It’s week #5 of the six-week One Room Challenge where I am totally redecorating my Guest Room/Cat’s Room.  See Week #1, Week #2, Week #3, & Week #4.  Please go the Calling It Home to check out the Wednesday participants and the Thursday Guest Participants.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I plan to have window treatments with SWAGS in this room.  I have been doing interior design for 18+ years, and except for when I was the project manager for the British Embassy remodel in Washington, DC, I have never used swagged curtains for any project.  Never, ever.  Because I don’t really like them.  So why am I planning on installing them in my own home??  Because of this:

Ann Getty.

This image has been in my design ideas file for a long time.  I love the toile fabric and the whimsical branch curtain hardware.  I decided to try and recreate something like this for this space.  I’m starting with these items:

Swag supplies.

This is two pair of 108″ long grommeted faux-silk panels from Tuesday Morning.  They were $20/pair!  That’s less than $4/yard.  So while they won’t end up looking like this, it was a good starting point.  Also pictures are a couple of gold branches from Michaels.  My plan is to line the panels, cut off the grommets and use the current hem as a rod-pocket,  and turn one of the panels into swags.  The branches will be my finials.

I’ve been researching how to make swags online, because I really have no clue.  I found a few complicated and unclear videos at first and almost gave up on the whole idea, and then I stumbled upon drapesmadeeasy.com.  They have a sample swag pattern that you can download for free and try out and if you like it, you can buy their set of swag patterns, that includes 12 swag sizes and 6 cascade sizes, for $9.99.  I made the sample swag from a fabric remnant in no time and decided to buy the set of patterns.  Now I’m ready to swag!

Other things I’ve worked on this week include fixing the bench that I’m using as Poe’s perch.  Here’s what the bench looked like when I started:

Bench before.

It had these crack on two sides.  The bench is made of wood but the cracks weren’t in the wood.  They were just part of the finish so I just used some caulk and then painted over it and voila:

Bench after with no visible crack.

It was an easy fix!

That’s about it for this week.  It was a slow ORC week because I had to make a Halloween costume for my daughter at the last minute when her wolf costume that we ordered from China never arrived.  It turned out OK.  I took this Star Wars Union Suit:

Costume before.

I ripped of the band across the chest and turned it into a tail and made wolf ears out of faux-fur.  here’s the result:

The Big Bad Wolf & friends.

And speaking of my daughter, I want to wish her a very happy and wonderful 12th birthday!!!  She’s the best!  I am a little bit stressed, however, because I will be hosting nine 12 and 13 year-old girls for a birthday slumber party this weekend, and I still have a fair amount of work to do on this room.  I wonder if they can paint and sew??

Have a happy week!

Rachel