Last summer, when we were planning our cross-country move, I promised the boys I would make their new room look nice.  I also promised them I would incorporate each of their favorite colors.  Nicolas’s favorite color is/was pink, and Kalen’s is green.  They both chose blue as their second-favorite color.  (Let’s ignore the fact that after three years with pink as his favorite color, just last week Nicolas changed his mind and chose gold.  Ahem.)

So, the challenge was on.  How to incorporate both pink and green and not have the room look stereotypically girlie?  Ikea to the rescue:

I saw this fabric at Ikea Atlanta, took a photo, and filed it away in the back of my brain as the probable solution.  (That reddish-looking stripe is actually a dark pink.)  I figured I would make drapes with it when I worked a fabric purchase that large into our decorating budget.

Enter Jenny at My Little Green Notebook.  I’ll wait while you click her link.  Dum-dee-doo…How cool is that?  Just a little fabric and a couple hours’ time for a great big change.  The icing on the cake was a trip to Ikea in November that netted me the exact fabric I wanted on sale for $1.99/yd.  (Score!)

You all know how frugal/budget-minded/cheap I am, especially when it comes to home decor.  It took me a couple of months of now-and-then trips to the craft stores with my coupons to grab the foam core, trim, batting, fabric glue, and duct tape (can you believe we were out of duct tape??) I’d need to do the project.  Yesterday, however, I picked up the duct tape, headed home, and started sketching pelmet shapes.

I made only one change to Jenny’s plan for our pelmet.  Since the previous tenant left a curtain rod up, the hardware was ready and waiting.  I added a top to the box, so the whole piece could just slide over the curtain rod hardware.  (Work with what you’ve got!)

There was math involved.  The sheets of foam core are 30″ wide, and the pelmet needed to be 68″ to fit over the hardware.  This is about the time my mind started wandering, with fond remembrance, to drafting tables and French curves.

Quilting rules and self-healing mats did nicely, and I think my freehand curves turned out just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Using a knife with a long blade saves a step – no tracing for a mirror image, just cutting!

I used a lot of duct tape.  Probably a lot more than is necessary.  It’s sturdy, though!

Both the fabric and the batting had to be pieced to fit the length of the pelmet.  I’m pretty proud of my stripe-matching job.  I’ll spare you the photo of me whip stitching the batting.

As this was my first upholstery project of any kind, I was thankful for Jenny’s advice to pull tightly.  I was also thankful I’d used so much duct tape, as I bounced the poor pelmet around and yanked this way and that on the fabric.

Time for a brief plug for this handy little Craftsman staple gun.  I don’t have much hand strength, and this is so easy for me to use.  I can put my body weight behind it rather than pulling a trigger with my fingers.

And now I think I’ve teased you enough.  Would you like to see the final product?

I’m pretty darned happy with it…and I’ve got enough fabric left over for another project!  So many possibilities…