Simple Ribbon Banner

I give up. I give in. I understand the urge to have any part of this house feel like a grown-up space is a lost cause. We are outnumbered by children and the best way to keep my sanity is to embrace the crazy colorful fun that is our home.

One day while attempting to clean up the front room in which I had dreamt of a space in which grown-ups can sit and talk yet looked more like a playroom I decided it would just be easier to embrace it all.

So now with a bit of work the front room and family room are beginning to come together looking like an elementary school.

We pulled out the bright beautiful and colorful fun in which we can enjoy. For the front room over the fireplace, I decided I wanted to do a bright colorful ribbon banner that just screams childhood. It is the perfect addition to our Waldorf style changes in the home.

Anyone can make this simple ribbon banner. My oldest and I spent a couple hours on it and the truth is it was well worth the work. The girls are begging me to take the time to make a tutu and some pompoms to match for their dress-up chest.

I ordered a big set with a dozen spools of thin satin ribbon. 300 yards of ribbon goes a long way for this. We cut 18 ribbons for each of the 12 spools to make our ribbon banner. Each ribbon was 12 inches long.

The hard part of this one was burning all of the edges of the ribbons. I had to keep switching between lighters when they got too hot to work with. A candle would have made burning the edges easier.

I strung up a piece of yarn from end to end of the fireplace on the hooks I installed one the sides of the mantel for holding banners and bunting.

My oldest and I started hooking the ribbons over the yarn as pictured above. We kept the lengths not quite in half and varied them for each one. This kept the banner uneven and playful and took away the stress of fixing each one if they were not perfectly even each and every time.

The end result was a fun and colorful banner that helped give the front room a childlike air that makes life so much more fun for the children.