Necktie Valances with a Side of Cowboy Boots

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that I continue to document my home office in photos, as I continue to add to it. Because the rest of my house is more traditional with neutral colors, I wanted to have one room in the house with bright colors and a more contemporary look to it.

We have bright red cabinetry and a sunflower yellow sofa, so I've been wanting to create a window treatment that would unify the bold colors going on in the room. I had an idea to create two valances out of neckties, and for the past few days, I've been crafting to my heart's content!

First, I had to figure out how in the world I would hang something like this. I decided that a wide frame drapery rod would be best. So I mounted those on the wall first.
Then I had to figure out how I would connect my cornice board to the rod. Since the cornice board/box I created was really light weight I opted for this 2" wide sticky back velcro:
I applied the hard half of the velcro strips to the curtain rod:
This is the cornice board/box my mom and I created out of foam board. One long piece to go across the front and two short pieces to go around the sides. The good people at Office Max cut it for us! The foam board didn't come quite long enough to form the entire length of the long piece, so we had to put two pieces together end to end and wrapped duct tape around it. That worked fine!
To attach the short side pieces, we could only tape on one side to create a hinge effect:

The fuzzy half of the velcro strips are then applied to the board.

Then it was time to start gluing. This project requires lots-o-hot glue...nearly an entire bag of glue sticks!
First I glued the ties to the front of the board. Wide end of the ties on top. Skinny end underneath peeking through. (Caution: the hot glue on the foam board released some kind of chemical that probably wasn't too good to breathe.)

Then I turned the board over and hot glued the top ends to the board.

Then I was ready to hang the valance! All I had to do was line up the velcro on the board with the velcro on the curtain rod and it just stuck right to it! I stuck the long front part on first and then the hinged sides just flapped around and grabbed on!

I actually made this lamp a few years ago with some of my stepdad John's neckties (the skinny ends of the ties). Just a fun way to remember him. Four of his ties are in one of the valances, too. :) That's a picture of John and my mom. Aren't they cute?

Also, just as a fun side note, I wanted to show you what I did with a belt and cowboy boots that my Dad gave me shortly before he died. Yep.... It's a side table! I loved the belt and boots, as my Dad was totally into the cowboy life, and he had the boots custom made for himself years ago. They're too big for me to wear, and it made me sad to see them just sitting in a closet, so I decided to have them made into a piece of furniture! My mom's neighbor is a wood worker, and he created the table to fit into the boots and still be able to have a level table top. Then I cut a piece of denim into a perfect circle, and voila! As you can tell, I'm a bit of a sentimental sap, but I love being able to remember these two special men by using some of the things that they left behind to brighten my today!