INTERIOR DESIGN: Drapery Details

Tampilkan postingan dengan label Drapery Details. Tampilkan semua postingan

Rabu, 28 Oktober 2015

Layering Artwork on Drapery Wall

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We are finally feeling the crisp weather here in Birmingham and just in time for Halloween. I love it! Saw this cute picture on Pinterest and had to share it. Halloween is such a fun holiday that I have an entire Pinterest board just for clever ideas for the occasion. If you need some inspiration check it out here.

via

My daughter asked me last week "If you had to pick a season and it would be that season for the entire year, which one would it be?" (she's 11 years old, so we do a lot of this) After some thought, I realized I don't have a favorite but look forward to the change of season the most. I'm a girl who likes change. So, I'm looking forward to everything the cooler months bring to the table - like a cup of hot tea in the afternoon, cozying up with a blanket and a family night of board games. Now that I'm feeling inspired, I plan to post on a few cool weather thoughts for interiors. Look for those in the next few weeks.

For today, I wanted to follow up my post last week on When To Consider a Drapery Wall with "How to Layer Artwork on a Drapery Wall." As an aside, this post took some time to pull together, and I'm hoping it will make sense to you!

The process of layering artwork on a drapery wall has a few of basic challenges which are not unique to any room:
1. Challenge One: light coming through the drapery panel so you see the outline of the window/door you're trying to hide
2. Challenge Two: A heavy painting/artwork resting on the drapery panel crushing it against the wall.

Neither of these are a good look!

In addition to these basic challenges, I had a couple that were unique to my project:
3. Challenge Three: The ceilings were a double story high in this room (so the technique of hanging the artwork from the ceiling was not an option for me),
4. Challenge Four: The opening we covered was so large the majority of our painting did not have a wall to "rest" on behind the drapery panel. So, it was a bit of a challenge to pull off.

I often hear people say "Oh yea, I've seen that! It would be easy to do." But when you actually try to pull off a similar look, it never turns out the same. I think this can be said for many attempts of a drapery wall. The key is to really think about what you want the end product to look like and consider all the practical issue related to that process. The result will be a fantastic, polished look.

For starters, always use a drapery panel with blackout liner when creating one of these. We even used interlining to give our panels even more weight. If not, you will be able to see the window/doorway through the fabric on a bright sunny day, and all your work will be for nothing! There are a few ready made versions of panels with blackout liner or you can have a seamtress make you a custom set. This is a very important layer not to be skimped on when creating a drapery wall.

Easiest Method for Drapery Wall
When you have actual wall (not a window/doorway) in the spot where you are going to place your nail for hanging your artwork, you can simply hang the artwork on the wall.

I like to use two panels in these situations so you have an opening in the center for your nail to come through and allow you to hang the painting. Then you can adjust the two panels to appear as one. Also, if the painting you are hanging is light weight (like a wrapped canvas) you are not going to have issues with the weight of the artwork crushing your draperies.

Jay Jeffers Office

Let's say there is a window or doorway in the exact spot where your nail needs to be to placed for the artwork. In these cases, you would still use a pair of panels (so you have a split opening for your nail). But this time you will place the nail (or cup hook) higher on the wall above the window/door where there is some wall space. Then you can suspend the painting from monofilament (aka fishing line) and adjust how low the painting will hang using the monofilament.

Alternatively, you could suspend the painting from monofilament which is wrapped around the drapery rod and down to the painting. Again, adjusting the two drapery panels to hide the monofilament. These techniques work great when the painting is not too heavy.

However, when your painting is heavy and large, you have to step it up a bit! Specifically, you must provide something for the lower corners of the painting to rest on that will "lift" the painting off the drapery wall. I used a 3" profile drapery bracket for this. If you will notice in the diagram below, I had my carpenter build a support across the doorway opening (since there was nothing there to secure my right lower bracket). This gave the painting balance and prevented the "crushing effect."

Also, I decided to go with one large panel rather than two since we were using a solid linen and it would have been difficult to hide the opening. I then punched a grommet through the panel at the precise place where the top bracket would fall on the drapery panel. I had to do this on site during installation, and I don't mind telling you it gave me sweaty palms to cut that gorgeous linen for the grommet! We threaded the bracket through the opening which allowed our painting to hang freely from the existing picture wire.

