Saving Dollars on Window Treatments

Last week, Design Sponge did a story on saving money on window treatments.  Custom window treatments are the biggest source of sticker shock for clients, and while I totally think they're worth it, there are also times to save instead of splurge.

Remember this kitchen refresher?  This client is likely a few years out from a major kitchen renovation and addition, so the idea was to spruce things up in the meantime.  I have yet to shoot an appropriate after, but here's a peak at a cheapo window strategy: the Faux-roman shade.

Here is this spot before:

We relocated the pots to a floor-to-ceiling peg board (a la Julia Child).  We wanted to bridge the height of the flanking cabinets but soften the window.  Hence the roman shade.  My client wasn't looking for privacy or light control, though--this is purely an aesthetic fix.  We used inexpensive cafe curtains on the two kitchen windows, and I bought an additional set for here.  I simply tacked in the folds and hung it on one of those $6 spring-mount tension rods.

Easy!

Embellished

Sotheby's showhouse via lonnymag.com

Where oh where has this week gone?  

In between massive amount of work for my volunteer committments, design presentations, and new client meetings, I am still thinking about finishing.  up.  my.  house.

In the living room, I need to finish sewing the white curtains (Ikea ritva's that will get doubled and pinch pleated), and I am always going back and forth on embellishment for them.  I love the crazy modern-art aspect of the embellished curtains above.  They are almost like sculpture!  Perhaps I should focus on getting the panels sewed in the first place...I have been living with hug puddles of fabric on the floor for going on three years....

The Return of the ripplefold

Being a self-taught designer who obsesses over all kinds of source material, I generally know what I want, even if I don't know what it's called.  Design is a visual language, so, while knowing the lingo is super helpful, finding a photo can be equally--or even more--effective.

Take this room.  In order to quote the wall of sheers behind the bed, I dug up these photos for my workroom.

And promptly learned that this is called "ripplefold."   The next time I was in the workroom, the seamstress told me that she put ripplefolds in her living room 20 years ago, but over the years they sort of fell out of favor.  Now, all of a sudden, they have a bunch of orders for this style of drapery.  Isn't it funny how these details trend?  Sure enough, I got a catalog from Houles the other day, and they just introduced ripple fold heading.

Guess I'm on-trend with this one.  And now that I know what it's called, it is MUCH easier to find inspiration images for my client.

And guess what?  Turns out you can also order them through The Shade Store or Room and Board.

Or, better yet, go custom with a workroom.

Sneak Peek

I recently realized that I do a lot of little "sneak peeks" around here, but not so many "full reveals."  I'll tell you what: I finally understand why designers who work a lot don't always have a ton of spaces in their portfolios.  Many projects come together piece by piece over a long time, AND photo shoots are expensive, time consuming and a lot of work!

I have a ton of work wrapping up (or recently wrapped) that I'm proud of, and hoping to focus on some portfolio photography this fall.  Though I am pretty sure I said the same thing last fall.

At any rate, loving this bedroom as it comes together:

Ceiling, walls, and bedside chests happened a while ago, bed treatment and roman shades went in last week, lamps and upholstery still to come.  But how fun is that canopy??  The best part: we reused some old target curtains that had been on their windows to create softness behind the bed.

Can't wait for the final reveal on this one.

Hope you all had a lovely, restful labor day.

Dressing a pretty window

Sometimes--make that often--plans in design evolve.

The longer you live in a house, the more you spot problems that can be solved by design.

Take my client in NJ with the gorgeous traditional house and fabulous taste.  (Yes, she's reading, but this is also true!)

One of the first things we worked on together were window treatments for her kitchen.  We chose ivory raw silk for roman shades to give texture without competing too much with all the gorgeous elements in the room.  And we trimmed them out in blue velvet ribbon to tie in the color of the range and to take it up a notch in formailty.  You can see progress shots here.

But we left this window bare.

So lovely on its own, yes?

Turns out, for functional reasons, a shade is required.  (Light control and privacy: the big two!)  But what to do?  There's always more than one way to go.  

