My husband and I were in Home Depot a couple weeks ago and we found all these cute rattan blinds on clearance. I love the look of them, so for what one window would have cost to cover, we were able to get all three done in the main living area. There are two large windows in my living room and a small window in the dining area.

Now we live in town and the rattan are only semi private and that was going to present a problem. Well I had some great neutral colored fabric that I made liners out of. It was interesting, but I serged the edges and then hand sewed the liner to the back of the blind. They turned out fantastic. They look nice from the outside too.

Then I wanted new valances. My living area is neutrals in shades of cream and light to mid greens. I found a nice cotton fabric of a medium green shade with paler green leaves on it. I made deep valaces with about a 2" ruffle on the top. My husband loves the "jungle type" look it gave. I was thiking more "under the canopy" myself. LOL.

In the dining area I had another issue. I have much bolder colors there. My kitchen itself is bright blue and I have chickens and roo's all over. In the dining area I kept my chicken theme but as well as "some" blue I brought in more of a deep red, with just the blue as a highlight. I went to the fabric store here twice and I couldn't find anything I liked. So I broke down and went to Wal-Mart, nothing there either. I was not having a good time. Then I was digging through my fabric stash when I came across the perfect fabric. I have had this for some time. It is a red and cream stripe. It had that faded cracked look to it. I had trim to match. It is a blue with faded creamy stars it also has that cracked appearance. So I did the same style, the deep valance, only I put a row of that blue trim on the bottom. This turned out very nice, better than the other ones I think. My poor husband took one look and asked if I was trying to kill him. He reminded me we are still in the deep grip of winter and I made it look like I was ready for a summer B-B-Que.