A starry bedroom pelmet box for romantics

A pelmet is a framework mounted above a window used to hide curtain fittings and to help retain temperature inside a room. Pelmets are also called top treatments, cornices or valances. However, they differ from other top treatments in that the pelmet is a hardened valance or a treatment built over a structure.

Most people either love them or hate them, and I find myself in both camps. I love the finish they provide to a window treatment, but they can also feel rigid. We've made traditional looking pelmets, one in our new dining room and in our old bedroom, but this time I wanted to go in a more whimsical direction in our space.

I knew I wanted a simple black base (made from black foam board) and needed to add to it. [Note: For a tutorial on building a pelmet with foamcore, click here. -Cat] I love Shanna Murray's decals, especially "I love you more than all the stars". I wanted to have it in our room so my husband Michael can read it every morning when he opens his eyes, and I thought the pelmet would be perfect place. Yup, I'm a romantic geek! I try to support artists whenever I can but dangit, after buying the supplies to make the pelmet base it pained me we could not justify buying the decals. So DIY it was!

Now, I don't trust my handwriting these days so drawing the letters freehand was out. It took a day for the 'aha' moment to arrive and I could set about making them. I downloaded the Markus Ink font and put a stroke/border around the type to be my cutting guides. I printed them on full sheet adhesive labels. Once printed, I sat down and cut out the shapes. This work can be very therapeutic. I used the scraps to cut out the stars. We hung the pelmet and strung the garlands, once I finished sewing them.

The finished garland and pelmet work together with our pendant lamp to make a DIY-space customized just for us.