How to make curtains, curtains design, curtain needs, curtain styles

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

French Interior Design Ideas

French Interior Design Ideas
French Interior Design Ideas
Eloquent, glamorous, romantic and charming – are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind when describing the feel of such an indulgent style of interior decorating as a French Interior Design. With its elegant appeal of timeless drama, you don’t have to reside in Paris to enjoy the simple sophistication of this popular decor.
French Interior Design Ideas
French Interior Design Ideas

The French Simplified Glamour

This enduring style of design has branched off in many different directions as the years have gone by – but a true French Interior boasts of a particular Parisian style that focuses on vintage pieces of furnishings, collectibles, and beautiful antiques. Dreamy silk fabrics and textured wall coverings are thrown in for good measure.
The French spared no expense when creating an interior design that would resonate through the years. Its indulgence for the finer things in life; gold inlaid trims, chandeliers, sculptures, marble, and other ornate luxuries all came together in a more simplistic approach to glamour.
French Interior Design Ideas
French Interior Design Ideas

Elements of a French Interior Design

o                 Walls: In one word: intensity. The color doesn't really matter as much as the depth of the color. It should be dripping with richness and opulence. If selecting wallpaper, go with a heavy texture that feels luxurious to the touch.
o                 Furnishings: Your furniture pieces should blend together nicely. Everything will have its place. Although the French Design is sophisticated and dreamy, it is also comfortable and inviting – not a “hands-off” approach. Choose original designed French furniture with its elegant, curved arms and legs and richly dressed with upholstery fabric.
o                 Window Coverings: Beautiful draperies made of silk, damask or other fine fabric will suit any French designed room well. Use tassel tie backs with a touch of radiance that captures your eye, but doesn't overwhelm.
o                 Accessories: Your lighting choices will be a main ingredient in your accessorizing; chandeliers, wall sconces and lamps. Trim them out in gold, feathers, crystals or other ornamental touches, to put the finishing “ta da!” on this chic French Interior. Mirrors, whether actual antiques or replicas, will fit nicely in any room. Richly colored throws will adorn your chairs.
o                 Flooring: As in most interior design styles that were implemented years ago, hard wood flooring is the obvious choice. However, you don’t necessarily have to stick with a dark color, choose a lighter shade if it fits your tastes better. Choose oriental rugs to complete the floor and bring the room together.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

How to Measure Glass Curtains

How to Measure Glass Curtains
How to Measure Glass Curtains
Glass curtains traditionally were hung close to the glass to assure privacy and diffuse light, even when the draperies were drawn open, and consequently they were placed just inside the window frame, next to the top window sash, either to just above or just below the apron, or mouldings, of the window sill. But it is also proper to have glass curtains hang to the
moulding or just clear the floor when no draperies are used. And, increasingly, the new popular window sheer curtains, used by themselves, hung on traverse rods, fall to the floor. If you have built-in window seats, bookshelves, or radiators just below the sill, don't try to conceal them with a glass curtain, but have your curtain extend only to the sill or built-in surface.

How to Measure Glass Curtains
How to Measure Glass Curtains
After obtaining the length, you will want to add to it extra inches for hems, casings, headings and shrinkage. For your double top hem you will need 4 inches (this includes a double fold-over for stiffness or for your heading). For your double hem on the bottom, you will want at least 2% inches, although it is currently fashionable to have a generous 5-inch hem at the bottom. If you plan to buy a ready-made trim you need only one-half inch to use for the turn. Then also allow at least 1 inch to each yard of curtain length for shrinkage, unless you buy a shrink fast material. Generally speaking, as has been said, the problem of shrinkage is more serious with a coarser weave.

Curtain fabrics usually come in 36, 50, 72 and 90 inch widths. For under-curtains or glass curtains you will want soft folds for which you plan to have 1% times the width of the window in material. If your fabric is very sheer, allow for twice the width. (This is the case with voile, orlon, nylon, fiberglass, etc.) Measure the window from jamb to jamb for the average double hung window where you will want the glass curtain to come within the framework of the over draperies. But in the case of picture windows or window-wall glass curtains, your traverse rod will extend beyond the window frame work some 3 or 4 inches.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Valances, Cornices, Swags and that Built-in Look

Valances, Cornices, Swags and that Built-in Look
Valances, Cornices, Swags and that Built-in Look
Today when a smooth, unified look is one of the things we expect from a good room, built-in bookcases, desks, and even furniture, are designed to suit it. We attempt to make furnishings seem so natural to the room that they are actually part of its architecture. Curtains and draperies help to achieve this smooth-flowing atmosphere, and when they too appear to be built in, the feeling is enhanced. Cornices and valances go a long way towards uniting the drapery with the wall, relating the window to the rest of the room.

