These Faux Roman window Shades are stupid easy to make and take any window from incomplete to polished and cozy. Put them together in one afternoon (no sewing required!) and with materials you can buy at your local supercenter.
I wish I could take credit for coming up with this awesome DIY Faux Roman Window Shade idea but I learned it from Casey Finn at The DIY Playbook Blog and she learned it from someone else!
To whomever originally owns this tutorial, you’re a genius! And thank you! My windows have never looked better.
The Starting Place (aka the before photos):
I’ve been wanting to give the windows in my kitchen and dining room area some love for a while now but found myself lacking the time and energy to do something about it, until recently!
This may sound a little dramatic but before I installed these DIY Roman Window Shades I have been noticing my window’s “bareness” and it has been slowly eating at my soul, daily.
I couldn’t help but think that my kitchen and dining area still looked like we were in the construction phase and somehow incomplete.
The bay window (pictured above) was especially bugging me as they are old and the window sealant created black drips running down from the top of the windows. Yikes!
I needed a solution that was simple and cheap but looked high-end. After a quick Pinterest search I found this DIY Roman Window Shade tutorial I’m about to share with you!
Supplies You Will Need:
- choice of upholstery or decor fabric, 2″ wider than your window and exactly the length of your window from top to bottom. I opted to use a gray stripe pattern in my kitchen and a linen textured fabric in the dining area.
- fabric scissors
- double sided fabric adhesive tape (or hemming tape)
- 3 tension rods/window
- level
- iron
- measuring tape
Step 1: Measure and Cut the fabric
Measure the width of the window, add 2″ and cut accordingly.
Then measure the height of the window and this will be your exact length.
Note: striped fabric makes cutting straight lines so much easier!
Step 2: Hem all the edges of the fabric
Use your iron and fabric adhesive (hemming tape) to hem the edges of the fabric. No sewing required!
To hem my fabric I simply folded a bath towel in half and laid my fabric out on top of it. Then I folded the edges of my fabric over the hemming tape moving my iron along the fold as I went.
Step 3: Install the tension rods, leveling as you go
The key is to keep your tension rods fairly close and very level.
Step 4: Drape the Fabric
To get the Roman Shade effect, hang your fabric over the top tension rod so it is draped in half and so that it is behind the two lower tension rods.
Next, grabbing both the front and back of the fabric, pull it slightly over the second rod.
Repeat over the third tension rod. You should now have something that looks like a Roman Shade!
Step 5: Tweak and Tweak some more!
It might take a bit of finagling to get the fabric to hang right but just keep messing with it and eventually it will get there!
Friends, I could not be more pleased with how these DIY Roman Window Shades turned out! It’s almost shocking how much this simple project brought warmth and that extra special something to my kitchen and dining area. I highly recommend trying this project for yourself.
One thing to note: Since these DIY Roman Window Shades are faux you cannot open and close them! I was totally fine with that as my kitchen/dining area faces the back of our home which is very private and I would have never bothered to close them anyway.
Until next time, Jess <3
Stay Tuned for more Simple Projects and in the meantime check out our diy guest bathroom remodel!
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