This is such an easy way to make a cornice by following my cornice tutorial using foam board! It is very lightweight and no sewing is involved. (Our fabric ran a little short so we had to sew two edges on ours) But if you cut your fabric correctly you should not have a problem at all.
You can see the entire room reveal here
– Foam insulation board from your local hardware store 3/4″ thick to 1″ thick
– duct tape (we used silver to match the back of the foam insulation)
– a curtain rod
– hot glue
– straight pins
– fabric
– quilting batting
Measure your window with a 3-4 inch overhang on each side.
Then determine the height from top of cornice to bottom as you desire.
The cornices in the kids rooms were about 2 feet in height and the cornice in the basement room reveal was only 1 foot in height.
If you have a blind in the window you probably want to make your foam cornice a little larger to cover all the hardware.
Tip- the higher you hang the cornice the larger the room feels.
Use your measurements to cut the foam insulation to your measurements.
We used a box cutter with short sawing motions.
And get ready for lots of little foam beads.
Now cut the side pieces. These should be the depth of your curtain rod. Not any deeper or it won’t be able to hang on the curtain rod brackets.
The best way to get the right measurement is to place the main piece of foam board you just cut on a flat surface. Place your curtain rod on top with the brackets facing up.
Grab a piece of the foam board and place perpendicular on the short side.
Make a mark just below the edge of the curtain rod edge.
Cut off the excess.
Grab your duct tape and (with help) tape the short side pieces to the long board both inside and on the outer edge for stability.
Repeat on the other side.
You now have the base of your cornice.
Now it time to cut the batting. Place foam board down so that the short ends are holding it up.
Lay batting down and cut to size leaving about 2 inch overhang of the batting to allow the edges of the cornice to be padded as well.
Once that is the correct size proceed to cut your fabric to size. Make sure you will have extra to pull over all the edges.
Lay the fabric on your work surface, pretty side down, then layer the batting and then the foam board.
Our fabric wasn’t long enough so we had to sew extra pieces of fabric to each side to make it long enough.
The seams hit the edges perfectly.
Grab your duct tape again and start on the short sides.
Pull fabric over and tape all edges down.
Go to the other 3 sides and repeat.
To add stability we used straight pins every so often.
For the corners we folded them in and pinned them as well.
Hot glue all along top edge to attach the curtain rod.
It holds it perfectly because it is so light weight.
Ta Da you are done!
Now all you have to do is hang it. The curtain rods come with simple hardware and it works great!
We are not perfectionists, we use our hands, fingers, and or arm lengths to measure things if no tape measure is handy.
In fact when we hung the one in my basement I said “my side measures 4 fingers from the edge of the window” Madeline said “mine measures 4 loosely” ok good enough!” Haha
Here is the Orange one we made for the boys room.
Here is the one in my basement.
This is one is shorter because the ceiling is lower.
Faux roman shade using no hardware
Easy roman shade using an old Ikea shade
It's time for another edition of Karins Kottage Weekly Linky Party. We gather to spotlight…
Hola, fellow party enthusiasts! With Cinco de Mayo just around the corner, it's time to…
Quick Fix for Broken Wicker Arms on Outdoor Arm Chairs: A No-Sew Solution
Capturing Coastal Charm: How to Create a Blue and White Outdoor Tablescape Today, I'm thrilled…
Last week's Karins Kottage Linky Party was a whirlwind of How to be creative! Inspiration,…
How to style the perfect blue spring dress for women over 50? I am here…
This website uses cookies.
View Comments
Thank you so much for this great tutorial. This exactly what I will do now that I’ve been less than satisfied with my efforts so far to make a valance for a super wide slider that is never used and invested too much in fabric. Thanks again.
Hi Karin
How long did you allow the glue to dry before hanging yours?
Thanks Sue
Hi Sue,
Hot glue dries very fast so I think we only waited like 5 minutes. The cornice is very light weight too so it should not be an issue. Let me know how it goes for you. :)
Karin
Looks great well done!
Hi Anita, Thank you for stopping by! We loved how it turned out too! It is so fun to work on decorating projects with my daughters.
Karin
Looks great! Pinned.
Dee! Thank you! It really looks adorable! Thanks for stopping by!
Karin
This method is fantastic because I can use the existing brackets and rod and just glue the rod to the cornice! Another idea I have is to glue the rod to the cornice at the center of the cornice to raise the height of the cornice. Can't wait to try it out!! Thank you so much!
How did you hang the board if its made of Foam?
hang not hand
It has the curtain rod attached to the foam board... so you attach the brackets that come with the curtain rod to wall and hand the rod on the brackets.. just like you would if the foam board was not attached to the rod. The foam board is very light weight so it hangs nice.
I love how you made this. It turned out great!
~Bonnie @ Our Secondhand House
Thank you Bonnie for stopping by and saying Hi! We had fun pulling this together!
Karin