1. Perhaps the most obvious choice: a roman shade made to match the others.  Nice.  But also, perhaps, a missed opportunity.  It would be nice to coordinate with the original treatments but also play up the difference of this one--the arched shape and those amazing leaded diamond panes!

2.  Cafe curtains.  Pretty, breezy, and leaving the window top free to strut its stuff.  Though not sure this is really solving the problem of light control.

3. A matching roman shade set off by a shaped cornice in a print.  The cornice following the line of the arched window just emphasizes its pretty shape.  I'm thinking of bringing back the print from the barstools.  Fab, yes?

Or going solid and trimmed, with a natural/ grass shade underneath.

I know what has my vote, but I have to say, ANY of these strategies really dresses up the window, plays up its shape, and balances the architecture of the flanking cabinets.  We can't go wrong!

What would you choose?

The Best Laid Plans

I got moving on this plan for the girls room, ordering the rug from rugsusa while they had a 50% off sale.

Only guess what?  The rug is not a sunny golden yellow at all.  It is more of a pale/bright citron.  Total green undertones.  And while I LOVE all forms of citron and chartreuse, the yellows I was planning to bring in are distinctly golden/orangey yellows.

See?

Here it is a bit more pulled back:

It doesn't look TOO terrible in these pictures, but it really doesn't work.

My original plan for a makeover in this room involved using this fabric that I have had for more than a decade:

And bringing up the orange rug from the living room (with the intention of buying a natural/ jute rug down there.)  I would use some blue linen velvet that I got at an estate sale to re-do the headboards.  Kind of like this.

 (Ignore the fabric on the cornice--it's really just to hide the strong floral going on underneath.)

Pretty, right?  I love orange and pink together.

But then of course I also got to thinking that the citron rug was awfully pretty with the chinoiserie curtains.

But of course this means that I don't get to buy a rug for the living room.  And it is a little softer than I intended.  And look how GREAT those other floral curtains look with the existing headboards.

Right?

So now I'm confused.  Love it all.  If I am returning the rug I need to do it lickety split, so I would love your opinions.  Keep in mind that the brass chandelier comes in here either way, so it will spice up the softness of the chinoiserie, and the campaign chest can be painted any color.

(I will also mention that I have a terrible cold and have been very fuzzy headed.  This is how I spent my "sick" day on Tuesday: carrying hugely heavy wool rugs up and down a very tall staircase!)

Please, help me decide!

Small Measures

I have a new client, a 6-year-old boy with severe allergies.  No draperies, no upholstery, and no rugs means coming up with other places to bring in pattern, texture, and FUN.

For additional DIY window shade projects, go here!

Banishing the temporary

I wrote the other week about the problem with temporary items that come in to our homes: namely, that they become permanent.

While I try to avoid this situation, I have been known to succumb.  The biggest temporary-item problem in my current house?  The white vinyl roller shades in the upstairs bedrooms.  When we bought the house, I thought the window treatments were staying, so I was surprised to find myself with bare windows upstairs.  In order to get my kids to sleep on time in a different timezone and in the midst of summer, I ran to Home Depot, paid $30 a piece, and came home with White. Vinyl.  Roller shades.

In the girls room, I did what I could, block printing them into something quite cute, actually.  In the guet room I simply ignored them.  What I really wanted?  Bamboo blinds.  I love them.  I have pretty much always had them in every home ever.  And I knew that at the size I needed they were custom, and therefore expensive.

Or were they?

I recently discovered, thanks to Bryn Alexandra's blog, that overstock.com stocks bamboo blinds in virtually every size imaginable, and in many color to boot.  I used my birthday money from my mother-in-law and had a pair on their way in no time.

 (To remember the "before," go here)

So much better.

(Do you like that my 6-year old has already entered her "goth" phase?  And that her hair sticks up like she never washes it?)

I chose to put the same type in both of the bedrooms for continuity, and chose a light tone similar to the wood trim to keep the blinds from becoming a new element.  While I was trying with all my might to ignore the old shades, I am so happy that I was able to banish the temporary solution for the permanent fix.

