My Stunning Living Room Windows Are Giving Me Problems!

Hi Everyone,

Today, we are continuing the topic of the den, living room windows, and the Roman shades I’m planning.

I have spoken at length to Dianne Lee, owner of By Harrington, a custom workroom specializing in Roman Shades. However, she also makes curtains. Luckily, dozens did Roman shades during the 20 years I helped clients.

 

However, my living room windows, while spectacularly tall, have several issues.

 

One is that they’re too tall for Roman shades. Dianne agrees it will be better not to have them come down all the way. I will most likely never lower them more than halfway down the window if that much.

Therefore, I made a schematic that shows the shade when it is fully down. (below)

 

I indicated where the rings are, but you won’t see them unless the fabric is sheer or semi-sheer.

 

The rings (folds) are eight inches apart, so I did nine folds and one last stationary fold.

 

In other words, there is still a fold when the shade is let down all the way. Early on in my career, I didn’t know to specify that, and I was pretty horrified to walk into my client’s son’s room with the shade all the way down, dragging on the sill. It looked like someone had stuck a sheet up there.

 

However, because of the decorative trim, these Roman shades must have a permanent fold followed by a flap.

Still, I like doing a little flap even if there isn’t a trim on flat fold Roman shades these are called.

Please review the different styles of Roman shades in “Roman Shades Weren’t Built in a Day.”

My finished length will be 81″. The bottom flap, so far, will be 9″. There is 1-1/2″ above and below the Greek Key design, which is six inches high. This is for both the den and living room windows.

 

However, I wasn’t quite sure about the size of the Greek key trim. So, I did two more schematics with the shade pulled up.

 

Above is a 6″ high design with 5/8″ wide grosgrain ribbon. Below is the same grosgrain ribbon, but the design is 5″ high.

 

There isn’t a huge difference, but I prefer the 5″ high design with an 8″ flap. Do you have a preference?

 

I will show you the fabric I want to get on Monday. It is very similar to the fabric Meg Braff used and won’t look as stiff as my drawing does. That is for design purposes only.

Geez, Laurel. There’s so much that goes into designing the window treatments.

 

Yes, I know. And we haven’t even gotten into the fabric yet!

 

Okay, back to the issues.

 

2. The window is curved. This isn’t a big problem except that the only place to put the inside mount Romans has a very narrow space in the middle of the window. Here, let me show you what I’m talking about. The shade is going in the lowest curved part that’s shaded.

 

Above is the window. The curve looks exaggerated because of perspective, but it is still there.

 

Above is a detailed view. The shade should go in the shaded curved part. Do you see how narrow it is in the middle? There is a workaround: We can run the mounting board so the one-inch side is vertical. The shade will protrude slightly in the middle, but it won’t be noticeable. We did that all the time when the windows were very shallow, including the Roman shades in our New York townhouse.

 

Laurel, you lost me at the “shaded curved part.”

Okay, sorry. I realize it isn’t very easy. Here’s a better graphic.

 

If the shade went inside the square space below it, a wide inset of wood would be on each side between the window and the window casing. I’ve never seen a window done this way, but that’s what it is. It’s like someone ordered the windows, then made the opening, and when the windows arrived, the opening was too big, so they filled it in with wood.

 

Above is a virtual shade covering only the window. This one will look a bit odd, as it emphasizes that the window is in a giant frame.

 

The shade should fit inside the wider portion, as shown above.

Please note that this is not a view anyone sees.

This is the most common view of the windows. If one is standing close, then the eye doesn’t go more than about four feet up.  This image also shows a little better that the inset closest to the glass is too narrow a shade for the expansive casing and inset of the window frame.

Okay, we will continue this topic…

xo,

 

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Happy 30th Birthday to my son, Aaron!