able to use velcro dots, incase you need a working shade.

    Reply

  19. Shelly says

    I noted this the other day via Honeybear Lane. I love the material!! Well done tutorial too. :)

    Reply

  20. Sherry says

    It looks nice and you did a beautiful job. I guess I'll be doing this soon. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm now your newest follower.

    Reply

  21. Joan says

    Love this, I've been looking for something for my kitchen windows and this will be perfect! Pinning!

    Reply

    • lynn says

      what a great easy project and so worth the 45 min it took to put it together. Hurray for liquid stitch.

      Reply

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