Wide Roman Shades: A Cautionary Tale

There is a reason, you don't see a lot of wide roman shades out there. They really just don't hold up to constant use. I suppose if you just wanted something decorative, it would be ok. But I made a double wide roman shade for our kitchen windows that was fully lined and pretty danged heavy. In the 3 years that we've been in the house, I've had to replace all the cords and it broke about every 3 months or so. The last straw came when a string broke and Mr. Pickles chewed a hole in it! Darn it Mr. Pickles!

Picking new fabric seemed like a herculean task, especially since it requires seaming to span the width of the two windows. I had already done the ENJE Ikea shade hack for the dining room windows. That turned out really well, so I decided to peruse the Ikea website to see what they had going on. Actually, in truth, I was looking at their blinds thinking I would mount two next to each other. And I saw this! I loved the fact that this print also had birds on it (so Mr. Pickles wouldn't be lonely) and it seemed a bit thicker than the Enje, so that it might stand on it's own.

Before:

After:

I might still make a valance to cover the very top, but I like how clean this blind looks!