Pam's Window Treatments

Hi Christine,

We have 4 sets of double French doors they are 5'0" x 6'8". I need suggestions for blinds/treatments,  whatever. I do want to be able to have the light come in as much as possible during the day. I'm not concerned with the transoms that are so high up but in the evenings I feel like we are in a fishbowl because this is where we spend the majority of our time.

Thanks!

- Pam

Hi Pam,

(FYI= Pam is a friend of mine.  we were friends when we both were single, and I was working in LA. - I spotted this question on Facebook- which is just lucky- because I spend so little time on Facebook.  )

First, I want to say that little face in the second photo is adorable. 

I would do two things with your windows.

1.  Drapes- four sets in-between each set of French doors.

2.  Blind or shade- outside mounted on the doors themselves.

From the peak at your home, I do not see much in the way of fabric, softness, pattern and color.  I see brown leather and brown leather.  I could be wrong, but in my experience, when I see a bunch of brown leather, I see a home where people are afraid to commit to a color palette, maybe concerned about making a mistake, maybe not knowing what to do, maybe wanting everything to be amazingly durable for children, but not making really fabulous design decisions. 

Your window treatments are a great place to start.  With all of that brown leather, use brown in your decorating.  Don't pretend like it is a pair of denim jeans that your shirt doesn't have to match.  You don't have to use a lot of brown, but at least a little.

Go with patterned drapes:

(these are from Pottery Barn)

I would do a fabric Roman shade on the doors.

What I wanted to find, but couldn't, was a photo of a shade like this:

but with yellow instead of red...

Then, for some unsolicited advice...  to really have that room look amazing- let's wallpaper!

This paper is from one of my favorite books, Silhouettes by York.

OK- then I added a rug and some pillows...

You have a beautiful home- this will give you the punch.

I also want to make a comment about the transom windows.  The placement of the sconces prohibit really including them in the draperies at all, which makes me not want to include them in the shades either.  However, the rays of light that come in from the higher angles are actually the most damagining to your furnishings.  You don't want those gorgeous kitchen cabinets to fade.  If your windows did not come with UV protection, you should have a film put on them.  It will reduce glare and protect your things, everything from your floors to your fabrics, from the sun's harmful rays. 

The photo above is from Vista Window Film, a good reputable company.  The last thing you want is peeling window treatment.  ;-) (do I sound like a commercial?  I am not sophisticated enough to have figured out how to have Vista pay me for this...)

XOXO,

Christine

For a great lesson in how to use color in your interior design- register for my webinar- this eveing- 6pm Pacific Time.

Leanne's Room

Hi, I'm not sure how blogs work so didn't know the protocol on how to ask
design questions and opted to e-mail.  Hope that's ok!

I have a house with living upstairs.  We enter up the long stairway
into the living room that is open to the dining.  I need to
redecorate and I love your style!  Can you help?  You can move anything
around, change the blinds, paint color, pictures etc.  The paintings that I
have I would like to keep and the couches are new. The pictures
are sitting on top of the big mirror in the photo just for safe keeping.
I'm up for painting the fireplace, covering it up, adding molding - whatever
you say, I will do! :)

My sincere appreciation,

Leanne

Leanne,

I love your "Whatever you say I will do!" attitude!  I wish my husband had that attitude!

Let's start with this room above.  You have issues with rhythm, balance and pattern. 

1.  Rhythm.  Rhythm is one of the principles of design.  In your room, you are lacking rhythm by alternation by having the bookcase and small cabinet to the right and left of the fireplace.  You can get away with similar looks when you have some windows with draperies or other elements that can separate the eye from the hard piece, hard piece, hard piece.  See this post where I discussed the principle.  In that post the gal had lots of case pieces on the walls of her bedroom.  Your example is less extreme, but sometimes an extreme example can help you to see what you are doing wrong.  What would I do on that wall?  I would cover the brick and build-in the whole wall.  On your built-in wall- you could add the three pictures sitting on easels as part of your decor.  I would scatter them, not line them up.   The scale is a little small for over the sofa.  Here are a few ideas:

(photo from houzz)

 You could combine a painted brick or stone fireplace with stained wood built-ins. 

(photo from the Yellow Cape Cod)

The most common look is covering it all in a painted white wood, which is always nice. 

When the wall is a built-in, it is seen as one item, not three, therefore, the absence of rhythm issues.  For a more in-depth description of rhythm, look at this post. 

2.  Balance.  Your room is more heavily weighted on the left.  I know you said you were going to keep your furniture- but I will give you a long term plan, because I think it is too large for the space, and too plain in style and color to really make the room sing.  I would replace your sofa/love with two love seats, which will give you space to replace your chair with two chairs.  Keep the scale smaller, and colors lighter.  (unless you have a three year old...)

(Beckett Love seat by Bernhardt Interiors)

(Pierre chair by Room and Board)

Add a nice coffee table, centered with the room.

