You really should check out the stylish and attractive window treatments at your local department store. I was very impressed! There are beautiful fabrics and up-to-date looks to satisfy even the most fashion conscious among us! With a little bit of coaching from me, your interior decorator, you can have them up at your windows and looking beautiful. I have 2 big reveals just for you. These tricks of the trade are so basic and yet so critical to the “look”. Your neighbors and friends will be so jealous!
The secret to the beautiful look of custom window treatments is fullness and draping. It is fabricated right into the finished custom treatment to achieve the signature look of luxury. You too can put the fullness into your ready-made gathered treatments to get the custom look. It is easy-just a little math needed! Get a tape measure, a calculator and a pencil. Measure the width of your window. Purchase treatments with a width that is about 2-2 ½ times the measured width of your window where possible. This may mean purchasing more pieces to get the right quantity for the width of your window. Trust me; it will be perfect. That is all there is to it! Buying treatments that measures too close to the width of your window, will result in a skimpy look. So remember this lesson from Custom Decorating 101 and think fullness all the time!
When the drapery shopping is done and you are soaking your sore feet, you will be asking me “what now Linda?” All those curtain packages are lying on your sofa. Here is the other trick-I call “dressing down”. Think of your curtains as you would a new dress shirt in a package. You know the routine. You unwrap it and press out the wrinkles before you wear it. Your window treatments are no different. Follow manufacturer’s directions to get out the folds and wrinkles before it goes up at the window. Please note that some fabrics should not be pressed or steamed but gently smoothed with your hands to help get the wrinkles out. I would have to call “strike one” on you if you don’t try to do some pressing or fussing to your draperies when you put them up. I do a lot of fussing and primping of my client’s custom drapery jobs when they are being installed. My installer knows I am chomping at the bit to start my own personal brand of “dressing down” the window treatments even before he has finished putting up the curtains! It is so important to the finished look. You can make or break a treatment by just how you finish it off!
This completes your lesson in Custom Decorating 101. Now you will always look at window treatments differently and never return to the life of wrinkles!