Secret: I'm a faker!

So, you like those bamboo blinds in the nursery???

Well I do have a little secret to share - I faked them! Shh, don't tell! Well, okay, I'll just let the cat out of the bag right now. Here's the deal.

We have Bali cellular blinds throughout the house. I picked them shortly after we remodeled, and slowly furnished the whole house with them, since they are not cheap. I like them for their insulating factor, so when it came time to decorate the nursery, I didn't want to loose them. But I don't like to see them closed up at the top of the window, either. And I didn't want to do valances because I wanted the curtains to be able to close, to block a little more light.

Solution: Fake it!

I actually bought one 'blind'...

Spread it out and removed the rings and strings that operate it...

Measured two even pieces (because I wanted to do treatments on two windows)...

Glued the strings where I needed to make the cuts (so they won't unravel, loosing the reeds)...

Hemmed one end of each piece by gluing and folding over...

Secured with clothespins to dry...

Decided how I wanted my folds...

Reattached the rings at the top of each fold (they will hold the shade up in the fixed position). I held up the strings and inserted a fork to hold the string up so I could thread on the ring...

Re-threaded the strings...

Okay, this is where my camera battery died and I was desperate to finish, so I trudged ahead while it charged, so bear with me.

Next I got a garden stake and cut it about 2 inches shorter than the width of the blinds. Then I centered and stapled the un-hemmed edge along the the skinny edge of the garden stake. Then I inserted the string through the blinds and around the garden stake, tying the string back onto the rings, to hold the folds all in place. Make sure your layers are all straight as you go. This part was tricky.

Then I mounted the garden stake to the wall above the window with two screws, using a level, while holding all the layers of the blind up out of the way...

Let the layers back down...

Hang curtains over the whole deal, and you're done!

Darby has better instructions here. I used the same concept as she did, but with the rattan blinds, rather than fabric. Do you think I pulled it off, or does it look obviously fake?