Until they break, that is.  I will admit, you get what you pay for.

Instead of a giant curtain rod

Contemporary Bedroom design by Boston General Contractor Woodmeister Master Builders

Curtain hardware can be expensive, especially if you have a very large bank of windows requiring and extra long rod.  I recently did a consultation with a woman with exactly this issue.  Her apartment has a lovely bank of windows looking out into the trees, making it feel a bit like living in a treehouse (and who doesn't love that?)

While the room needed softening, the windows did not need functional panels.  Instead of shelling out for a jumbo rod, I suggested that she buy two smaller, less expensive ones instead.

(The more I pair "rod" with various synonyms for "large," the dirtier it sounds.)

I happened upon this photo from a Sneak Peek on Designsponge that shows the prettiest way to do this.

Susan Hutchinson

The key here is that the curtain does not completely fill the rod.  That extra foot or so gives it all a little breathing room.  Plus, making sure the rod is visible makes certain that your curtains don't look like they are growing out of your ceiling.

Of course, if you want a seamless, rod-free look (and a truly stationery curtain), mount the top of the treatment to a block of wood, and drill it to the wall.

Easy, pretty panels!

Reader design dilemma: Balancing oversize furniture

How was your weekend?
Why is it harder to come back from a three day break than a full vacation?
I actually did a good job of unplugging this weekend.  Not much computer time, no work stress.   I need to do this more often.

But we are back today with a design dilemma.

Nowadays, we all have a lot of stuff, and if you live in an older house there isn't always a ton of built in storage. A reader writes in that she bought a number of dressers for a master bedroom that turned out to be bigger than expected.  She needs the storage space and returns on furniture are expensive, so she wants to work with them.  Because of the layout of the room, all three dressers are on one side, across from the king sized bed.

What she needs is BALANCE.

Here's how to get it:

Option 1: Use furniture
All that furniture on one side of the room is most easily balanced by more, right-scale furniture.  Swap out one of the three dressers for a pair of bachelor's chests which double as nightstands.

Option 2: Use color
If furniture is not an option, two pairs of panels in a heavy fabric (think lined velvet, not sheer silk) and a darker color will give plenty of weight to this side of the room.  Keep existing night tables.

Option 3: Create architecture
Prefer to keep the colors light?  Add valances or pelmets and trim them out with ribbon or trim for an additional sense of architecture.  Fake a bigger window by extending the valances a foot beyond the window frame on the outside of each window, and create a curtain with double fullness.

Instant balance!

Got a design dilemma of your own?  Shoot me an email at heather [at] heatherpetersondesign [dot] com

Pelmets

I have to say, I love pelmets.  Or cornices.  Same thing, really.  For the uninitiated, they are those decorative upholstered "boxes" over the top of a traditional window treatment which originated to cover the drapery hardware.  I suppose it is the traditionalist in me that falls hard for these treatments, the girl that likes thing to look finished.

These days, there is tons of nice drapery hardware out there, and more and more people go for the casual look of leaving the rods exposed.  But pelmets are being employed to solve other kinds of design issues.

This one, from Katie Rosenfeld, makes the most of the sloped ceiling and really highlights this potentially awkward accent wall.

Source: katierosenfelddesign.com via Heather on Pinterest

This one makes the most of a narrow window that doesn't require a shade, and brings a welcome hit of pattern to a lovely white kitchen.

Source: thezhush.blogspot.com via Heather on Pinterest

(Come to think of it, that one might be a valance--basically the non-upholstered equivalent of a cornice or pelmet.)

This next one creates a sense of architecture at the top of the window seat, framing it out and making the spot feel cozier.

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Cornices can also create a sense of architecture to create a shower enclosure.

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Blogger Naomi just made the cutest one for a client, using one of blogger Caitlin's new fabrics. Check out the entire bathroom transformation, "Project girly glam."

