Finished Project: Privacy Roman Shade

We moved into our home almost 10 months ago now, which is hard to believe!  Our neighborhood was still under construction at the time and we had no neighbors for months.  We longed for people to be around us, but that also meant spending some money.  You see, only the windows on the front house came with mini-blinds; it was up to us to cover the remainder of the windows.  We weren't in a position to go out and spend hundreds of dollars getting blinds for every window.  We've slowly added blinds and window treatments to various rooms in the house and I love what we've done so far.  You can read about the kitchen windows, dining room panels, living room drapes, and bathroom valance.  I mentioned in this post the linen look drapes that I made for the family room.  They are perfect for a couple of reasons: 1) they are simple, 2) the light comes in so they can be pulled shut to provide privacy and natural light, 3) they were relatively inexpensive.

When we finally got neighbors behind us, we decided it was time to do something about the back door, which is all glass.  Rather than purchasing a shade for the door (they are expensive), I decided to use the same material as the family room drapes, and make a roman shade.  Roman shades always terrify me, because you have to get the rings/cords lined up perfectly in order for it to function properly.

Four rows of rings with cord looped through in order to make the shade pull up evenly.

Thankfully, this one worked well!

It had been hanging up, unfinished (I've mentioned before that I'm notorious for not finishing projects), for several months.  My husband finally told me this was one of the projects he wanted me to complete before our company comes for the holidays.  So, I got around to it the other day and love how it works.

I just need Bradley to hang the cord pleat so that the cord doesn't need to be wrapped around my kitchen plant in order to keep the shade up.

Notice the cord on the right hand side of the photo.  Soon there will be a hook on the door for the cord to wrap around.

We now have a nice shade on our back door to give us some privacy from the neighbors and also keep the hot sun out during the summer months.  I love it!  Best part, it only cost about $15!

Simple piece of trim on the bottom for a bit of difference.

Love the folds when it's pulled up.

Just to give you a picture of real life around here, this is what the door looked like before I washed it to snap some photos.  

This is what you get with an enormous St. Bernard who gets muddy playing outside.

What projects have you finished lately?  You can read about my sister's latest project here.