They not only conceal the mechanics of the drapery operation, the rods and hooks, and the window frame itself (which is apt to be anything but ornamental in an older house or apartment), but they unite two or more windows, making them seem one large unit, and they can be used decoratively to echo a color or wallpaper or fabric pattern in the room. As they are, in a way, part of the architecture of the room, they must be used judiciously.

You can actually use your wall paper to cover a wood or metal cornice or valance board, or you can cover the boards with a correlated drapery material. Many firms are now producing wallpapers and fabrics in exact duplicates, and some fabric houses have groups of three correlated fabrics so that you can match your valance and drapery in complementary colors and weaves.

Other ideas include mounting a group of small framed prints or photographs on your valance; using stripes on a bias to match vertically striped draperies; using the expensive fabric you could not afford for draperies in your valances; covering them with the new wallpapers that simulate marble, brick, etc. If you make a hobby of finishing woods, you might give an interesting wood finish to a plain pine cornice.

You can buy unpainted hardwood cornices and valance boards at the hardware counter of the drapery section of your department store. Some stores even have assembled cornices with traverse rods installed.

If you buy a ready-made cornice, it is safest to get an adjustable one.

Valances, Cornices, Swags and that Built-in Look
Valances, Cornices, Swags and that Built-in Look
Just to make things clear, valances, cornices and swags are variations of the same thing, the top finish of the window. A valance may be either hard or soft, depending on whether it hangs from a wooden board or not. When it is a curving piece of material with draped ends it is a swag, and when a swag is held at either corner by rings it is a festoon. A cornice is  usually a valance of straight rectangular shape with the board parallel to the window whereas the valance board is at right angles to the window like a shelf. Valances are often used to make a tall window seem shorter, and to make a high ceiling lower. Swags provide color contrast and interest to draperies without headings.

If you or your husband is at all handy with carpentry tools, it is simple enough to make your own cornice, however, since you need only nail together three boards, each about % inch thick. The two side boards will be about 6 inches long, the front board the width you wish the cornice to be. If you want to make your cornice adjustable, take 3 boards for the front piece, and nail them together with the center one on top, and overlapping the other two. To make the cornice shorter, increase the amount of overlapping. Decrease it to make it longer, pulling out the nails. Cornice brackets for attaching the cornice, or valance, to the wall, may be bought in hardware stores and many stores carry them. One part of the bracket plate is attached to the wall; the other to the cornice, and a screw fits through holes in each.  

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

How to Hang Combination Tape Curtains

HANGING INSTRUCTIONS - PENCIL PLEAT CURTAINS



Ironing may be required before hanging - ensure iron is used on fabric side only.




STEP 1.
Ensure that the 4 cords of the tape are securely knotted at one end of the curtain. To Pencil Pleat the curtains use the 2 outside cords of the 4 cords on the heading tape.

STEP 2.
Hold the 2 outside cords and with your other hand gently push the heading along the cords until the fabric is pleated to its maximum, this forms the pleats. Ease the heading out again to the desired width, distributing the pleats evenly.

Tie a knot to hold them in place. Cut off the excess cord immediately past the knot to avoid a possible strangulation hazard. Ensure the end of the
cord is minimum of 1600mm above the floor.

STEP 3.
You will notice that the tape has 2 levels of hook pockets. This allows you to vary the finished length of your curtains. If you wish to hang the curtains below the track, use the top row of pockets for the curtain hooks. If you require the tracks to be covered, the bottom row should be
used.

To avoid creating a possible strangulation hazard for children, the corded internal window covering must be installed in such a way that a loose cord cannot form a loop 220mm or longer at a height of less than 1600mm above the floor level.

You must ensure that once installed to your satisfaction, the cords are tied and cut off the excess cord immediately past the knot to avoid a possible strangulation hazard. Ensure the end of the cord is minimum of 1600mm above the floor.


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