Now, the art above your love seat should balance the window with window treatments.

(art from Uttermost)

I would add drapes to your window.  Floor to ceiling.  (drapes from Pottery Barn)

3.  Pattern.  Your "all the same fabric everywhere" look falls a little flat.  ;-)  You will notice that already I have added some pattern.  In addition to the throw pillows, there is pattern in the new chair selection, and also the window treatments.  I would add one more big pattern to really tie the room together.  Get a nice large area rug, probably 8 x 10, to finish off the space.  This is your unifier.  (rug from homedecorator.com)

Remember to have a lighting plan in your room as well as some plants.  ;-) 

XOXO

Christine

Nancy's Office

Hi Christine,

After 30+ years of having all of our bedrooms filled with children and their stuff, we are empty nesters. Now we are able to have a few luxuries, like turning one of the bedrooms into an office. I am attaching a floor plan of the room, along with some pictures of what I have in mind so far. I thought you and your readers might be able to give me ideas for the lighting, a rug and fabrics to tie it all together.

Our room is approximately 10 x 13' and has a window seat and a wall of closets. Right now there are two craigslist desks I bought that we have been using while I figure out what I want to do for 'real.' I have found that I hate being in the room so I use my computer in the family room instead. I want to make it a place that feels good!

I want the main wall to have a world map mural. The wall is 13' wide and 8' high and you face it as you walk into the room. This is the map I like best: It's about 10' wide and 6' high so there would be a lot of wall showing around it. There is one available that almost fills the wall, but it is the standard blue world map instead of earth tones. I don't think it would look as nice.

I just purchased a rectangular table:  I'd like it to be placed in the middle of the room, perpendicular to the  wall with the mural. I am trying to talk my husband into these chairs: I promised him I could make a comfortable chair pad. He said he would try, but he is used to 'real' office chairs but that wouldn't fit my decor as well!

I'd like two papasan chairs  for the wall on the left side of the mural. That's what you would see as you are walking down the hall toward the room.

So there you have it. There's a ceiling fan in the middle of the room, above the table. I can change that out for another type of light fixture, and I also need lighting for the papasan chairs (a table and a lamp, or track lighting on the ceiling, or a floor lamp or all of the above). And maybe track lighting for the mural. A lot of track lighting! I need fabric ideas for the window. I can make my own window treatments, but I would be perfectly happy with ready-mades if I can find what I want. I also have a window seat bench pad and pillows that I could recover to coordinate. The most boring part of the room is the wall of closets opposite the mural. There are three sliding closet doors. Ideally, I would take the doors off but I haven't figured out a way to make banker boxes and binders beautiful, at least in my price range. I could hang curtains to replace the closet doors and that would add another fabric. The floor is bamboo, which I don't think will look very good with the table, but hopefully the right rug will take care of that. And lots of plants.

So the burning question is -- can this all be pulled off? I know you won't hesitate to tell me what won't look good!

Thanks!
Nancy

Hi Nancy,

I am going to agree with your husband that the chair does not look comfortable- and I don't know that a cushion will really solve that.  The nice thing about a place like World Market- is you can always try it out and return it.  I do love the style- it reminds me of Sundance catalog- which I think has a terrific look to it.  I would actually be more likely to use it as a dining chair than an office chair- but maybe that's because I spend long hours in my office chair and eat very quickly. 

I love the large map on the wall- It would be great if you could get your hands on some weathered looking boards that would make a cool frame.

The papassan chair is a bit wild- but it could be a fun element to the room.  Know that it won't really work if that is your only pattern and color.  If you are going with colorful pattern- go all the way.  Sometimes people get one bold pattern- and stop- like that's as far out on the pattern limb they could go- but that is where the design fails. 

Add some pattern and color in your window treatments.

Add a more subtle pattern as well as texture and color in your rug.  (this jute rug is from Overstock)

Pump up the texture even more with three seagrass pendants hung over the table.  I like the idea of two rows of track lights- oil rubbed bronze- on opposite walls.  I don't think papasan chairs lend themselves to floor lamps or table lamps.  I'd keep the lighting on the ceiling over them.  Add floor lights on timers behind your plants.

Ask yourself if you have enough storage- I don't really see any storage solutions. 

These are from West Elm:

The chair cushions are an additional place for a pop of color.  This fabric is also from Robert Allen:

It might be too late- and I hate saying things when it might be too late- but I would suggest a darker wood table with your other selections.  I don't know that I like the table with the papassan chair- there seems to be too large a disconnect there.  If it is too late, and all of those purchases are made- and cannot be returned- pretend like I said it would look great.  ;-) 

It's like if a friend has already left the house and asks how her clothes look.  They look perfect.  If you are in the store dressing room making selections- you tell the truth.  That's how I roll.  Sometimes, on this blog- I don't know if you are in the dressing room or have already left the house... 

