Since then, our boy has grown so much! And we have had to tweak his room to accommodate his growth and soon-to-be-big-brother-ness!
For Christmas, Handy Hubby built him a twin sized bed, tweaked a bit from an Ana White plan (Hubby lowered the whole bed a bit so that by using box springs and a mattress, it was still low enough for our son to climb up onto).
In order to keep our son from rolling off the bed, we also put it in a corner (sorry, Baby) up against a wall so that we only had to use a safety rail on one side. This required relocating his bookcase from that corner, finding a new place for his play table, and also moving the rocking chair out of his room and into the newly converted nursery (in progress...to be shared later)
But all of this was starting to bug me. Our son's room had no cohesive concept. He uses dinosaur sheets, has art of transportation and space themes, and just has some family photos he likes to have close to him, along with his assorted stuffed animals. All the colors meshed well (green, blue, and red), but nothing really felt pulled-together.
And as we learned the hard way when we moved in, I bought faux-wood blinds that were just about 4 inches too short for his (and the nursery's) super-long windows. (DOH! I swore I had the right size... but after having them cut to a custom width, we were stuck with them) Enter Fabric.com!
I ordered some fabric that pulled together all of our son's colors without picking and choosing a set theme that he'd be stuck with as he grows. With some stripes of white, gray, green, blue, and red, the fabric was a perfect choice for his room and felt boy-ish without being baby-ish.
I studied several faux-Roman-shade tutorials on Pinterest and combined several techniques to make some for each of the boys' rooms.
(NOTE: Below, you will see both the nursery fabric and Big Boy's fabric as I worked on them simultaneously and took pictures of each at various stages)
First: I measured out my fabric to figure out how long I needed to cut my post-washing-shrunk piece in order for the finished curtain to be as long as I wanted after allowing for hemming and all the faux-pull-ups it would need. I ended up cutting each piece 42 inches wide and 46 inches long, leaving me with post-hemming rectangles approximately 39.5 x 44 inches (I didn't hem the top edge, as you'll see below)
Second, I ironed my edges for placement but I did not seal them with iron-on hem tape -- yet. I folded each edge in a 1/2-inch and then again 3/4-inch so that no rough edges would be seen, even from the back of the curtain (for those rare moments I'm in my front garden and look up to critique my work in the windows while I angrily pull stubborn weeds)
Third, I cut my black-out curtain liner to size so that it would rest inside the finished hems and be secured to the curtain with the iron-on-hem tape I'd place between it and each folded hem.
Once my 3 edges were all complete, the 2 sides and bottom edges), I began measuring and pinning my pocket/pleats. I didn't like the way the original plans lined up once heavier (with the black-out-liner) and hanging while I held them up, so I scrapped the plan and tried a few other times until I found something I liked.
I laid out my curtain and lined up my tape measure with the bottom finished corner at it's corresponding measurement (44 inches). I pinched the fabric at the 37 inch mark and pulled it up to the 29 inch mark and pinned it on both sides. I then repeated, pinching at 26 inches and pulling up to the 18 inch mark. This gave me 2 folded pleats and a hanging finished edge (some Roman shades pocket from the very bottom, others leave the bottom few inches hanging flat below the pulled-up areas) and a total curtain length of 26 inches.
I sewed the pockets on each outer edge and in 2 places along the back (discreetly) to tack the fabric so it wouldn't sag too much. I was okay with some natural sag, but I didn't want the whole thing pulling the pleats out except for the outer sewn edges and giving away my "I'm not a real Roman shade" disguise!
(Note, the next 2 pictures of the pre-sewing measurements were of my original plan to have 3 pocket pleats from the very bottom)
This is the frontal view of the finished product. See the lowest edge is not a pocket but is flat, hanging below the 2 pulled-up pocket/pleats?
Hubby pre-drilled some holes in spare 1x2 wood pieces we had that corresponded to the stud placement in the wall we were hanging the curtain from. Then we stapled the unfinished top edge to the back of the wood so that it would fold over the top, hiding the wood when the curtain is hung. Then Hubby screwed the wood into the wall's pre-drilled holes.
Stud-finding. *Beep beep beep -- found one! Handy Hubby!*
Big Boy helper!
Wood with pre-drilled holes
Top edge stapled to the wood.
We ended up cutting out notches so the screw wouldn't pucker the fabric if it went through it to the wall.
And finally, the finished curtain. We mounted it about 3 inches below the ceiling to visually raise the height of the window. This also prevents it from darkening Big Boy's room too much since he gets only indirect light throughout the day but enjoys the natural light when we don't have the blinds closed for sleeping times.
My, how he has grown. I want to (have Handy Hubby) build some simple white shelves over Big Boy's bed to hold a few framed photos (he loves having photos of us nearby... see the one taped below his Pirate Ship and Bi-plane art below?) and his stuffed animals that he likes to have close but doesn't snuggle with while he sleeps...they're taking over his bed!
And here is the finished product in the nursery
(ALERT: SNEAK PEAK OF THE NURSERY IN PROGRESS!)
Ok, ok...I'll give you one more peak of what is becoming my favorite room in the house (the nursery)!
There is still much to do, but I am already in love with it, so it only gets better from here!
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