Mandi Smith T Interiors

The result - a major focal point well worth all the effort. Enjoy your week - very excited for this sweater weather! M.

Rabu, 21 Oktober 2015

When to Consider A Drapery Wall

Happy Monday, all! A few weeks ago, I posted about a formal dining room project. We used a gorgeous linen drapery panel to hide a large off centered opening into a secondary room.

Mandi Smith T Interiors

Originally, this room was the formal living room and the room beyond the formal dining room. But the homeowner's were not using the living room and needed a main floor office. So, we flipped the dining room to the original living room space; and then used the drapery panel to divide "hide" the opening into the new office (which can be accessed from the kitchen). Are you getting all this?!

Mandi Smith T Interiors

The result of all this flipping and switching? The homeowner now has a beautiful formal dining room you see when you enter the home and she also has a private office area (off of her kitchen) where she can spread out and work. As an added bonus, the drapery wall also created a focal point large enough to layer her buffet and a portrait of one of her children.

Mandi Smith T Interiors

So, I know your asking this question - when should I consider a drapery wall? There are only a few times I think a drapery wall is appropriate. But when they work, they work! Let's talk about the perfect situations for this special trick.

Non-Permanent Wall
Consider the drapery wall when you need to separate two rooms, but you're the noncommittal type (just kidding) but you don't want to permanently alter any walls which can be expensive.

This image is of Vincent Wolfe's loft in New York. In this case the drapery wall provides privacy when needed but can still be opened for light/flow on occasion.

via

Light Filled Space

If your room has plenty of light and closing up one doorway or window will not dramatically effect the overall feel of the space. Then a drapery wall is one solution for creating a cozy soft feel to a room.

via

Zero Wall Space
When your room has so many doorways and windows, there is zero wall space for furniture pieces and artwork. Then, consider a drapery wall. In the image below, there is no way to know for sure, but the drapery is either layered over windows or just a very small wall (between the windows) not giving you the space to hold this large upholstered bed. With the drapery panel, you get a total Wow behind the bed.

via

OK, I realize this is not the clearest image (I grabbed it off Pinterest and it looks to be a photograph of a magazine page), but this is the perfect example of creating a wall for a large piece of furniture. Notice this drapery wall is layered over an open stairwell.

via

I love the image below. Sometimes entry ways can be tricky with no true spot to create that first impression when you enter the home. The drapery wall can do the trick!

via

Awkward Windows and Doors
When you have an oddly placed window or door that is throwing off the entire room and making furniture placement impossible. Then consider the drapery wall.

via

This long narrow room needed a spot for the bed, so the fabric (in the same color as the grass clothe walls) unifies this window wall and creates the perfect spot for the bed.

via

Cozy Media Room

There is one exception to the light filled room mentioned above - when you are creating a media room. A drapery wall creates a cozy cocoon of a space perfect for watching movies. It also has the added bonus of absorbing sound so you lose the echo effect.

via

One last image I had to show you. This is an example of the reverse effect when using drapery panels. Rather than creating a wall, this Canadian designer, Yanic Simard has used drapery panels and mirrors to create the illusion of an additional window and light. Very clever.

via

Sorry to digress! So, now that we've covered when to use a drapery wall, we need to talk about how to layer artwork over the drapery wall for some real impact in a space. I will be posting all the details on this later in the week. See you then! M.

Senin, 15 Juni 2015

Breakfast Room Updates

What do you get when your husband is out playing golf and your kids are spending some quality with with the grandparents for a week?

You get some stuff done!!! Like cafe curtains for the breakfast room.

I was finally able to add some much needed fabric to my breakfast room. I think I've mentioned this a couple of times, but after painting my kitchen and breakfast room it lost its warm feel. These were very easy to make - I did not line them. Also, since we really did not need them for privacy, and I did not want to block our view, I kept it very simple.

Don't get me wrong, I love the new wall color, but it does have some gray in it and because I also painted the trim the wall color, it seemed big and a bit cold. This can be a common problem for kitchens and bathrooms in general. So, fabric to the rescue!