DIY Customized Roman Shades

I finally finished up Avery's twin roman shades for his bedroom, along with lots of help from one my friends! So thankful to have friends who love tackling DIY projects and willing to lend a hand. After being inspired by this and this image on Pinterest, I knew roman shades where a must for his bedroom. I just love patterned roman shades in kids rooms. They add another layer or color and whimsy in a room, I'm a fan of kids rooms being full of color, fun and all about the kid. Custom roman shades can be very expensive depending on the window size and fabric selection. 

I wanted to make sure the roman shades were fully functional (I would be able to open and close them) rather then making stationary faux roman shades so I decided to buy 'ready made roman shades' and customize them using fabric of my choice. I'll share a complete how to on Thursday for those of you interested in this Semi DIY No Sew project, yep no sewing involved and they remain fully functional! 

Here's what the roman shades looked like when I bought them and after hanging them up in Avery's room, they looked nice, but way to 'safe' and 'plain' for a toddlers room! Pretty much a snoozefest, lol. 

Roman Shades Before

 I loved the idea of using a  bold graphic geometric fabric for his roman shades, after seeing these pillows on Pinterest, I was determined to find a similar fabric as the David Hicks La Foirentina (with out the cost) I loved how fun these pillow were and knew a similar fabric would look amazing as roman shades. I used the Richloom fabric Dixon in the color Kiwi. The fabric I bought is the more affordable version of the La Foirentina for around $10.99 per yard.

 The Roman Shades really add so much color and fun in his room. The geometric print, doesn't overwhelm the room. I've pretty smitten with this shade of chartreuse color in the geometric fabric (perfect happy color for my sons toddler room)

DIY Customized Roman Shades

The roman shades are perfect mirror images of each other from left to right. 

This picture below captures the color best in real life. A fun bright chartreuse green without being in your face. 

When the roman shades are half closed they help provide room darkening, in the picture below you can see the exterior boning I was talking about above. 

The header of the Roman Shades are cover with a small valance, that looks like a fold when in place. The valance helps give a polished feel to the Roman Shades and is attached with Velcro (it came that way) 

When the Roman Shades are closed they help control light and block out the sun, the original roman shade that I covered up with fabric acts as a liner to the shade helps control the light. 

Here's keeping it real picture of Avery's bedroom, toys everywhere lol. I'll share more of his toddler room next week, which still in progress and has needs (storage, storage and more storage & art!)

What do you think of the DIY Customized Roman shades? Big Change over the old blah white ones huh? I have lots more blah Roman Shades around the house that I plan on customizing.


How To Customize Roman Shades 

Toddler Art Caddy

One afternoon while shopping in Marshalls I came across a cute pencil caddy and I though it would make the perfect toddler art caddy for Avery. I loved that the caddy was a solid white & spun around and wasn't to big and bulky making it much easier to fill-up  What better way to show all the pretty colors? I bought the caddy for $12 bucks and filled it up with various art supplies all found on clearance at Target & Walmart thanks to back to School supply overload at both stores.

The toddler art caddy is filled with: small and large markers, thin and chunky crayons, glue sticks and colored chalk. Thanks to all the chalkboards people having been making the past few years its so easy to find chalk now! 

I love seeing Avery's little face full of excitement when we spins his art caddy around and around. I even shared a quick video on Instragram of him spinning his art caddy around click here. 

When we're not creating art together, his art caddy resides out of reach on top of his bookcase! We're practicing using only a few colors at a time and putting them back after he's done. I recently picked up some acrylic paints and brushes and a canvas for Avery since he enjoys painting at pre-school. I plan to have him paint a little 'toddler abstract' for his room, love kid art! I really love the Ikea Mala Art Easel and plan on buying one for his room when he's a little older. 
His toddler room is really coming along, I plan on sharing some pictures of his completed DIY Customized Roman [ no sew] shades on the blog Thursday, still trying to get the perfect shot so you can all see how adorable and nice professional they turned out! 

How do you store your kids art?