Saving Dollars on Window Treatments

Last week, Design Sponge did a story on saving money on window treatments.  Custom window treatments are the biggest source of sticker shock for clients, and while I totally think they're worth it, there are also times to save instead of splurge.

Remember this kitchen refresher?  This client is likely a few years out from a major kitchen renovation and addition, so the idea was to spruce things up in the meantime.  I have yet to shoot an appropriate after, but here's a peak at a cheapo window strategy: the Faux-roman shade.

Here is this spot before:

We relocated the pots to a floor-to-ceiling peg board (a la Julia Child).  We wanted to bridge the height of the flanking cabinets but soften the window.  Hence the roman shade.  My client wasn't looking for privacy or light control, though--this is purely an aesthetic fix.  We used inexpensive cafe curtains on the two kitchen windows, and I bought an additional set for here.  I simply tacked in the folds and hung it on one of those $6 spring-mount tension rods.

Easy!