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DIY Burlap Roman Shade over Mini Blinds
I love the look of burlap, I hate the look of mini blinds. Finally, I figured out how to solve both problems at once.
My mom helped me with a little DIY project that I had been procrastinating on when she visited in July. A burlap roman shade to cover the mini blinds in our dining room. I LOVE how it turned out, and since it was SO simple, I thought I’d share how to do it.
If you rent your home, rather than own it; more than likely you are stuck with the standard mini blinds hung from every window in the house. Now you could take them down and try to store them somewhere and rehang them when you leave, or you could try to talk to the landlord about installing something better, but you might want to try this option instead. It keeps the mini blinds in tact, providing shade, privacy and a happy landlord…but it also makes the room feel much more homey and you can customize it to your decorating style.
I cut a piece of burlap to the size of my window, actually to the exact width and about 2″ longer, and ironed it flat. See how to cut burlap in a straight line here. Then I folded the top down approximately 2″ to give me a finished edge and used Wonder Under to hold the folded strip down. I attached a strip of mounting tape to the back of that fold and then fastened the top of my curtain directly onto the mini blinds front facing panel. This gave me a nice, straight, finished top.
Then we used a needle and thread to tie the burlap to the actual strings of the mini blind. Once on each side and then again in the middle, making sure to carefully count how many slats were between each fold. For my curtain, we tied it at the bottom and four additional times at equally spaced intervals. We didn’t have to take the blinds down to do this, although I’m sure it looked a bit awkward as we tried to fit between the window and the shade looking for the needle in the burlap sack.
Doing it this way allows you to still use the mini blind just like before. When it is down, it looks likes a curtain, but when the blind is pulled up, the burlap poofs out and folds like a Roman shade. I especially like the look of the contrast between the curtain and the lace doily table runner. (More on the jar of popsicle sticks later)
This, {read with Rob Lowe’s voice} literally, could not be an easier curtain. Tape, needle, thread, fabric – that’s it!