Had a Flash of Interior Design Genius!!

We redecorated the hall bath recently. Decided not to remove the Tan-colored (not my favorite -- I'm just not a more-yellow-than- brown Tan kind-of-girl) ceramic tile because of expense and mess plus the fact that it is in great condition. Painted the walls in a fabulous....FAB-U-LOUS ...deep red which changed the feel of the aforementioned tile immensely. We had already installed new stink and counter top several years ago thus we didn't have to deal with that.

Next step for me was finding a pre-made shower curtain and window treatment or the fabric to make them. I searched and searched. Too fancy. Too cutesy. Too plain. Too orange/Too yellow. Too ugly. Too "Too"!! Finally found one that matched our tone of red and dull gold in a textured stripe patterned material. Perfect. Now what to do about the window. I stood in the store envisioning what I wanted and how to produce that look using the existing plain old extension-style curtain rod. EUREKA!! Hit me like a great ideas do -- right between the eyes. I grabbed shower curtain number two and left with a big fat smile on my face and money in my pocket. (Love those sales!)

Here's what I did:

1. Measured the height of the window.
2. Cut off the one curtain at the top (very important) according to the length I had determined I would need to achieve my concept, leaving the nice straight existing hemline at the bottom.
3. Took the rough edge and turned it down (to the back) and sewed to create a "tube" allowing for the thickness of the rod.
4. Slid the new window curtain on the rod and hung the rod up.
4. Now here is where the FLASH came in: I glued small squares of velcro (one-half inch long) at the top of a stripe on the backside of the curtain at the top along the line of stitches.
5. Followed each stripe down to the bottom of the hem. There I glued the other half of the velcro cut in the matching small square size, again on the backside.

Have you guessed my idea yet?? I have to tell you before I =pop=! I'm still patting myself on the back for this one. Very Proud. Maybe gloating better describes it. Ok -- here it is. I let the curtain hang straight down at night for privacy purposes. But then in the mornings I pull the base hem up and stick the two coordinating Velcro pieces together. And.....

And VOILA! Instant Balloon Shade. How slick is that?!? No fuss. Super easy. Two looks for the price of one! I'm telling you-- pure genius. Now you can copy this idea. I guarantee your family and friends will think you are soooo clever. I promise it will be just between us.