When we work on the Dream House project we always have a pretty tight budget for the room we are designing and decorating. Just like in real life, we have to find a way to make those dollars s-t-r-e-t-c-h.
When I splurged on an amazing chair for my reading nook in the Great Room, I knew it meant I was going to have to find places to creatively save money. The chair is called the Lowden. It’s 50″ round {right} and swivels 360 degrees. It’s from Arhaus and retails for nearly $1,900! It was SO perfect for catching the views out of the two windows and I just HAD to have it. While I got it on sale for $1,279, it was a large part of my $8,000 budget {which was my entire furnishings budget for the kitchen, dinette, butler’s pantry, and great room!}
Splurging on the chair meant I had to save in other areas and one way I did that was by using window treatments that I call “semi-custom.” When you look at the wall of windows I had in the Great Room, it might seem hard to believe that I spent less than $150 on the two drapery panels.
My drapes were 13.5 feet long – fabric alone could have eaten up a lot of my budget. I was able to use ready-made drapes from Lowes as the main body of my panels. {Yes, you read correctly, drapes from Lowes – as in the big box home improvement store}.
Lowes is one of my favorite places to shop from drapes. In my area, Lowes carries a nice variety of window treatments that are on trend and reasonably priced. I bought four ready-made panels @ $24.99 each – they are a grommet top which was perfect for our clean-lined look. The brand is Allen+Roth and they are one of my favorites. I used the Milton panels in the color “mineral“.
I then used a two-foot band of fabric between the two panels to create our custom look. We lined our new panels and voila!
When I was at the house on Friday, people were commenting on the drapes and were shocked when I told them my secret! Such a great way to get a custom look! Had these been made by a typical workroom, they would have cost upwards of $3,000 – $4,000! Ours were under $150.00. I love saving money with syle!
About Diana
I’m a busy working designer & home stager who gets a lot of joy & happiness helping clients transform their houses into homes they love. I blog as part of that creative process. In our “spare” time my hubby & I are updating our Cottage in the Woods that we share with our cats. I’m a Christian & look forward to someday working for my Heavenly Father, the Greatest Designer of all, decorating mansions in Heaven!
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Way cool Diana. Did you do this sewing yourself? Now that would greatly impress me if you found the time for that during this project!!
Are you kidding me? I wish – but I don’t do windows in any way, shape or form! My talented seamstress Renee does all my sewing and at a great price. She makes “semi-custom” affordable!
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