Don't Be Afraid of the Fabric

One of my favorite things is fabric. I love to decorate my house and I love the feeling fabric gives to a room. I have a unique gift which is being able to pick two fabrics which sort of don't match and making them work together.

I didn't always have such fabric confidence. Well, maybe I did when I made a baby blanket or something that was just going to get ruined anyway, but not with fabric everyone could see. Then I discovered The Nester. The Nester is a blogger who embodies my favorite design philosophies, which are: 1) It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful, 2) If you love it, use it in your house whether you think it's "right" or not, and 3) Homes are supposed to be lived in, not looked at.

So The Nester has an awesome tutorial on no-sew curtains. She calls them "mistreatments."Of course when I read this, I thought, Anna would never allow me to do that. Ever. Anna is "The Fabric Whisperer" and can sew up a storm with her fancy sewing machine. She makes the most dreamy curtains in 20 minutes or less. Sewing is easy for Anna. I can sew, but I don't love to sew. And I change my mind so often in my decorating I wanted an option that let me get that fabric up on the wall without stressing out about it if it wasn't my true love one year later. So here are my lovely curtains that a) have been folded, drapery clipped, and HOT GLUED, people, and b) mostly don't have curtain rods, and c) brought me hours of happiness from looking at my favorite fabrics and knowing it took me less than one episode of Spongebob to get them up there.

Exhibit A: My lovely bedroom curtains. I love these curtains so much that when I look at them I get that special feeling inside, like the first time you saw a Brad Pitt movie. (I have to say I shamelessly copied the fabric choices for these from The Nester.) I hot glued the pieces together for the top curtains. I also hot glued the bottom piece of fabric and trim on the long ones and hung with drapery clips.

Exhibit B: My equally lovely living room curtains. The fabric is a silk, so you get to pouf them like a prom dress and it's super fun. These windows are at a weird angle and so it worked out well that I didn't use rods. Those are upholstery tacks tacked into the wall and the drapery clips hang right on them. In the big picture of this room you never even notice that part. All you notice is this beautiful window dressed for the prom.

Exhibit C: The dining room. These were a last-minute idea around Thanksgiving when 20 people were coming over to my house for dinner and I thought, hmm. I think this room needs fabric! My husband hates these.

Exhibit D: These are my kitchen curtains. HOT GLUED, people. Not one ounce of stitching. And I don't even mind because we just spill stuff on them and splatter dirty dishwater all over the place, but my kitchen is so dang cute. (Can you tell I love checks?)Exhibit E: Family Room. Technically, these don't count. I sewed them. But they were an easy pattern (devised by Anna, of course) and didn't take too long to do. Notice that I hung them high above the window to make the windows look larger.

Exhibit F: Kids' Bathroom. Not my best work, but better than a big blank window. I layered and tacked up the fabric and then HOT GLUED the trim on the bottom. I promise these look cuter in real life.

Exhibit G: Baby's room. Also a sewing job, however, this is a great example of using something you have and re-purposing it. I made a crib set, complete with bumper pads, pillows, a blanket, and a beautiful crib skirt for Maggie. This fabric is from the floor-length crib skirt. When she got older and the crib went down to the bottom rung, I took all of this beautiful fabric and made it into a valance for her big girl room. I love the silky purple paired with the casual plaid.

Exhibit H: What is that holding up my cute plaid valance in my closet? Why, it's our old friend the upholstery tacks! This was super easy. All I did was fold the fabric, hoist my bad self up onto a chair, and pound it into the wall. And yes, Nester, I did use a high heeled shoe. It was my closet, after all!

I'm sure you'll all love the Nester's blog and never return to me for decorating advice. I'm okay with that. She's much more of an expert than I am. But trust me, it's only fabric. Don't be afraid...the fabric just wants to be friends with you!