DIY Roman Shades - No Sewing

I had the itch to do something creative around our house, as it has been a while, so I thought about areas in the house that could use some attention.  The one area that came to mind, was our front porch.  I really had not done much in there since we moved in and I have been meaning to do something with the windows or walls, but had not really settled on anything that I fell in love with.  But with the urge to do something again, I revisited the ideas, I had going in my head and decided to focus on the windows and what I can do to add a little more life and color to the space.

Here is what the room looked like when we bought the house (Sorry it doesn't give you a good view of the windows.  Some how I lost my 'before' picture I took of what the porch looked like right before I worked on it):

The walls are painted white and there are white mini blinds in the windows.  I had pinned several diy roman shade ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to try someday, so I figured why not try they out now, with the current mini blinds.  Romans shades is the best application for that space, as I have six windows all in a row and I didn't want any rods running the whole stretch, or curtain panels hanging all the way to the floor.  So, I looked through all the tutorials I pinned on Pinterest and decided on {this one} for this project.

Avery and I went off the the fabric store and spent some time looking at all the different colors and patterns they had to offer.  I wanted something that would fit well with the current color pallet I have in the house, while still giving me some flexibility of still working with any changes that I want to make in other areas in the house, in the future.

The fabric we ended up coming home with is a Sunbrella material which is suppose to not fade as fast. 

I wasted no time in taking down the blinds and getting started on them.  I cut the ladder cords, but saved the main pull cord.  I took off the bottom rail, so I could slide off the vanes I didn't need.  Put the bottom rail back on and retied the string at the proper length.  Then I switched my attention to the fabric.

I cut the main decorative fabric slightly bigger than the opening of my window.  Windows were 25"x45", so the fabric was cut to 28"x48".  The extra 1" or 1.5" is what is used to turn over on the other side.  Then I cut the lining fabric to the exact size of the window.  I glued the perimeter of the liner, with special fabric-tec glue, centered on to the back of the decorative fabric.  Then I folded over the edge on one side and glued it in place.  When I went to the opposite side, I made sure that when I turned it over as well, it would measure the 25" that I needed for my width of the window.  Next I folded over the top and glued it down.  Then did the bottom side, again making sure it measured the 45" that I needed.

After I let the glue sit for a little bit, I proceeded to glue the mini blind to the shade.  First starting with the head rail, then moving down with each vane, measuring each one as I went along.  Because I didn't have super tall windows, I only had 3 vanes that I glued along the blind.  Finally, I glued on the bottom rail.  One some of them I has to adjust the bottom rail a bit, as where I have tied the strings, it left them still a little long.  But that wasn't hard to do.

Last, but not least, I hung up my shades and smiled at how much more color they bring to the front porch.  Even Andrew, who doesn't like change, commented that it is so different now anytime he steps up in there!

Well, there you have it!  Super easy, no sewing, roman shades!  The most expensive part of the whole project was the cost of the fabric.  Even on sale, it still adds up quickly!

Have you tried these before?  How did yours turn out?  I would love to see them!