Faux Roman Shades for the Kitchen

Does anyone else have a difficult time treating windows?  And by treating, I mean window treatments, not cleaning or preparing for the elements.  Making this decision is always a long process for me for several reasons:

1. They need to look good.
2. Spending a lot of money is not an option.
3. DIY is a preference.
4. Easy is better.

Meeting all of this criteria can be a challenge, specifically for someone as fickle as me in my decorating choices!  Oh, to be able to take the time to go back to school for some interior design classes...

My kitchen opens up right to the family room, so my choices in there needed to coordinate/flow with the choices I made in the family room. (You can read about  my family room drapes here). The kitchen was my first project, so I started with picking fabric.  After perusing the fabric outlet in town, the internet, and finally Joann's, I decided on this gorgeous fabric:

One of the colors in the pattern matches perfectly the color that we chose for paint (you can read about my paint choices here), which is why we chose that paint color!  I love the linen background and the floral pattern.  Plus, the pattern has the blues and greens which I wanted to keep going throughout the downstairs of our home.

After choosing the fabric, the next step was determining how to use it.  I knew that I wanted a top treatment, not something that would hang to the floor, for the kitchen.  There are a ton of patterns out there for valances and other top-treatments, but nothing really caught my eye.  What was left?  Roman Shades.  Ugh!  I have always loved the look of these, but the thought of actually making one terrified me!  But, this was the only thing I liked, so I had to do it.  I decided on the 'faux' kind, simply because it used less fabric (economical-meets the criteria).

I waited for a big sale at Joann's, and then purchased my fabric and supplies.  I became more terrified as the ladies were cutting my fabric and cording for the shades when they started bombarding me with tips on how to make sure the shades were perfect, saying things like, "If you don't line everything up perfectly your shade will open crooked and won't look right".  I finally told them to stop because I thought for sure I'd never be able to make it work!

Thankfully, I used a pattern for these, but I've also seen some great tutorials in blogland for making Roman Shades, in case you don't want to spend the money on a pattern.  (Just google 'tutorial for Roman Shades').

I think I literally sat for 4 hours reading the pattern trying to decipher what the directions were telling me to do.  Am I the only one who has this trouble with patterns?  Finally, it clicked and I dove in.  Once I started it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, just some simple seam-sewing.  The challenging part was measuring the placement for the rings (where the cord would hang) and rigging the cord.  My mom happened to be in town the weekend after I had sewn the shades, so she graciously assisted me in this process, since she had done it before.

I love the way they turned out and I really like having this style in the kitchen.  It keeps it open, fairly casual, but still dressed nicely.

Now, since we have neighbors in the back, blinds will be a necessity!  Maybe we'll get those up this weekend...