No Sew Valance August 17, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Home & Garden, Sustainable Living, Word Play.comments closed
BFF and I have been replacing the old vertical blinds and valances on our sliding doors with new easy-to-operate single wand vertical blinds.
As we ejected one ugly balloon valance after another from the villa, I turned my attention to the lone window in my office.
There, above my desk, a hideous valance in mauve and mint mocked me.
“That,” I decided, “must go!”
Using two parts inspiration and one part perspiration, I transformed two zebra striped pillow shams into a valance for the window . . . without sewing a single stitch!
* I laid the shams side by side over the two-inch-wide (talk about overkill!) curtain rod to mark the horizontal mid-point of each sham.
* After unfolding them, I created three “tabs” for the curtain rod to slide through by snipping three sets of parallel slits through the “inside” layer of each sham.
* After threading the industrial size rod through the newly created tabs, I draped the uncut side of the sham in front of the rod, hung it above my desk, and arranged the folds.
I’m delighted with the end result:
The zebra print suits our decor far better than the mauve mint pattern which preceded it, and allowed me to “repurpose” un-used shams.
Fun Fact: In case you’re wondering, “valence” is also a word, meaning:
the combining power of an atom as shown by the number of its electrons that are lost, gained, or shared in the formation of chemical bonds
What a difference one letter makes, eh?
No rules. Just write!
What about you? Any stories to share about reducing, reusing, recycling, or repurposing objects around your home at no or low cost?
Spirit Lights The Way 