In baby Lucy's room, we are using pelmet boxes to bring some color to the windows, where there is no room for a pair of panels (both windows are only an inch from the wall on one side) and where my clients have decided to use soft shades in all the windows throughout the house. It's not a big room, and it could use some drama. I'm working on the design today. While looking at inspiration, I came across a couple of one-page guides to pelmet shapes (in addition to the more extensive ones in my drapery bible, The Curtain Design Directory.)

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Any favorites?  If you want to try your hand at it, check out blogger Jenny's tutorial here, and some of her reader results, here.  Personally, I prefer a plywood construction, but her method is perfect for renters, folks without power tools, and anyone looking for a more temporary fixture.

Have fun!

Trying to do it the easy way

My husband does not like curtains.   But he concedes that sometimes window treatments are a necessity.  Like in our west-facing living room, where the huge window casts a whole lot of afternoon light on our TV.  The afternoon, in case you did not know this, is often when they show football games.  So window treatments are a good compromise if they improve the football watching experience.

Here's the problem:  Huge, modern windows.

Wood blinds came to mind, and I found the right size at Home Depot for $100.  I can't even remember why these got the thumbs down.

Next up, a flat roman shade.  These can be expensive, but I planned to teach myself to make them.  (I'm not very good at squaring corners--on anything--so that might have been a problemo.)  The bigger problem?   My husband is very wary of shades because they obscure the top foot or so of the window, and he basically wants all light in or all light out.  There's no middle ground on this issue.

So in a weird turn of events, my curtain-hating husband determined that curtains were the way to go.

Enter fabric paralysis.  I needed at least 15 yards, so it had to be cheap.  I happened to have about 18 yards of a GORGEOUS Irish linen in hot coral from some project I can't even remember, many moons ago, and I spent a lot of time with it taped up next to the window, acknowledging that it was CRAZY with the bright orange rug, but that design is about taking risks, right?

Finally, finally, it dawned on me.  The opposite.

White.

White curtains!!  I never even think of such things because it seems too "boring."  But my mother solved the same problem--a wall of modern windows--with the same solution: floor to ceiling linen drapes in the same color as the wall.  And I love the way they disappear, but soften the room at the same time.

Just the right white linen can be expensive.  And most retail curtains do not come long enough--I needed 102". But then I noticed on Bryn's blog that certain Ikea curtains come in a much longer lenth--112" or 118", I think.

And so I decided to do it the easy way.  Well, kind of.

I bought two sets of curtains at Ikea--the same ones Bryn used in her parent's room, which are cotton with a linen-look, and some actual linen ones, which were shorter, but I thought I could add a panel of a color at the bottom.  (See, I resist the easy way.)  When I got home a couple of hours later and unloaded the car, there were no curtains.  I bought 4 pairs of curtains and came home with none.

So my family "got" to have dinner at Ikea while I straightened things out.  The return trip convinced me to just get the curtains that were long enough and not mess with the panel.  See?  I'm learning to go for the easy way.

Now I just need to sew the panels together, hem them, and pinch pleat.

And my total cost for the panels is $75.   That's about $5/yard, and I don't have to put in the side seams.  Score!

Finishing Touches: Markham Roberts

These images were in my inspiration file from ages ago, pulled from the pages of House Beautiful.

Do you see different things when you come back to the same image?  Depends on what's on your mind, right? This space caught my eye this time because we finally made a decision about window treatments in the living room--we're going for Roman Shades--and I find myself interested in the details of construction, fabric choices, and trim.

I love the diagonal stripe trim on the simple white shades, even more since the fabric is picked up from the bench.  Love the way the throw pillows are pieced for that angled stripe effect, don't you?

And then of course there is the tape trim at the hem of the ottoman skirst and the white trim with brass nailheads on the edges of those awesome green velvet chairs.  With the white, green, and yellow solid fabrics and the geometry of the stripes, I love that Roberts put a loose floral on the sconce shades--just the right amount of movement.

In my own house, I love the idea of picking up the stripe from the ottoman at the edges of a simple, solid shade, but truthfully I'm not sure I can pull that off.

See any fabulous details here that I missed?