This picture shows the original valance and the original faded country blue vertical on the left, and the brown that I painted on the right. Keep this color of brown in mind when you get to the last few pictures...the color looks very washed out in some, but not in this one.
A closer look....and the brown looks beautiful in this one. I am in love with chocolaty brown colors!
I used regular wall paint. I started with the left over Dark Toast from the laundry room walls. Needed more so bought a second gallon. Now, if you do this and your vertical blinds have the weighted chain things at the bottom that keep the vanes connected, you can just just snip the vane off straight right above where the chain and weight runs through the bottom. These blinds are old and two of them I had already snipped the bottom off a long time ago because they were broken. The blinds work fine without them. I removed each vane (Be careful! I broke two of the little hookymebobbers that hold them and had to make shift wire the vanes back up after a failed super glue. No biggie, but try not to break them!) and laid on newspaper taped to the table to paint. I only painted one side. I hung them back up wet and got the next one down to paint. The fabric soaks up the paint, so no dripping. Also, since it soaks up the paint, work quickly and keep your brush moving. If you were going to have these on a window that you care about what it looks like from the outside, you may want to paint both sides, but let one side dry before you do the other.
Here is the bigger window before....
And after.....cept' the blind color is darker than that, these pictures make them look much lighter than they are.
I bought fabric and sewed a flat valance for each window. I doubled the fabric over to make them more opaque. The seam is about 1/3 way down in the back...I ironed them to have a good solid crease on the bottom.
The fabric up close....it is Jacquard, I love it. Chocolaty beauty!
This was a very fast project. I got it done in one day. And I would definitely do it again! It turned out much better that I ever expected it to and it dramatically changed the look and feel of the living room. And I saved a ton of money! I spent $50 on fabric and paint. The fabric I used was $8.44 per yard and I used 3.5 yards. If you have priced new verticals, you'd know they are not cheap! Now...if it would EVER warm up, we could stop using the wood stove in this room so I can get my new carpet in there!! We are also going to do ceramic tiling in front of the deck door (currently wall to wall ugly country blue carpet that is faded and stained) and also ceramic tiling under the wood stove - right now it sits on an ugly black piece of metal that is on top of the carpet! Ugh! :)
