Creative Drapes...who says sheets are for sleeping?

My original intention for this post was to show you some of the pretty flowers that have come from my yard over the past couple of weeks.  As much work as our yard is, I love having an endless supply of fresh flowers in the Summer!  The post ended up taking a different turn, but I thought you might still like to see some of them!

These are some of my day lillies and hydrangeas.  I love how bright the colors are!

Here are some more hydrangeas that I have in my den.  These cute cups were a couple of dollars a piece at Tuesday Morning.  I love using things other than vases to hold flowers! (PS, can you spot the lazy dog on the couch?  I didn't even realize he was there until after I took the picture!)

These ended up on my mantle.  Anything to make it not look so...ugly.  And this is where my post changed...I realized that in the previous two pictures you might have seen that my den drapes are no longer dark brown...so let me take a couple of steps back... 

This was our den a few months after we moved in...these drapes were left over from our previous home, and I wasn't about to buy new ones if I already had some...they were too short, so I fixed that HERE.  I didn't mind them, its just that our floors are dark, our furniture is dark, and so the room was kind of cave-like.

Last year, not to help the dark situation, I got a new rug...which is dark.  I did refinish my table HERE which helped, and DIY'd some pillows HERE and HERE, but it was still SO dark.  So after seeing some inspiration a few months back from Jenny at Little Green Notebook, I finally decided to try what had been in my head for a while.

I headed to Wal-Mart, and picked up 6 packs of rings for about $5 a piece.  I already had the rods. 

I then picked up 6 single flat sheets for $10 a piece.  I probably wouldn't sleep on these, but they were perfect for my project.  A flat sheet is 96 inches so that makes for a perfectly sized curtain panel.  No sewing necessary.  I did want the top of the "drapes" to be a little more enforced though, so I used some universal tempo tape and watched THIS tutorial to figure out what I was doing.  There are 4 easy parts to the tutorial.

You can see in this picture how the tape helps give the top some structure. The mirror picture is a good example of what it looks like without the tape.  Since I have only gotten around to doing this on one set of windows, I don't have a complete AFTER picture yet, but I should finish that up soon and will post about it. There might even be some new pillows to debut! 

This is a great and inexpensive way to create a certain look.  My total cost was around $90 for 6 panels I think.  And that includes the rings!  It gives me the exact light and airy look I was going for.  Have you ever used something outside-the-box to create window panels?  I would love to hear other ideas!