Karen Lander of Drapery Design recently attended INSPIRE, a conference hosted by the WCAA Window Coverings Association of America. She visited all the industry suppliers exhibits to stay on top of new products in the marketplace for her customers. Here, Karen, in pink, checks out how a roman shade is constructed in the Rowley display.

Rowley Display

Karen Lander and Lea Tran won first place in the Vignette contest, by being voted for by their industry colleagues. They created a design they called “Nature’s Abundance”. It featured sheer linen and raw silk with fabric origami flowers on the valance and a wrought iron branch rod for the draperies. They wanted it to be earthy and out of the box from what you normally see on windows, and they accomplished that goal!

Lea and Karen's First Place Design

Karen was also an instructor at a semiar, as she shared her 20 years experience in the industry with her colleagues to help them also build a successful career in custom window treatments.

Karen teaching a class.

The Keynote speaker for the event was Sarah Richardson of HGTV fame. She was so giving and wonderful and shared much advice with our group!

Karen Lander and Sarah Richardson of HGTV

These types of events help your window coverings specialist stay on top of the industry, so they are knowledgable and informed. For their customers this translates into receiving the best advice for their window covering projects from experts in the field.

There are so many great options for fabric upholstered headboards! Here are some things you need to know about ordering upholstered headboards.

First consider how it will be mounted.

WALL MOUNT-They can be mounted on the wall with a hidden bracket. This only works if you have a flat wall with no chair rail or moldings behind your bed. It also is a good solution if you don’t rearrange  your furniture frequently where you would need to reinstall the headboard.

BED FRAME MOUNTED-They can also be made with fabric covered legs that attach to your metal bedframe. If you move  your bed around the room you want to choose this option. This is also a good solution if there is a chair rail or outlet or some other obstruction behind where the bedframe goes. An entire upholstered bedframe including the siderails and the footboard can also be ordered.

SHAPES – Any custom shape can be created, but here are some current favorites.

OPTIONS – To make your headboard distinct add options such as double fields, cording, trims, nailheads, tufting, buttons, quilting, monograms. The options are limitless! Here are a few examples.

An area many people need help with is their Foyer space. It is such an important area as it is the first space guests see as they enter your house. There is often a door or window on the lower level and a different configuration window on the upstairs landing level. Often these windows need to be treated differently because of physical restrictions, but the designs should relate to each other well. Using the same fabric and rods and trims for two different treatments in this house helped accomplish the goal of making the two areas work well together. Every customer has different goals and needs for their area. The list for this customer was: Wanted to keep it light and airy, wanted to keep the budget low, wanted to incorportate some black trim to bond it with other elements in the space. This customer has a very eclectic look and is not afraid to marry very traditional formal elements with contemporary and whimsical elements. So the fabric choice was a white sheer gauze from Kravet with an unexpected jute rope applied as embroidery on the sheer. Added to that was a more traditional embroidered band used on the edges of the treatments. Add in wrought iron drapery hardware and this is the finished product!

The Finished Treatments

Detail of the Upper Landing area

Drapery Lengths

DRAPERY LENGTHS

A frequently asked question about custom draperies is- What is the proper length for my draperies? Just like skirt hem lengths in clothing, there are many acceptable lengths! Pictured here are a room with an 8 foot ceiling on the left and a 9 foot ceiling on the right. In the 8′ceiling room we wanted to create a feeling of height and opulance in a small room. We raised the rod to right below the crown molding to give as much length to the drapes as we could. In the room on the right we didn’t need to go as high for that opulant look. Here we followed another rule of thumb to put the rod in the center of the space between the ceiling or the crown molding and the top of the window. In both of these rooms the drapes were also positioned so the bottom bends on the floor about an inch. This is the most popular way today to present the hem when the drapes don’t need to be closed. It gives an upscale very custom look that shows these drapes were specially made just for that window!

Welcome to my Blog. I plan on posting to show you jobs I have worked on and tips for accomplishing great window treatments. Check back to see what’s new!