One fabric, Two rooms

If you want to unify two spaces, especially if they are side by side, try using one fabric for both, like we did here: 

fabric by Kasmir

Here is the Dining Room, before:

And after:

And a different view: 

                  

And here is the Living Room before:

And after:

Another view:

And finally, a close up of one of the drapery panels and the hardware:

Connecticut Blue

If you think choosing a fabric for a project is difficult, try finding a matching solid for lining and facing.

For our upcoming Greenwich, CT project we have two window treatments. Both designs include a colored facing for part of the treatment.  The fabric above, from Charlotte Moss, was easy.  The client wanted something silky and this faux silk in a rich gold color from Maxwell Fabrics was perfect.

And then we went in search of blue.

You may remember this powder room, also located in Connecticut, that we showed a while back:

The Dana Gibson wallpaper had the most delicious, vibrant shade of blue that turned out to be a challenge to match for banding on a white Roman shade we were making for the window.  We ended up using a Dana Gibson trim, because there was no solid blue to be found!

Now we call this particular shade Connecticut Blue, because it is the exact same blue as before.

We are not ones to give up easily!
We found a beautiful cotton sateen that will work perfectly!

This one from RM CoCo.
Want to use Connecticut Blue in your next design? Bring it!

Blue and white fabric from Bailey and Griffin, available through Duralee.
 
 
 

A Little Design Hack

Maybe you remember these sheer draperies from a couple of months ago:

The homeowners decided they wanted tiebacks for this window treatment.  Easy enough.  But they were out of town and wouldn't return until long after the tiebacks were installed.  Which posed a bit of a dilemma.  How to hang the tiebacks. 
The finished draperies extended quite a ways beyond the width of the window.  If the drapes are the same width as the window you can usually get away with a hook or a nail in the side of the wood trim surrounding the opening.  In this case I was going to need to install something in the wall.

I don't enjoy punching little holes in people's walls without their consent, especially in a brand new home.  Then it hit me! Command Hooks!  I use them all the time for Christmas decorations, hanging pictures, etc.  I found some very small, clear hooks and they worked great!  And if the clients don't care for them or want to change the height of the tiebacks, it is easy to remove them.  Magic.

And You Don't Have to Wave at Every Golfer!

Last week's installation in Williamsburg was interesting because it was the first time I'd every designed something "blind".  I was sent the measurements by the homeowner and she chose her fabric from memo samples I sent her.
This is the room I walked into:

 

That trash on the chair is mine! 

 

What a light, bright room with lovely views of the golf course! Which is OK if you are sitting out on the deck, but there was no privacy when you were inside.
The fabric we used was an embroidered linen-look from Duralee.

The sheers were chosen to coordinate with one of the embroidery colors, and were also based on the following phone conversation:
"Are your walls more grey-ish or more yellow-ish?"  "More yellowish."  Talk about your leaps of faith!  I have to say, those sheers were such the perfect color against the walls, I wanted to do back flips.
We used a napped lining which gave the pleats a beautiful roundness:

 The hardware had a bronze finish and we used very simple finials:

And here is the finished design of stationary panels over sheers:

 Isn't that chair in the foreground to die for?  We recovered it at their previous residence.  Feels like I've been working on this room for 10 years.

 And now there is no need to wave to every golfer or neighbor who passes by!
Sheers are from Kasmir.
Decorative drapery rods from Select Hardware.  Traverse rods from Kirsch.
 
 
 

Gold!

Gold!!

From the sublime to the ridiculous!

 

How Pinteresting !

Just like you, probably, I love Pinterest as a way to save ideas for future projects (and for the funny pet photos).
My "Windows" board is a place for me to file away great window treatment ideas for myself and for clients. I have over 3000 pins on that board, so I guess that makes me just the slightest bit obsessed.
This photo caught my eye:

 Something I've never seen before: a swagged tieback on a drapery panel.  Very fancy and what an opportunity to use multiple kinds of trim! I count at least three!  Oooooo, and that beautiful rosette.  I miss the days of employing so much detail and really expressing your artistry.  Now it's just plain drapery panels and Roman shades. Let's hope the tides turn soon (and they usually due) and we see a return to touches of luxury in our homes.
Pinterest credits this photo to Donna Hovis Interiors.  I'd like to meet Donna Hovis.  I bet she's a doll!

Miss Mix-a-Lot

Mixing it up in the studio today

fabrics by Kravet and Kasmir

It's the Mix, not the Match

 

Photo courtesy of Tillys

"I'd like it to be kind of Glam", she said.
"Glam?  Hmmm. Not so much", he said.

And so it goes. Trying to find the mix, not necessarily the match. As much as I am so drawn to crystals and lucite and sparkle, I realize that there is a man to please.

Photo courtesy of Tillys

When I spotted this hardware from Tillys, a British company, with it's lucite pole with metal brackets and rings,  I had an idea.

Having recently finished a project with rustic wood drapery hardware, I thought, "Why not use wooden rings on a lucite pole?"

Here is the ring I previously used:

Photo by Antonia Korby Design

It's a splendid mix!  What do you think?

For more information on Tillys, click HERE

 

A Kitchen Valance

Seems we are seeing fewer and fewer valances these days.
I love a good valance that preserves your view and gives you the opportunity to introduce color and rhythm to a space.
Following are some terribly dark photos of a valance we did in a kitchen - actually three valances.  We had to match the proportion on the two side windows that flanked a large double door.  The cute ball fringe kept it from being too formal.
The inspiration for this valance was found on Pinterest!

