Design problem

On a homemade window shade, I never have done that. A friend who owned a Gregory Ain house (1940's very cool architecture) made her own quite wide kitchen shade out of - of all things - lavender pink oil cloth. Of course, she's the friend who had the model plane for a front door handle. And the hopscotch game designed into the front entry walk. And the mosaic front landing.. Oh, and the pollack like drip painting of the large garage door. I should really show photos sometime, she's one of the most creative people I know.

My business partner had a personal style of just wearing grey, black, or red clothes with good lines... but went bananas with some of her own home's design elements. It's from her I got my love of drapes not stopping at the floor but puddling...
Anyway, she made shades that pull and pleat as you pull them up. Quite pretty, especially in the materials she chose. I forget the name of these type of shades, but I'm sure there are patterns/instructions for making them.

Oddly, perhaps, I'm in agreement with the past owners on not making that window treatment all that colorful. Say the wall is spring green - the trim and shade furling thing are the same cream white as the background of your curtain material, but with no print on it. The bookshelves, or linen shelf thing, or pillow, or plant stand or... are the "sculpture" in front of a background that is pleasant but "reads away".

That's a planting design concept - or elemental design concept - that you choose what is the "specimen tree" or sculptural feature, have a background that "reads away, while not necessarily being dull", perhaps with one or two more things that form a tableau in front of the background.

Of course, design concepts are there to be played with... I'm just explaining.

Eeeenteresting, ehBeth and Osso. Busy now, will be back in a bit. Wheels are turning.

this is a cousin of the linen towers I got for about $125 each to use to help with my living room alcove "problem". Built-ins were quoted at close to $5000.

I went to the Rona (like a Canajun Lowes) to pick these up. Nice small footprint, good storage.

I covet that myself..


The wood look. Or, real wood built ins, or.. painted wood, another whole bag of beans.

the linen look, sort of a cream and lime sensibility.

Lots of good stuff there. What stuck with me when I was away just now are the ideas of a) just not trying for flow between the four-windows and the niche window because it ain't gonna happen (too different of spaces) and b) the whole "reading away" thing.

I saw this house furnished before we bought it and it was universally neutral. I mean, a white room with a white couch and tan carpet. So I tend to lump all of that together.

What this brought home for me is not thinking piecemeal re: long-term goals for the room. RIGHT NOW, I want color and more light and new curtains and a new comforter cover are an easy way to do that.

But yes, as things evolve, it might all get too busy.

I still don't want these particular canvas dealies -- they're just poorly made and problematic. But that's an interesting road for me -- when everything's FINISHED, what will it all look like?

No reason to spend money on stuff that will be problematic later, as the room takes shape.


Another thought (related to busy-ness, above) is that I realized part of my resistance to the big drape-y floor-to-ceiling thing is that I'm already pretty much at my limit for frou-frou with those two prints. I really like the idea of something cleaner and solid-colored for the weird niche.

I'm wondering if I should have a master plan for the whole bedroom before spending any significant money on window treatments. Shall I post more pics and take on the whole thing? (If I do, I'd still probably be only getting as far as window treatments once the plan is made, execution-wise.)

I do like the chest where it is but I also really like the idea of having a proper chair there (tucked into the nook, back to the left side) and really being able to take advantage of the view. I found some armchairs at IKEA that would fit. Maybe have a sconce on the wall behind the chair. (There's an outlet right there.)

The chest wouldn't fit at the end of the bed the way we have things laid out now. The dresser is right across from the bed (you can see the edge of it at the far left of the four-windows pic) and there would be maybe 18 inches to maneuver between the chest and the dresser if the chest was at the end of the bed.

(Still thinking.)

OK, Soz. You aren't me, but if I were you..

I'd get some grid paper and map the room, drawing it to scale in plan view. Get a roll of trace (yellow or white, I like the white, worth the money, you'll use it later. It comes in 12" (or whatever) rolls. Measure your furniture and make cut outs for them out of card stock, they'll work as templates. Then play, with or without the templates. Oh, have some good erasers, but that's what trace is for, fast drawing and discarding, or discarding in a pile where you can find one idea again.

You can do this for elevations as well - say, looking at the four (or more) walls.


Ah, don't buy expensive tracing pads. There are thin tracing paper rolls for people who draw in many foot lengths fooling with ideas.

