Magic Fabric Take 2

When we stumbled upon Ikea's selection of fabric during a past project, I not only fell in love with the Majken green pattern we selected for our grand entrance transformation, I also swooned over the other styles and color options. Not surprisingly I already have plans up my sleeve to use a few more of these fabrics (Kajsastian and Sofia), but before I kick off those projects, I targeted our family room windows for a quick, easy, and inexpensive update.

After we moved into our house (almost 3 years ago, eek!), the first rooms to receive some decor-attention were our family room and half-bath on our first floor, which recently got striped. And when I say "some" attention, I mean our goals were simply to paint and furnish. So when you take a look at the below pictures of the curtains in our family room, in my defense, they were a first-time-homeowner's attempt at quickly decorating our space and served us well for the first couple years.

But let's not dwell on the past because as I say, tastes and trends change with time, and today I'm sharing with you our new and (greatly) improved family room window treatments.

Not only did I swap out the valances for panels, Justin raised the curtain rods about 10 inches so they sit just a few inches below the ceiling. By hanging our panels high, it accentuates our ceiling height and makes our windows appear larger, and pushing the panels to the farthest edges of the window allows tons of light to stream in. In fact, the majority of the fabric isn't in front of the window but covers the wall and window frame, also making the windows look larger.

The fabric I used to make these panels was Ikea's Majken in white, grey, and orange. When we hung the green version of this fabric in our front entry way, I promised myself I would use it again, so when I was wandering around Ikea a few weeks ago, I picked up 12 yards of the orange pattern and got busy at home.

For this project I didn't pull out my sewing machine, but rather heated up my iron and used some magic called Stitch Witchery. Stitch Witchery is polymide fusible web that permanently bonds two layers of fabric together and is washable and dry-cleanable. When used to hem edges, it stiffens the fabric a little bit, which makes it perfect for drapery. I have employed it many times in the past (here and here) and it hasn't failed me yet.

Aside from relieving our windows of vertical shortening and accentuating their size, the panels add another layer of pattern to the room, and the colors in the fabric are within our room's color palette but don't match perfectly. These textural and color variances create depth and dimension while amplifying visual interest, a must in any room!

On a final side note, the olive branch motif in the pattern piggybacks on our tribute to our honeymoon in Italy, which I also highlighted by framing and hanging photographs I took while visiting the homeland.

So, what do you think? Are you loving the panels as much as we are?