DIY: Upholstered Window Cornice

I recently finished up a client's nursery for her little baby boy -- and it was such a fun project! When we first went over the room, she mentioned she wanted something calm and soothing, and had already painted the walls yellow. To keep with the calm vibe, I brought in lots of greys and whites in varying patterns.

One of my favorite parts of the room is the cornice and curtains. We were going to have roman shades installed, but she had just had black-out solar shades installed. So I decided to do a great cornice in a fun and playful pattern. And I decided I wanted to try and attempt to DIY it. I think it came out great. We decided on this great Duralee fabric in light grey and I ordered about 3 yards of it for the project, with some left over.



Before heading over to Home Depot, I measured the width of both windows in the room including the window trim. I then added 3 inches on either side to let the molding "breath" a bit visually, and let the windows look larger than they are. So the smaller window was 48", and then I added 6" to ask for a length of 54". I decided on 12" for the height of the cornice which is pretty standard. For the sides of the cornice, I wanted there to be a 4" depth so that the curtain rods could fit into place and be removed if needed. I first went to Home Depot and funny enough, the associate who was helping me was married to a woman who had her own window treatment company. He was able to recommend a thick enough wood for the job. Which was half an inch. He explained that thicker wood wouldn't cave in over time and would keep that clean look.

I had all the specs written down and the great guys at Home Depot were able to cut it into the pieces I needed in about 30 minutes. It was insanely fast and easy. I also picked up a heavy-duty stapler gun, staples, and brackets both for the wall and to hold the each part of the cornice together. Most of the time the cornice brackets have screws that are too long for the half-inch wood, so I picked up some shorter screws and used those instead. Afterwards I swung by the craft store and picked up a roll of queen size quilt batting to give the cornice that rich, upholstered look.

The first thing to do is put the three cornice pieces together, using the brackets. You want to makes sure your frame is in place. You'll definitely need a drill for this part as well. Once your cornice is in place, now it's time to staple the batting. You can either staple the batting and fabric together or separately. I decided to do it separately so I could make sure that everything was nice and tight. Once I had aligned the fabric, I then stapled that as well. Afterwards, you can add on the brackets. Just make sure you choose screws that aren't more than half an inch deep so you don't poke through the batting or the fabric.

The hardest part is definitely lining up the fabric to make sure both cornices match and that it's in a straight line. I was constantly checking mine as I stapled. But overall it took an evening to put together.

I lucked out and picked up some gray curtains from the Target Nate Berkus collection that matched perfectly with the Duralee print. And in the end it was absolutely stunning. The mom was out while I was doing the install with the handyman and she was so excited when she came back!