Do you have a reception space that needs a bit of sprucing up but you have a limited budget? Are the walls bare? Is the carpet not the color you were hoping for? Is the chair seating blue and your theme is aqua? How do you warm up and mask a room that is perfect in some ways but needs that extra punch?  Add some fabric, sheers and sashes to make the room warmer. The good news, you can achieve a professional looking room without it costing you bundle.  I had a budget of $6,000 for my wedding and I saved $850 doing these two projects myself. You can pick up sheer curtains at Target or Walmart for about $9.99 for 2 panels and rods for $5.99. Get the curtains as long as you can. In the photo I used eight curtains. Three sets are sewn together. Place two curtains together and sew the top seams together. Make sure you don’t sew the existing sleeve where the rod is supposed to go through. Once your done you will use the front panel to feed onto your curtain rod. I put a double on first then a single panel, then another double panel, then another single and finished it with a double panel.

On your double panels (the two that are sewn together) gather the front panel and tie a bow or sash on the front panel this creates the illusion of a double rod look. Hang your curtain rods with the fishing leaders from the ceiling.  You have to have a drop down ceiling, piping so some type of ceiling grid to do this. Wrap the leaders around the grid and hang the rods. helena rod pocket 84-inch curtain panelWe used one leader on each end and in the middle, so they hung straight.curtains rottingdean Note:  If you have a table, like I did in front of the curtains, then they don’t need to touch the floor. curtains tuissNo one is going to see it hanging a foot off the ground, and if they do so what!ikea dagny curtains green

Use fishing leaders to hang things evenly from the ceiling. I used them for our lanterns and the curtain rods. Measure from the ceiling down and then by using different size leaders together you can achieve the appropriate hanging length. If your thinking of doing ceiling draping – you can do it yourself. It’s not as hard as it looks as long as you keep it simple.2nd hand curtains kirkliston I used 150 feet of Iridescent Organza Wedding Craft Fabric that I got on ebay. curtains saintfieldI cut 2 – 75′ panels and draped them from one end of my room, crisscrossing in the middle to the other side of the room for $89.99. curtains revelstoke roadI bought the fabric on eBay at JDR Supply. The fabric was just gorgeous.

Secure each end of the fabric with your curtain clips and then use tie wraps to wrap the “0 ring” of the curtain clip and the ceiling grid together. Remember to leave some room to cut these off at the end of the night. So don’t pull them all the way tight. I finished off the room by hanging some lanterns that had battery operating lights. We turned the ceiling lights off, turned the lanterns on and lit all the candles on the tables. It turned out gorgeous. Be creative and have fun with it! Check out our article on ceiling draping kits and get started draping your event today!The Definitive Dorm Room ChecklistEverything you need to turn your shared college space into a stylish home away from home.New school, new friends, new room—there's no denying that freshman year is all about change. While you'll have to wait 'til the first day of class to truly dive in, we recommend you get into dorm-decorating mode in the meantime. Here you'll find the ultimate guide to transform your campus space into a fun and functional place to hang out, do homework, and (of course!) squeeze in some major zzzs.

It's college made cute! Click through to check out all 62 dorm essentials. In a few earlier blog posts, I've highlighted affordable furnishings and accessories offered by Penney. I've been impressed lately by their reasonably priced Ballard Designs/ Pottery Barn look-alike offerings. But it occurs to me that a disclaimer is in order: if you're going to shop successfully at Penney, you have good taste...or you must shop with someone who has good taste. Because if you happen to have poor taste and you blunder into the store and start indiscriminately throwing things in your shopping basket, you could very well be heading for decorating disaster. Take the valances above for example. Both are offered on Penney's online outlet for less than $15 each, but one is tasteful and relatively timeless, while the other one is essentially the eight track cassette player of the window treatment world. Can you guess which is which?If you guessed that the forest green number on the right (Sunrise II, $5.99 to 9.99) is the outdated one, you've earned a gold star!

Now, let's examine why this one is best left on the shelf. Please see Figure 1A below. What makes this a dated look? Is it: A) the color (hunter green circa 1987) B) the ruffle above the rod C) the way that the fabric is tightly gathered on the rod D) the sawtooth edge or E) all of the above. Each of these elements would be OK on its own, but in concert, they spell disaster. (Note: if you happen to own this very window treatment and you love it, far be it from me to tell you that you shouldn't love it. I'm not here to judge-- I just offer this information as a public service.)The tailored valance (top left) (Surrey Inverted-Pleat Valance, $12.99) is tasteful, but it could be improved. Adding lining to make it more opaque would help give it the feel of a custom tailored cornice. Also, swapping the buttons for dark, contrasting buttons would give it a smart look.This concludes my public service announcement. You are now free to shop at Penney.After I published this post, I saw the photo below on the Penney website.