Can you look at the pictures in this post and see what I mean? 

I do like you thinking outside the box- using a dining table for your desk. 

I would go ahead and install keyboard pull-outs to make the arrangement cleaner and more comfortable.  If you have smaller CPU's - I wold mount them under the table to keep a clean look, and make it user friendly.

Be sure to take some before and after pictures!  (and send them to me of course)  Hopefully you will finish your office faster than my personal office is coming.  My wallpaper is still in a box on the floor.  ;-)  I'm a little too busy decorating other homes. 

Decorology meets DWC

Today's question came off of Decorology.  The gal that does Decorology is a web designer and is currently in the process of re-doing my site.  It is really going to look fantastic.

Anyway- back to her- this photo and request came from her site:

Help! I need to pick out a color for curtains in my new living room!

So, I moved into my apartment about a month ago - and there is still SO MUCH work to do. Coming up on the list is to make new curtain panels for the patio doors in my living room. My inclination is to go with white and airy - because that is probably my favorite look. However, I also feel like maybe I should explore some other possibilities.

Since I know many of you are super creative and have a great eye - I'm hoping I'll get some fab suggestions! Also, I'm not adverse to pattern if you have any ideas pattern-wise!

Can't wait to hear what you guys come up with!

Photoshopped "white" curtains...

Ashley,

First of all I want to say how super amazed I am at the photoshop job.  That is pretty cool!  I wish I could do that.  I had two semesters of photoshop in college- but it didn't stick.   However- the solid white curtains are not so cool.   Why?

1.  There is a disconnect between the rug, furnishings and curtains.  Nothing is bringing them together.  You need a unifier.

2.  You need more pattern in the room.  The strong pattern in the rug is off balance when it is the only pattern around. 

3.  You need more color in the room.  Add color in the curtains, and also some throw pillows.  There needs to be repetition of color here and there.

The good news?  You can be done by this afternoon.  I selected everything form West Elm. 

You can still have your drapes light and airy- but add pattern and color.

I would add to these a black canvas tape on the edge.  Keep in mind that when I say "color" beige is a color.  ;-)  Your window treatments should also be layered.  Add some black woven blinds to be the first layer.

Another exercise you can do is visually draw a horizontal line across the room.  Do you have balance?  Balance with color?  Balance with pattern?  Notice how in the room shot above, (and I know there are many angles we don't see)- there is a lack of balance.  All of the color and pattern are on the bottom of your horizontal line.  Another good reason to use patterned drapes.  The black woven shades will also bring more visual weight into the upper portion of the room, improving your currently bottom heavy lack of balance. 

Now- bring in more of your rug colors in some throw pillows.

Use one of these.  See the one on the right that is cut off that has the red and black in it?  I thought that would go great with your rug. 

You have white walls and that white needs to be brought into your room more.  (Except not in solid white drapes.  ;-)

Add a white pillow to the mix.

There you go-  Add a couple other random pillows- we don't need to go for matching, but there needs to be some matching for a unification.  See what I mean- an hour or less of shopping and you are done. 

The Rug that Changed Everything

Hello Christine,

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed your blog and appreciate your straight forward advice.

 

My sweet husband surprised me with a Turkish rug for Valentine's day. Actually I was quite horrified that he'd make a purchase like that without my approval! But, I'm trying to let go and make it work in our bedroom that I was in the middle of re-decorating. I'm so lost. The rug has a very fancy design and I'd like another pattern or color but don't how to make them work together.

 

So, could you please give me some advice? Curtains & Throw Pillows - What color or pattern? And any other suggestions.

I don't even know if I can turn this room around or not. It's really thrown me for a loop. However, the rug feels AMAZING under my feet :)

 

Thanks,

Ann

Ann-

You need to have a careful talk with you husband.  One of those genius conversations where you go away with him not being offended- and yet he understands that he is never to do this type of thing again.  Good luck.  ;-)

Power up the pattern.  This example is just like one that I had in a recent post where the patterned rug was not fitting into the room, simply because the room didn't have enough other strong patterns to balance it. 

Go with patterned bedding.  The one above is from Martha Stewart. 

Replace the wrought iron over your bed with a piece of art work that brings in more color.  Bring the eye up to the focal point- which should be your headboard area.  This piece is from Uttermost.

Your nightstands are too small, as are your lamps.  Replace your night stands with some Bombay chests, and get some lamps that are closer to 36 inches in height.

I like it when the lamp shade contrasts in color with the wall color.

Add more balance to your pattern with patterned drapes.  These are from Horchow.  A heavier color will also help. 

Replace your contemporary ceiling fan with a beautiful chandelier.  This will really change the mood of the room. 

After that all you need to do is replace your carpet with wood floors and then change your wall color.  Your husband will be thrilled to find out that the rug made you replace nearly everything in the room.  Perhaps it was a little more generous gift than he thought.  ;-)