If you’re looking for ways to trim your energy bills, window treatments can help.  The insulating properties of layered window coverings can keep your home more comfortable in both the winter and the summer.  In the summer, when the sun’s rays are beating on your windows, lowering the Roman shades or closing the draperies on the sunny side of your home can reduce convection and block the radiant heat from reaching your living spaces.

Why are window treatments so effective?  The best fabric Roman shades and drapery panels (curtains) will be made up of a face fabric and at least one layer of lining. Combining thicker fabrics and lining will increase the insulating ability, and can improve the R-value of your window treatments anywhere from 40-80%. Adding an interlining or second layer of lining improves the ability of the shades and curtains to moderate the heat transfer or convection in your home, and have shown an improvement of up to 300% over unlined window coverings.

Typically, shades and curtains have a white or light-colored lining, which reflects the sun, and serves to both keep your home cooler and protect your furnishings and flooring from fading.  Roman shades are most effective if they fit inside the window trim exactly, and are installed as close to the glass as possible.

These same window coverings also insulate in the winter, because they trap a layer of air between the window and your room.  They serve as the first line of defense in keeping the heat inside your home and the cold winter air outside.

Energy protection

You may think that adding shades, drapery panels or curtains is cost prohibitive.  With only basic sewing skills, your choice of face fabric and lining, and a few sewing essentials, you can make beautiful and functional window coverings easily.  Our step-by-step free sewing instructions will show you how.  You will recoup the cost of the materials in a very short time by the reduction in your energy bills.  Your home will not only be more comfortable, but custom-made DIY Roman shades and curtains will make it more beautiful.

Visit http://www.RowleyDIY.com/DIY/DIY-How-To-Guides.asp to see how to sew shades and window coverings that will insulate your home, like DIY grommet drapery panels, pinch pleat curtains, and more.

My little French Bread Basket is alive and well.  I said I was going to make it in one of my past blogs and I finally did (with a little help).

My Bread Basket

I thought my little basket was going to be hard, but it was easier than I thought.  Of course, I did not pull it off without a few mistakes and a few ideas about how to make a better basket.  Even so, I am extremely pleased with the outcome.

The best part was that I was able to pick out my own material.  The second best part was our in-house  sewing expert, Laurie, helped me figure out what needed to be done.

I took a lot of pictures and wrote a How-To guide so you can create one too.  You can find it here.

The basket before ties

One of the things I think I will try when I make my next basket will be to cut out a 10″ x 10″ square piece of plastic and insert it into the bottom of my basket before I sew on the ties.  This will make the bottom more stable.  If I get really creative, I might be able to devise a way to insert and remove the plastic so I can easily wash the basket.  Perhaps I could use  Hook & Loop tape to close it?  Hmmmmmm. . . the possibilities.

I  would like to make a few smaller ones too.  This won’t be hard, just a little math, right?  If I get started now, perhaps I can make pretty sets of three (different sizes) for Christmas gifts?  Some would say it is too early to think about Christmas when it is still 98 degrees outside; but knowing me, I should have started months ago.

Don’t forget, you can see step-by-step instructions how to sew the bread basket and all the supplies I used right here on RowleyDIY.com

See ya,

Karen

I have family coming in from out of town, so I want to update my guest room.  The first thing I did was go online to spark some creative ideas.  Wow, I found a ton of great ideas.  However, the problem I ran into was identifying all the wonderful colors used to create the room.  Some were so subtle; it was hard to pick them out.  It sure is lucky we live in the 21^st century because there is an app to help me with the colors.  It is called Chip It by Sherman Williams (and it is free).  http://letschipit.com/

This is how it works.  You drag the icon to your toolbar (just like the Pinterest pin button).  Then, when you see a picture on the Internet, just hit the Chip It button.  It thinks for a second, and then gives you the matching color chips used in the room.

I found this picture online, and I loved the color combination.  Chip It picked up 5 colors to make up a pallet.  I noticed that it did not pick up some of the brighter yellow, so it doesn’t pick up everything, but it did give me a great starting point.

OK, now I am like a kid with new toy.  I am chipping just about every pretty room I find.  This room has such earthy colors; I wanted to capture it.   The one drawback of Chip It! for me is that it only gives me five colors. In this room, the darker green has been left out.

In this green room, the most dominant light green is missing.

So while this is a great tool and extremely helpful, it isn’t perfect.  You may still need to add a chip or two of your own into the mix.

Happy Chipping!