Great Room Cornices

When we built the house, we installed wood blinds. Don't get me wrong, I still love my blinds. But I just thought that the great room windows needed something more. Here, you can see what I mean...

The blinds have these little wooden valances and they were fine, just a little plain. But, the windows are narrow enough that I really didn't want to add draperies or curtains to them. So, I started considering other options, and I decided that I wanted cornices (also called box valances).

I did a little internet search and found several different options. They all basically use the same wooden (MDF) frame, but the outside all vary from fabric to wood molding to painted, textured wallpaper.

I decided that I wanted to go the fabric route so I started looking for a nice fabric that had taupe, dark brown, and light blue. I found the material at Hobby Lobby. I only needed 1 yard of fabric! (And the fabric ended up costing only $14.)

Here is the fabric:

Gorgeous, isn't it?? (Side note: I found some dusty blue throw pillows at Meijer that match the blue in this pattern perfectly!!)

I also purchased a couple of yards of bunting at Hobby Lobby. (It cost somewhere around $3.)

Then, we went to Menard's and I purchased a 2' X 4' sheet of 1/2" MDF (only a little over $8).

I decided I wanted the cornices to be 12" high, so that made things very easy. We just cut the MDF panel in half lengthwise. Then, I needed the cornices to be at least 41" wide, so we just the remainder piece in half and that ended up giving me my depth.

Glued and used a brad nailer to attach the sides to the front:

(Those are my hubby's hands - I do not have "man hands"!) After everything was set, I cut the fabric making sure there was enough to pull around to staple. Again, my husband used his power tools - cool stapler this time! - and so the job was much easier.

The top and bottom were easy, but the ends took some effort. Basically, you should treat it like wrapping a present; staple the top and bottom first and then fold in the ends.

Then came the tricky part...hanging them. They are not much wider than the windows and not too far from the wall, so we used these corner braces. But, we had to use a small drill to be able to get behind them to attach them.

So, here are the windows now:

I love them!! The total cost for both windows? Less than $30! And they really were easier than I thought they would be!

What do you think?