Solution for short curtains; DIY room darkening drapes

When we were building our house five years ago, I had a very limited decorating budget and big dreams. I absolutely swoon for custom window treatments. Seriously, I want every room in my house to have decorator-perfect, tailored drapes on expensive rods. Like these........

Pinterest: Dreamy blue silk drapes.

Bam! That was reality hitting me in the face. While shopping at Marshall's one day I came across two packages of ready-made window treatments that I liked. Of course, they were 84" long and those of us with 9 ft or even 10 ft ceilings know that those would hang like high waters.

Solution! I bought both panels and took them to a seamstress and had her add a band of one to the other. Here's an example from World Market, because I didn't take "before" pictures.

Let's say I want the blue curtains, but they aren't long enough. I took the stripe of the second set of panels and banded the bottom to create more length. To hide the seam, I used some decorative trim that I hot glued on. Yep, hot glue.

With the remaining fabric, I made some pillows for the room.

Excuse the mess of computer parts, but here's how they turned out:

To line the drapes and make them a little more custom, I bought black-out liner. This way when we are watching movies on the projector, the room gets nice and dark.

Back tab panels slide nicely on a rod. They DO have a little bit of a sheen to them, which screams, POLYESTER, but remember the budget.

 Trim hot glued to cover the seam.

If you are looking for a nice, soft blue that doesn't read "nursery", my paint color is called "Quiet Moments" by Benjamin Moore. There aren't many quiet moments in this playroom, but the paint is nice!

 The polka dot pillows were also from Marshall's and finished off the room nicely.

I personally never go in this room, unless it's movie night, so I was completely grossed out by the empty Dorito's bags, candy wrappers, and soda cans strewn around. I had a complete hissy fit and made my boys come clean it up. Now to get my husband to do something with that old computer......

Today we're making the rounds of the blogosphere, linking up with: