Roman Blinds

When we moved into our house, we straight away set about making it into a home. One of the things we did was removed all the horrible moldy blinds and went on the hunt for some shiny new ones. But even our favorite yellow and blue home store had got a little pricey for our current cash flow. So I set about making our own. I only wanted two, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. The bedroom one needed to have some sort of blackout properties so we could get a decent nights sleep.

I found some gorgeous black and white thick striped fabric for our kitchen which went with our newly painted grey cupboards and a plain black for the bottom of the blind. I also found some plain white blackout fabric for the bedroom; and because that wasn't the prettiest I made it double layered with a plain white cotton for the front of the blind to make it look a little softer and nicer.

The pattern I got from Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Home book. Her's is for a linen blind but the basic principles are the same. But there are so many free designs all over the internet. It is just a case of finding one that you understand and get along with.

In the Bedroom

This is the bedroom blind down, with the lights off and on, I made the sides slightly too wide so that as little light could get in as possible. Annoyingly my bottom baton is ever so slightly bent in the middle so light gets in underneath. Ya can't win them all!

When the blind is open (yes I know I need a proper securing method than just the window handle) the double layered look gives the soft front piece the chance to just flow and ruffle softly giving a less uniform look the creases and I like how it does this. Goes well with my floaty curtains.

In the Kitchen

The kitchen blind folds up a lot shorter than the bedroom one. This is because the kitchen is a rather dark room and I wanted as much light to come in as possible. Over time the blind has learnt where its folds are and now automatically folds without us having to touch up the folds like you can see in this photo which I took when I first made the blind. It gives us a lovely nice big window to look out of while my mans making me dinner!

I really like the stripe at the bottom, it gives it a different look, and also hides the muckiness that could be there from the splash back from doing the washing up!

 It is very rewarding making something for your house that you use every day. I am so very pleased with myself for making them.

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