Like A Bat

Saw this picture today on Pinterest:

I see curtains tied this way from time to time. Not the most attractive way to be treated! It reminds me of a lyric from the Sheryl Crow song "It Don't Hurt", which is one of my favorite songs of hers. The lyric says "Curtains tied up like a bat", so I always think of batwings when I see this.
I've always thought this is a perfect song for a designer because it is about redecorating!

Here is a great version of "It Don't Hurt".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzy403cnh-0

 

 

Silk and Sheers

Rarely would I (or anyone, for that matter) show you a window treatment that a client disliked.

But the truth is, I liked it and thought it turned out beautifully.  Rich, full silk side panels over a polka dot sheer looked soft and feminine.  The client thought it "too polka dotty", but she had chosen this sheer specifically. We had used the existing rod.  The client hadn't touched up the paint from where the old valance had been removed.
Which brings me to this point:  be sure to paint, or touch up paint, at least a week before your new window treatments are installed.  It is so much more difficult to do afterwards.

Curves

Nothing quite as anxiety producing as a window on a curved wall that needs to be dressed. Most people don't know that you can have a rod bent to match the wall. The results are spectacular!

The same can be done with a bay window. Not only rods that have rings, but also your basic traverse rod can be bent, and the draperies can be opened and closed!

An easy way to create such a rod on your own is to use a bendable "elbow" that attaches between two rods. That's what we did in this guest room.

I know you'd love to see those gigantic finials close up so here's a better look:

These gorgeous finials in a rose gold finish looked handmade and weighed a ton!

First two photos from Brimar.
Rose Gold finials and rods are from The Finial Company.

Help me choose!

It is our own projects that get away from us. Long days and sometimes even longer nights leave little time for creating our own homes when we are busy making a client's dreams come true.
Here is my dining room prior to moving in three years ago:

We had the floors cleaned up and since I was ok with the stripes on the wall, we moved our furniture in and that was that.  The constant repairs took up a large portion of our time and our money.  I had bought some lovely silk velvet at a seconds store at least 4 years ago and want to use it here for draperies, although it isn't enough.
I think pairing the velvet with a print on the same drapery panel could be really interesting, not to mention dramatic. Both of the prints I have in mind are devilishly expensive, so it really comes down to color and style.
Here are my two choices:

Since there is so much orange in the rest of the house, the fabric on the right, with the orange paisley makes sense.  It is so much fun and the pinks are a good match to the velvet.
The fabric on the left, however, makes my heart sing! What you can't see or feel from this photo is that the green and white printed section is actually an embroidered velvet applique. Now that you don't see every day!
Here are the choices from a different direction, which really shows the color of the velvet.

So which would you choose?

Fabric with orange paisley is from GP&J Baker, available through Duralee.

Fabric with green appliqued white velvet is from Lorca, available through Osborne and Little.

 

Window Wednesday

I realize that technically it is Thursday, but it has been such a whirlwind week so far and I have lots of things to share.
On Tuesday we spent 7 hours installing window treatments. You can only imagine how many rooms that was in 2 different homes.
This photo was taken with my iPad, and I thought I'd share it, unprofessional as it is.

The simple valance and stationary panels were chosen because the fabric had so much personality. We couldn't iron or steam the treatments and I thought it might be a nightmare but it wasn't. We took it out of the package it was shipped in and hung it up and it looked fabulous.

The fabric was a sort of beaded tucked silk, that was sooo gorgeous. I can't imagine how the workroom managed to sew around the beads.

We joked that the workroom will be hesitant to open any more packages from me!  I still haven't figured out how they managed to sew this with a machine, but I did note that the side hems were hand sewn. These treatments really were a work of art!
Fabric by RM Coco

The Seduction of Brown

Well I will have to warn you, right off the bat, that these photos are a little hard to see.  Photographing a window in the daytime is the most difficult thing. So I will start with a close up of the gorgeous brown faux silk fabric.

There were actually 2 layers of fabric - one layer was very sheer - held together by the embroidered swirls.  You can see that the wall color was a neutral tan  and the Finial Co. hardware was in Rose Gold.
Here's the before:

Such a pretty living room, but a little bare.
We added stationary side panels to soften it a bit.

The after picture is so hard to see, so I took a second shot:

Now we are anxious for the newly reupholstered chairs to arrive. The chair fabric is a tweed of red, green and brown and will be the finishing touch for this very clubby living room.

100 Windows - #100 !!!

We made it!!  For our 100th window I saved a Before and After because those are so much fun.

As you can see, I had the luxury of starting with a very nicely furnished room.  The client was already in the process of replacing the carpet with hardwood floors.

The challenges with the windows were many! First, the arched windows are sometimes tricky to treat. Second, both sets of windows were slammed into the corners! And third, one of the windows was actually a door to the deck outside.  It had a double rodpocket sheer on it (I'm betting you had one of those in your lifetime;  we ALL have!) but the client wanted to replace it with a 2" wood blind to match the other blinds.  And here was the next challenge:  those blinds were about 15 years old and a blue/grey color.  It was not to be found in any of my usual places.  But after about 2 weeks of searching I found a very similar finish, that upon installation matched better than our wildest dreams!

With the hardwoods in, we installed an area rug from Surya.

Then came the new blind and drapery panels.

We added a couple of throw pillows in blue to bring that color into the rest of the room. See the lower right hand corner.

And finally, the client restyled the mantle with some blue accessories and candle.

Drapery fabric and hardware:  RM Coco
Pillow fabric:  Kravet
Pillow trim:  Robert Allen
Pillow fabrication:  SK Fabric Interiors