Hi Everyone! I’ve made some great progress in Brady’s room this week and I want to show you the window cornices I made for his room. These were SO easy (and cheap!) to make.  I apologize upfront for the poor quality pictures.  I never said I was a photographer!

Supplies:

Foam Insulation Boards

Fabric

Batting

Utility Knife

Glue Gun

Staple Gun & Staples

Straight Pins

L brackets

Here’s what I did…

First I measured the window and determined how wide I wanted the cornices to be.  Brady’s window is 33.5 inches wide and I wanted the cornice to extend 2 inches on either side of the window, so I measured and marked the board at 37.5 inches.  The board was 13.75 inches high and I decided I liked the height as it was.

Next, I used a utility knife to cut the board along the markings I made.  I’m not going to lie…this part was messy!  I had little bits of Styrofoam flying all over the place and sticking to everything!

I then determined how far out I wanted the cornice to stick out from the window.  I decided on 3 inches.  For the top piece I measured another board at 37.5 inches wide and 3 inches high and cut the board long my markings.  For the sides I used a leftover piece of board that I had cut from the other boards.  I measured 2.25 inches wide  and 13.75 inches high and cut 2.

I then used my glue gun to attach the sides to my cornice board.  One cautionary note…if your glue gun gets too hot it will melt the Styrofoam.  Yep, it happened to me!

Then, I glued on the top.

This is what the cornice looks like after you’ve glued on the sides and top…

Next, I cut the fabric and batting to be big enough to wrap around my cornice.  I placed the fabric on a flat surface, then the batting on top of the fabric and the cornice on top of both.

Using my staple gun, I pulled the fabric and batting up and around to the back of the cornice and stapled it into place.  I continued to pull the fabric tightly around the cornice and staple it into place.  I did the bottom first and then the top, taking care to keep the fabric straight and smooth.  When I got to the corners I played around with the fabric and folded it into place until it was neat and stapled it into place.  Along the edges I found that using straight pins were easier than the staples.

Here is what the cornice should look like when all the fabric and batting is stapled and pinned into place…

I hung 2 L brackets above the windows.   The cornices are so lightweight I didn’t even bother with wall anchors.

Lastly, I slid the cornice over the L brackets.

I LOVE how these cornices turned out!  Honestly, the pictures don’t even do them justice.  They look super sleek and modern and finish off the windows perfectly!

These things only took me a half an hour to make and only cost me about  $30 in materials!  I would call this project a success!

Next up, refinishing the furniture.  Wish me luck people!  This is the project I’m most worried about!  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

P.S.-Did you notice the new wall color?  I’ll tell you all about that soon!