What's an alcove curtain?

I, too, have done some more thinking, and my conclusion is that your problem cannot be solved. You'll need a new house. Good luck breaking that to E.G. and Sozlet.

I see I'm unclear (yet again). You have the base plan of the room, and put the tracing paper over it. This way you don't have to draw the base plan zillions of times.

Already did exactly that before we moved in. Part of why I'm having more problems with vertical surfaces (painting, window coverings, wall hangings/ pictures). Didn't get to that part right off and have had other house things way further up on the priority list until recently.

The rest of the house is doing pretty well, furniture-wise. The bedroom is just a mess. Bits and pieces that aren't tied together yet. Not enough in there now but I'm not quite sure which furniture to get to make it useful.

For example, I haven't even mentioned The Wall. It's the north wall, opposite the four-windows wall. It's huge and utterly blank. Nothing there. I like the idea of a long, sleek couch (we do a lot of talking, reading, hanging-out in the bedroom) with some art (by me maybe) above it.

But then would I be getting a cool IKEA chair for the niche/ alcove/ nook/ whatever to put right at the end of the couch? Probably not.

I definitely play but there are a lot of moving parts.

You may find this a weird idea but it's the first thing I thought of re: hiding the true size of the window. You could make the pelmet and drape the full size of the niche and pull the drape to the wall side during the day for light.

What about those IKEA panel curtains?
Flat panel that could slid to the side...
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/range/10374/13289/
This system is a triple but I'm thinking the single track.

I also just saw a picture in a mag that had woden shutters on a track that could cover an entry way between dining and living room... I'm sorta thinking one sliding shutter would be sweet too. But the Ikea track is sorta the same idea.

How's about turning one of the curtain panels into a Roman shade? You can find patterns for them on the interweb. The top can be as simple as a wooden strip to which you fasten the panel with Velcro. I like the idea of treating this window differently from the others, but I think that using the same fabric will make more sense that going with a totally different material.

Roman shade may be the name I was trying to think of.

I'm still mostly against a pattern for it, but, curtain material is just curtain material, easy enough to change.

Why not have wood blinds and perhaps additionally some sheer drapes.

Here is a red bedroom with wood raster

Like the art wall...

sliding shutter.. might not work out re dimensions, but interesting..

Hmm, fatten the alcove - make it deeper with shelves on both sides (however narrow and vertical, and maybe a little wider apart than the actual niche is wide ) leaving you 27" wide and much deeper, with cushy chair and earlier mentioned lamp.

On the drawings, you can do elevations too - as in looking at the walls. I suppose there are programs for this kind of thing. I'm cadd or faux cadd (cad) illiterate.

A gal after my own heart. Roman shade -- it would be soft and could be smooshed to whatever look you wanted. And you could do it without finials so you'd lose the caddy corner finial problem. The same or a similar fabric, e. g. something picking up one or more of the colors and/or a similar pattern without looking like you were trying to get close and missed (like a floral, or almost a toile) could work. It's a different window and playing up its difference could be the ticket.

I kind of like the idea of wood blinds.

I'm having a hard time with the idea of using the same curtain fabric for a roman shade -- it'd tie in to the four-windows curtains but by itself, with the current colors, I think it would look bad. I think it'd look nice once the walls/ windowframe are painted.

Oof, stymied. Will think some more.

All of the stuff I have -- curtains, red chair, comforter cover -- are from IKEA and were good prices. I do think I have to stay open to going ahead and using what I have now for a quick and cheap makeover of the room, but recognizing that as things evolve, I can switch them out. (The comforter cover and curtains were bought a while ago but are brand-new, just haven't put them to use yet.)

So maybe go ahead with a homemade roman shade from the same curtain fabric now, with an expectation that as things evolve, I'll be doing something else.

I think the main expense if I do that would be the single curtain rod for the four-window stretch, and the loss of use of one curtain panel (I have a total of six so should be fine).

This looks good for roman shade patterns:

http://www.make-roman-shades.com/makepatterns.php

Very cool site. Just read this:



Yeah, that's what we have now. Fussing was required from the beginning, but they've deteriorated and now they're hopeless. Really want to avoid that I think.

Wood is looking better. Seems like I could get something decent for about $50. It's a big big room with a lot of light so I don't think I'd need to worry too much about the dark color (I'd want something between cherry and mahogany I think).