{DIY roman shade}

For the longest time, laundry rooms around the world got the shaft. I mean, let's be honest- 9 times out of 10 it was the room that was shunned. It was the room that got passed when giving a home tour. Door shut, with clothes piled high, hiding in a dark abyss...

However, thanks to the blogging world, the laundry room is the new living room. And who can blame us? If you're like me, you're spending every other day (I'm sure once we have kids it'll be every day) in the laundry room, sorting, folding, and changing loads. Why not make it less of an eye sore, right?

Well, for me, my laundry room is more of a laundry closet. A pair of accordion doors are all that hide my washer and dryer and some left over door less cupboards. While I am thankful for the extra storage it wasn't the prettiest space in my house, so I decided to do something about it!

I realized that my little laundry closet wasn't deep enough to put doors on the cupboards, so I decided I'd make a roman shade to cover the mess. I found the fabric I wanted at Ikea & followed these directions to make the shade. I also found really helpful directions here.

I bought the skinny piece of wood at home depot for $0.75! Can't beat that! I also bought a roman shade kit from Joann's which included the roman shade tube tape, rings, L brackets, cording, eye screws, etc.

(hey, it kinda makes a cute rug too! don't you think?)

I decided not to line my shade because it was too much work and nobody was going to see it from the other side. Also, the fabric was thick enough that you couldn't see through it, so I skipped that step. After I hemmed the sides & bottom, I used fabric glue to adhere my tube tape (see, even if you can't sew, you can do this!) and let it sit until it was dry (about 30 minutes).

Then I inserted my 1/4" dowels into the tube tape (I had to use 2 dowels because my shade was so wide) & hand sewed the rings onto the tape.

Then I stapled the shade to the wood, screwed in the eye screws, & threaded it with the cording. When that was done, I attached my L brackets & hung it up!

And this is the finished product...cute, yet functional! I love how it looks now and I can still easily access my things.