A couple of months ago, I started a business. And my boyfriend oh-so-sweetly offered to give me a desk in his already too-full bookmaking studio to work on. Well, my business has been steadily expanding, and a few days ago it became clear that the studio wasn’t big enough for the two of us. So he generously ceded the studio to me and moved his operation to the enclosed back porch. Which is a long way of telling you that I now have an office to call my own! First on my agenda? Redecorating. Starting with this:
Ugh. I hate blinds in general, but this Pier 1 chic is especially not my style. If it were feasible, I would love to just keep the window uncovered. Unfortunately, we have a neighbor who is kind of . . . um . . . creepy.* He’s harmless, but I don’t exactly want him watching me work. So I set out to create something that would let in a lot of light while offering some privacy. Here’s what I came up with.
Paper chain may not seem like an obvious window covering but once I thought of it, it seemed to make perfect sense. Paper chain is easy to make with supplies you already have, and it provides the right amount of privacy while still letting in lots of light. And picking a neutral color palette gives the whole thing an air of grown-up sophistication.
Paper Chain Window Screen
You’ll Need:
- Paper (see notes below)
- Double Sided Tape
- Clear Thumb Tacks
- Clip Board, Book, or Some Other Hard Flat Surface
1. First, gather your supplies. For this project, I used cheap copy paper, calligraphy paper, and newsprint. The first two papers measured 8-1/2″ x 11″, so no trimming was needed. I had to cut the newsprint into 8-1/2″ wide strips.
2. Tear the paper into strips. The easiest way to do this is to lay a piece of paper on your work surface and place a clip board or book on top of it, with about a 1″ strip of paper exposed. Grab the end of the strip and, while applying firm pressure to your clip board, quickly tear the strip free. The process should look something like this:
And you should end up with this:
3. Repeat the above process until you have a whole bunch of paper strips. Make sure you keep the strips of different materials separate.
4. Make your chains. This is just a matter of adhering the opposite ends of a strip with a little double stick tape and adding loops one at a time. My window measures 32″, so I found that the base chains needed 18 links each.
5. Attach your chains to the inside frame of the window with thumb tacks. There is no science to this; just randomly pin them into place. As you do, you’ll start to figure out what should go where. It’s pretty intuitive, and it will only look good if you aren’t too uptight about placement.
6. Make some longer chains to overlap the base chains, if desired. I found that my favorite look was when there was some overlap, but not too much. After trying combinations ranging from seven chains all the way up to twenty, I decided fourteen chains looked the best.
Some Notes On This Project:
- I chose a combination of white and ivory papers, based on the colors of the best-selling product on my website. You could certainly choose colors that fit your individual style. Scrapbook papers would probably work really well.
- This project involves putting a whole lot of little holes in your window frame. I don’t care about that, but if you do, you could probably use that sticky tack stuff you use to hang up dorm posters instead of thumb tacks. If you try that, let me know if it worked!
- The most important thing about this project is that you don’t over-think it. I started out by measuring and cutting my paper strips, and it looked all wrong. For the best results, rip the strips quickly. Some may only be half an inch wide, others might be an inch and a half. Imperfection is what this project is all about!
Do you want to make this project but have some questions? I’d love to answer them. Either leave a comment on this post, or email me: Info@PaperTuesday.com. Did you make this project and want to share your pictures with the world? Well by all means post them on our Facebook page!
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