We painted the ceiling and walls and put in a new floor. We got a new couch, chair and some tables. It was time to dress the windows.
Available assets -
- 8 valance sections - duck - off-white - living room
- 3 valance sections - duck - dark green - dining room
I already had some pretty flowered curtains up on the small windows. With blue. So, since the accent wall of the room was blue, it seemed like a nice idea to use the valances, but make them blue.
I spent hours searching for just the right color blue Rit dye at RiteAid. Royal Blue was absolutely perfect. The blue was different than what you see, but since the nifty little editor calls this "Royal Blue", I'll use it. The actual color is more like this, which the editor considers "Indigo". Aren't you glad we sorted that out!
Anyway, you can dye stuff in the washer, on top of the stove or in the sink.
It seems like the stove is the best approach because you can have the hottest water.
So I got out a big pot which held two gallons of water with a little space to spare.
I read the instructions for both the powder and liquid dye and decided to dye two sections of valance in each run. Two sections fit into the pot, it was possible (but not easy) to stir and it was kind of within the ratios described in the instructions. Yes, I've forgotten all the details.
Moving right along.
It took between three and six hours, including constant stirring, depending on how you count, to dye everything.
Of course the next day I found one valance had escaped the great blue, so I ran it through the pot - further deviating from the dye instructions.
At last, there was a pile of valances on the chair. As I ironed them, I noticed that the dark green valances were still ... dark green. One of the blue ones was distinctly different from the others. And another of the blue ones had sort of a tie-dye look to it. And they were all wrinkled.
So, I ironed them.
Now, they were less wrinkled.
I briefly considered addressing the irregularities, but decided not to. It just wasn't that much fun.
So, I put the tie-dye and odd blue right next to each other, on the window at the back of the room. Know what? It looks fine. If you didn't know to look for the flaws, you would be unlikely to notice. The dark green, which had faded from the sun, looked good, too, and you could not see the fading from the outdoors. Maybe the blue helped that.
I realized that it's okay if it didn't come out perfect. The results are pretty good. And I'm happy about that.