Window Treatment Primer from The Diva of Drapery

I’ve been called many things…most good (!) – but I really did love it when I was given the title “Diva of Draperies” by a favorite someone once. I’d like to thank the Academy…and my mother. And by the way – I will also answer to “Queen of Curtains.”

I love window treatments…from design to fabrication to installation…to the marvelous moment when a client walks into the room to see the newly installed custom draperies I’ve designed had fabricated with my workroom. This is when the excited breath is drawn – and smiling widely something is uttered excitedly that is the equivalent to “Holy Smokes…I can’t believe this is my room/house/home. I loooove these window treatments and what they did to this room.” I get goosebumps just re-living the process with you now. Magic.

Window treatments remarkably affect a room’s over all sense of comfort and mood. Small wonder. They are framing one of the key – and often largest – architectural features in a room…. all that glass. I cannot stress enough the power and action that the right window treatment has in an interior to include the following:

*Gorgeously connecting your furnishings… or adjoining rooms

*Deftly joining mis-matched, unevenly hung or unusually shaped windows

*Adeptly correcting architectural oddities

*Perfectly updating a room (perhaps without adding much else new)

*Exponentially improving and upping the ‘charm’ factor in a room

*Conveniently providing Privacy

*Providing important Light Blocking or Light Control

*Providing Sound Absorption

*Assisting with heat loss and heat gain.

*Protecting furnishings

I could go on. Instead…a warning: Windows and their treatment rank among some of the 1st elements that will date a room – one of the key elements that can shut down a room – and window treatments remain an area of great confusion for many people.

Next week – we’ll look at some basic design and proportion issues in window treatments – to include how to get what you want on whatever your budget.