Our Favorite Ways To Recycle Drapery Swatches

One of the most fun (and sometimes most difficult!) parts of choosing a window treatment is choosing the material. Knowing exactly what you want can be tough, especially if you're stuck between a few options. This is why we offer free samples that ship right to your home, so you can choose between one or two or ten choices to find the perfect fit.  

And once the choice has been made and you're enjoying your new window treatments? The samples don't have to go to waste—recycle or reuse them any way you'd like, but here is a tutorial for one of our favorites!

Turn Your Sample Into a Swan

We'll walk you through the step by step instructions for how to fold your sample into an origami swan. While this works best with drapery or Roman shade samples, you can also give it a try with roller swatches! If you want to see the whole tutorial put together, we've included a video at the end of this blog.

Step 1

Start with a square—our samples are 6"x6"!

Step 2

Fold the square diagonally. Crease well.

Step 3

Fold the long end into a smaller triangle. Crease well.

Step 4

Unfold. Fold edges to center to form a diamond.

Step 5

Unfold both sides to form a triangle.

Step 6

Lift bottom flap and fold into a diamond. Crease well.

Step 7

Flip over and repeat the last step. 

Step 8

Collapse into a triangle base by bringing corners together.

Step 9

Flip over and repeat the step on the other side. Crease well. 

Step 10

Unfold the two edges on both sides back into a diamond. 

Step 11

Now fold the edges to the center line into a kite shape

Step 12

Repeat all 4 flaps, front and back. 

Step 13

Return the top flap down on both sides.

Step 14

Open side flaps, reverse fold legs upward, and bring them together. 

Step 15

Shape the neck by making inner reverse folds. Crease well.

Step 16

Pull wings up gently and crease the bottom base. 

And there you have your fabric sample swan!