Bits and ends...

Well it has been far more than a while.  I have worked on so many things, but I want to share with you a lesson I learned.  I always tell people that the reason they should be thankful that we measure, manufacture, and install is so that if there is a mistake we know we made it.  There can never be an argument about whose at fault if we did every step of the process...but then I decided to install my own drapes.  In the last ten years I cannot tell you how many installs I have been at.  And more than that I don't just stand there, if I can help out I do...but this, this was not what I was expecting:

My wife was out of town with our son, and I thought I would surprise her with finally putting up window treatments in our room.  Yes, I know we have lived here for about seven years...  I acquired some beautiful french pleated silk drapes (lined and interlined) from good old G Street Fabrics, cleared some space and went to work.
 

Before

Above is the window in our bedroom.  And yes, I know one of the roller shades is backwards (boy is this turning into an embarrassing post).  Should be simple, take down the shades, put up a traverse rod, hang and dress drapes.

After

 Looks simple, huh?  This is THREE HOURS LATER!  Three hours and eight holes in the wall later.  If at any point one of our installers had happened to wander by this sucker would have been up and perfect in fifteen minutes, maybe twenty.  Take it from an insider, just let them do it.

French Pleats.

And for those of you who have asked (more than one in the last few days), the above picture is a close up of French pleats.  Feel free to click this picture (or any of my pictures) for a better look.

BONUS:  Here is a little something extra for taking so long.  These are two pictures of chairs that I have reupholstered for a client in McLean.

Microfiber Velvet

Zoom in, and check out the dots.

Pleats and Alternatives...

Most people know what rod pocket drapes are, but pleats are another matter.  Here are a few examples of different styles:

French Pleats.

Flat Panels.

Tab Top Drapes.

Rosette Mounted Drapes.

Goblet Pleats.

Hard to see, but that looks like a butterfly pleat to me.

Have a question, or a want to see a photo of a style that I don't show here?  Leave me a comment or e-mail and I'll see what I can do.  I do have about 2000 pictures of work from the last few years.

Maya Romanoff

I recently got to attend a presentation at the Washington Design Center by Joyce Romanoff.  Yes, that Joyce Romanoff.  If you are interested in alternative wallcoverings, then this is the company you should be looking at. I have loved their stuff for years, but now I am even more impressed.  Not only are they are green company, but they also manufacture the vast majority of their own product.   You don't want your money going to China?  Then support Maya Romanoff.  Enough talk, time for the pictures!

Joyce Romanoff

They are making wallpaper...and the best thing, no smell.  Not from anything they do.  Even the paste is low VOC.

Look close and you can see the unique pattern formed by the bubbles.

Ultra thin wood veneer being hand painted.

All done.

Ready to hang faster than you would believe.

A Swarovski crystal adds the final touch.

  Now are you ready for some photos that are not taken in the dark with my cell-phone?  Here you go:

Glass beads, and they are amazing.

Pretty cool huh.

Award winning.  Yes the flowers are three dimensional.

A little modern.

Be the Queen Bee.

Perfect for my client from two days ago.

 If you like these I urge you to check out http://www.mayaromanoff.com/  and if you want to see a few more that I personally liked, you can go to  http://formaltraditional.blogspot.com/  and see my latest post.

A year later...

I was recently called by one of our clients and asked if I could come out and do some work for her in her new office building.  As it was only a few minutes away from her home we stopped by her place afterwards and I got to take a few pictures of the treatments we did last year.

First the Dining Room:

Before

After

Next the Living Room:

Before

After

And one more

I have been shying away from before pictures, but I think these really make a point.  Sometimes just a small amount of fabric, used simply can really make a difference!  You don't need super-expensive hardware, or to the trade only fabric.  But if you want them, I'm happy to oblige too.

Fullness, a subjective decision...

In the world of decorating there are many subjective decisions that need to be made.  And it is not often that you can go back and choose again.  Below we have two pictures, one you may recognize from a prior post.  The client and I spoke and it was decided that the priority would be to preserve as much glass as possible and to cover as little of the decorative plaster as possible.  As such we used one width of fabric per side.

One width per side.

After the pieces were installed the client thought about it and asked if we could add a second width.  Cutting down is easy, adding more is a bit more involved.  The first thing we did is contact the company and have a cutting sent to verify that the dye-lot of the new piece would be the same as the old one.  Then we made sure that the dimensions were the same as the original and below you can see the result!

Two widths per side.

I think it certainly adds to the formality of the room and I must admit, I like the scale.  And since I was there already I took another picture of the Dining room.  Here you go:

Man, is it ever hard to take a picture of back-lit windows...

The Master Bathroom...

You know all those pictures in magazines with the beautiful rooms?  The ones where you say to yourself  "Why doesn't my room looks like that:?"  Take a look at this:

Master bathroom, pinch-pleated silk drapes.

From the entrance, sure looks blue here...

They really are stunning.  Lined and interlined, just like they should be.

Yes, that's a pretty fancy tub, and sure the lighting is very pretty...but you know what the real difference is?  Clutter.  It's cliche, but in decorating often less is more.  The best part is getting rid of stuff doesn't cost anything.  If you are really smart about it you can even make money on eliminating all the stuff that is just getting in the way.  And here is the part where I come in.  That beautiful fabric...that 100% silk fabric you see above...it cost less than $30/yd.  It is exactly the same 100% silk that some companies sell for closer to $100/yd, same fiber, same color, same mill.  We even have some in stock.

Bonus picture:  Remember the panels from the entry way?  Here they are with some furniture in front of them.  I can't claim credit for the furniture, but I did see the fabric that was selected for them when I advised the client on the window treatments and hardware.

Don't forget to click on the pictures for a larger image.

I only had 5 hours of sleep...

I may have only had 5 hours of sleep in order to make it to this installation, but it was worth it!  Beautiful ceiling mounted open-weave linen sheers are paired with side panels in this Master Bedroom.  I hope to have pictures of the silk drapes from the Master Bathroom new week.  Once those are all taken care of we need to work on the bedding.  My client was thinking about replacing the furniture in the room, but I think the chairs look fantastic, and even more important, they are super comfy.

Hand-draw open weave linen sheers.

Space has been left for the window seat cushion. 

Gorgeous!

Pro-Tip:  I don't care how good they look, if the chairs aren't comfortable then they shouldn't be in your bedroom.  If they are comfortable, but ugly...that I can fix.


Well, back to work for me, 14 hours today and counting.  Good news is at least I am out of the car.  I  know my friends who are truck drivers laugh, but 154.4 miles is more than I should have to do in a day.