Lifted Swags & Decorative Molding

I recently installed some lovely lifted (raised) swags and drapery panels for a new client in my area who had been referred to me via Facebook.

This client lives in an older neighborhood next to mine (mine is older also) and both areas are seeing a ton of new construction homes.  She is in a new construction home and was interested in a window treatment for her dining room window.  She had recently bought some fabric at the closing of one of Houston's home decorative fabric stores.  She had plenty of yardage of a green & gold damask print fabric, so we were not limited in window treatment design choices.

She selected a pair of lifted swags that would each start lower on the outer edges, and rise up in the center on a decorative wood rod with finials.  A pair of stationary drapery panels would be mounted underneath the swags and would frame the window.

This client has beautiful wood moldings throughout the home, including above and around the dining room window.  I took careful and extensive measurements so that we could obtain as much "lift" in the center area as possible, while staying within the molding width areas on the outer edges.


You can see from the photos above and below that there are multiple levels of trim, both width-wise and depth-wise.

We decided to mount the board in the 1" open space just above the lower lip, and it fit perfectly.  This allowed us a bit of extra height for the center of the lifted swags.

The client was unsure of whether or not she wanted to use the tassel trim on the bottom hem of the swags.  She has wonderful artwork and beautiful dining room furniture and she was a bit concerned that the tassels would be too much decoration for the room.  So I sent her a photo of one swag during fabrication, showing the swag both with and without trim.  She elected to use the trim, which I think was a perfect complement to the style, room and fabric.

The homeowner located the decorative hardware on her own, following the specifications of rod diameter (2") and finial size that I had provided.  She is from Louisiana and really wanted to find some fleur de lis shaped finials, and she was successful!

The photo below shows the board mounted swags installed.  We had not yet installed the finials or the drapery panels.  The careful measurements and planning allowed the rod to be showcased on the 4" flat section of the crown molding.

Below you can see the finished treatment with the great decorative finials and the drapery panels installed.  The panels break on the floor about 1", which provides a pretty look without providing children or pets a place to play.

The swags and panels are both blackout lined to prevent light bleed-through.  The allows the fabric colors and pattern to always be "true" so that incoming light does not distort the pattern or cause the fabric to look "true" on the wall areas and washed out on the window glass area.  The fabric and treatment will look great both during the day and at night.

My client was very pleased with the completed project and has already posted her happiness on Facebook!

Hope you enjoyed this project -

Susan

Shabby Chic Bedroom

I have been working with a delightful client in my neighborhood and we delivered the final items for her colorful shabby chic bedroom this week.

She has wonderful collections of vintage embroidery and other items throughout her home and it is a wonderful place!  For years I have admired the outside of her home with the picket fence and stone walkway, wonderful shutters and paint colors...so I was very excited when she called me and gave me her address.  I knew immediately which home was hers and I was looking forward to seeing the inside of her home, which did not disappoint!

She had a great bed that she wanted a new matelasse duvet for, as well as a gathered silk dust ruffle and matching king shams, along with a large striped bolster and a scaldino for the foot of the bed.

She provided her own fabrics and I went to work fabricating everything.

The below photo shows the bedding.  I love the scaldino at the foot of the bed with the textured raspberry center fabric.  The side sections are vintage barkcloth.  I added a pleated raspberry ruffle on the ends.

Don't you love the vintage sign above the bed?  And if you look carefully, you will see the cute green interior shutters on the windows, featuring a crescent moon accent.

The neckroll is 40" long - whew!  We used her wide awning striped fabric in green and cream and added a bias flat welt on the ends.

You can't really see the plaid shams at the back of the bed, but they match the dust ruffle fabric.

When I delivered the bedding, she asked if I could slipcover a rocker.  I do offer slipcover services, but generally only for "hard" chairs such as dining room or kitchen or vanity chairs. However, this client was great to work with and I loved the fabrics we were mixing and I knew it would look great in the room.  We used the remaining vintage barkcloth from pinch pleated draperies, which were carefully taken apart and used to their maximum advantage so that we could match patterns on the scaldino and also the slipcover.

It is a fully upholstered chair that rocks gently.  The chair was already slipcovered, so I used the original slipcover for a pattern and made a few modifications.  The upholstery underneath was in perfect shape, so that was not an issue.

We added a small pleated ruffle around the front side of the seat back as well as around the entire bottom hem.  The slipcover is attached to the front arms and the entire underside of the chair with Velcro.

You can see that the seat top (and bottom) matches the seat back pattern repeat, and I railroaded (turned sideways) the leaf pattern on the boxing area of the seat.

Below shows most of the room, showcasing the bed and rocker.

All projects are good projects!  But this was a cheerful, inviting room with great personality. My client also shared with me that her mother rocker her (my client) in the chair when she was a baby, and now she rocks her grandchildren in the same chair...continuing the family bond of love!  That story was bittersweet, since my client's mother passed away just a few weeks ago.  But her rocking chair legacy lives on in the room and with the grandchildren who are rocked in the same chair.  So sweet!

Hope to see you soon!

Susan