Designing Window Treatments on a Budget

Welcome to my design studio peeps! Everything is magic in the design studio isn’t it? And so glamorous. Designing is easy, everything always flows and dollars for projects abound so I can literally design in any direction my heart chooses or that my instinct informs on behalf of my terrific client.

Wake up sleepy head! Snap out of it. Reality check: Budget drives design. You’ve heard that here before girls. Things like hard costs of raw materials, large amounts of required skilled workroom labor intermingled with existing home design elements that may or may not all be connected….these are the things from which designer neck aches spring…and also the fun of the challenge! (I love the work of my work.)

So – I thought it’d be fun every now and then to start letting you be an esteemed fly-on-the-wall on my various fun design challenges. (They’re all fun..and they’re all a challenge…) Read on to see if you can guess which way this “Custom Window Treatments on a Tight Budget” project will go?

Project: Eating alcove in a kitchen, pictured above. 1 triple window and 2 singles envelop the table in this breakfast nook.

Client: is staying in her home for only a few years more. Home needs to be updated, but she is working on a tight budget in each area given all of the upgrades needed throughout the house. Landing these custom window treatments on the lower end of the budget is of high priority.

Client needs: Custom window treatments for the 3 kitchen windows pictured above. Design goals include:

*Lifting the ceiling
*Making Kitchen in total look richer, to include cabinetry since we’ve decided not to update the cabinetry or counter tops.
*Need to connect the blue/tan story at the front of the house with the green/burgundy at the back of the house. house’s color palette divides and shrinks the space.
*Within the custom world client needs to land these window treatments, along with some custom pillows for the family room on the lower end of the ‘custom budget spectrum.

The Plan/Solution:
*Value priced fabrics have been sourced that will either pull in the blue story from the front of the house or the tan/green/burgundy story at the back of the house. (fabric swatches shown here.)

*Window treatment designs are kept to their greatest simplicity to keep budget down (Simpler designs reduce labor and yardage needs.)
*Treatments will have no flourishes (choice #1 & #3 pictured below – and thus and least expensive) or few flourishes (choice #2 & #4 – but the more expensive option)
*Treatments to be build on dustboards, rather than on exposed rods.
*Treatments #1 & #3 will be about ‘the fabric’ – not the window treatment silhouette (least expensive option – choice #1 & #3)
Pictured below are 4 rendering from which the client chose…which way do you think she went?

The options:
Option #1. Blue/Green/Tan Story – Ruched valence on a rod

Option #2. Green/Butter/Tan Story – Ruched valence on a rod

Option #3. Blue/Green/Tan Story – Soft Roman with self tie

Option #4. Green/Butter/Tan Story – Soft Roman with self tie