apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

can we ignore the window coverings for a second and discuss the walls? I'd like to do something similar to the second to last image. anyone know where I can get a DIY tutorial on that?

Easy. Get a marble- or another stone-pattern wallpaper and cut into appropriately sized blocks. Or buy brown-paper-bag paper and cut into stone-size blocks and stick them into place with wallpaper paste, etc.

Although I'm sure these stripes are printed or woven, the looks reminds me of drapes that both Linda Barker and Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen have sewn for rooms they designed on BBC's "Changing Rooms."

I sewed something similar, albeit with a combination of more girly print fabrics, when I moved before getting around to sewing curtains, and the windows at my new place were significantly taller, thus requiring more fabric than I had on hand. I added stripes of two other fabrics that I had on hand to make my drapes long enough for the new windows. Loved the results!

The second to the last pic looks like a variety of different kinds of metallic leafing.... silver, gold, and variations of those.

Readingglasses, I worked in a Design House where one of the decorators used a speckly deckle-edged paper to create the look of large stone slabs. It looked wonderful.

These look great but I would caution non-sewers and the non-OCD-types that getting horizontal stripes to align between the two curtains on opposite sides of the window is HEINOUSLY DIFFICULT. Getting a look this crisp requires hours of work measuring and re-hanging to get it exactly right.

I would suggest that this is not a great DIY project for a first-time curtain hanger or curtain sewer; stick to vertical stripes (which don't need to align), or no stripes. Or, get some wide velvet or grosgrain ribbon and "tack" (loosely sew) it to solid-color curtains to get a stripe that is easier to estimate and manage and fix if/when you get it wrong.

Cheers!