Friday, March 26, 2010

London Shades



A few weeks ago I showed this beautiful Brunschwig & Fils print that was to be used as shades, and we spent no small effort thinking about what style would best show off the pattern.
As the fabric comes off the roll, there is a center stripe filled with squiggles, about 6" wide, flanked by two floral stripes, and finished with half the center filled stripe on each side.
We wanted to make London shades, not too full.  One window was a single, the other a double.
For the single window, if we used the fabric the way it was printed, the floral parts would have been pleated and we thought the interruption of the pattern would be wrong.  So we split off half of one floral stripe and joined it to the other side so the new width had the floral in the center, and half a floral on each side.  The pleats landed in the squiggly stripe leaving half of it exposed.
The other window was too wide for a single "scoop": it needed two.  We left the fabric as it came off the roll, added on to each side to achieve the right width, and put a small pleat in the squiggly stripe as well as on the sides which, by luck, turned out nearly exactly the same as the sides of the smaller shade.
I think these shades turned out exactly perfectly.  The pleats are small- less than 5" in each pleat- but give fullness without too much volume.  
This bedroom is in a magnificent older hilltop estate, a home filled with wonderful detail and decorated with a tasteful collection of antiques.  I'm sorry to say I don't have photos yet of the draperies we made for two other bedrooms- I hope I can post those soon.  Those fabrics were equally spectacular Brunschwig & Fils prints.
Next we hope to have an order for the master bedroom, and perhaps the living room and dining room.

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful blinds Deborah, and very clever use of the pattern. This is what sets apart from mass produced blinds. You have worked with the design of the fabric perfectly, if only customers realised how we strive to make soft furnishings to this standard.
    Brilliant!:)

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