Making Roman Shades Using Mini Blinds

Its that time again for The Pinterest Challenge Winter Edition from Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors and Hi Sugarplum. I loved making the Wine Glass Lanterns in the Fall Edition, so I knew this was the perfect kick in the butt that I needed to get another project done.

This all started a couple of months ago, when my parents dropped off their doberman, Shadow, for us to dogsit for a few days. It was her first time coming to the apartment, but we figured she'd do okay with her best buddy Whiskey around.

During the 15 minutes between the time that Garrett left for the gym and I was getting home from the grocery store, she managed to destroy the front hall blind. I guess she was just nervous with all the unfamiliar noises on our street, but I have to say I could have killed her when I found this, if I didn't feel so bad for her.

Needless to say the blind was beyond repair. I'd thought about just replacing it, but then I starting looking on Pinterest and found some interesting ideas on how to fix this problem.

Source: evolutionofstyleblog.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

What if I turned the mini blind into a roman blind?

Source: 365days2simplicity.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

I found some great tutorials on Pinterest that showed how you could keep some of the hardware and add some fun fabric.

I already had this great fabric I bought on clearance from Tonic Living (love their fabric selection). It was perfect for livening up the front hall and I'd already paid for it for another project, so it felt like this was free (at least that's what I tell myself Garrett).

I cut the fabric to the dimensions I wanted, hemmed all the sides and then adjusted the blind length, removing extra slats, as the tutorial mentioned. I kept the distance between the slats 6-1/2 inches apart, with a little extra fabric on the ends to fill in the rest of the window frame.

And here is the finished product! I love it! Maybe I should thank Shadow for forcing me to change this up, because now it looks even better than it did with the mini blinds. It gives some more colour and dimension to an otherwise neglected area of the apartment.

The fabric looks great with the paint colour, and brings in some of the olive colours from the newly recovered dining room chairs around the corner.

It also gives us some privacy when we want it, while still letting in light. But I'll make sure to keep it up high next time Shadow comes for a visit, that's for sure.

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