Dear Joe,
I have a historic brick home with French doors on both sides of the front of the house. The current draperies are old, and I am looking for ideas to spruce up the rooms. Privacy is an issue, but we love having the natural light from the east facing windows. What would you suggest?
— M. Davidson
Dear M. Davidson,
How lucky you are to have such a great house! This sounds like a symmetrical arrangement in the French tradition.
French doors are always tricky. You want to be able to cover them, but also be able to open the window treatment so that you can gain access to the doors with no impairment.
In order to do this with a drapery treatment, you have to be able to extend the draperies far enough beyond the doors so that they completely clear the doors and frame when drawn back all the way. The drapery rod is mounted above the doorway, and extends sufficiently on either side to make the clearance possible. This of course means that you have to have a generous amount of wall space on both sides of the doorway. If wall space is severely limited on one side, you could extend the drapery treatment on the opposite side. The treatment would then have to open in that direction, away from the short wall side.
That is how I would handle a drapery treatment. There are, of course, many other options. These include blinds made of wood, plastic, metal or fabric. The treatment that you choose depends on the look that you want to create. Draperies will be the softest look and are the only treatment that will add the value of insulation.
Dear Joe,
I recently moved into a condo that is about 25 years old. There are settling cracks where the walls meet the ceiling. I was considering having molding installed to cover up this problem. A friend suggested doing it in a wood stained to match the floor. I'm thinking that it would be too heavy.
What do you think?
— Unsettled
Dear Unsettled,
You need to be careful about adding architectural details on an existing structure. It is very important that style of the new additions are matched and complimentary to the style of the room.
If the building is about 25 years old, I would guess that it is in a more simple, perhaps contemporary style of architecture. Stained wood molding ( especially the heavier style that is so prevalent ) would be out of character with this type of interior. It would actually make the problem even worse by drawing the eye up to something totally out of place.
My suggestion would be to install a smaller plain molding. I would then paint it. The color could match the walls to visually extend the height of the room or it could be painted white.
The point is not to draw attention to it, but let it blend into the interior.
Dear Joe,
I have a wall of windows on one side of my livingroom, and two small windows on the other side. I am going to use draperies on the large windows. Do I have to use draperies on the smaller windows as well?
— Unbalanced
Dear Unbalanced,
Not necessarily.
Although I usually try to match all window treatments in a room, sometimes it can create too heavy a look.
A nice look would be to use draperies on the wall of windows and use the same fabric to create Roman shades for the two smaller windows. This way there is a relationship in all of the window treatments.
Please e-mail your questions to jos.riceinteriors@att.net . In the subject box, fill in 'WCT Design'.
Joseph Rice is a full service interior decorator. With 23 years of experience, he specializes in 'hard-to-treat' windows. You can reach him at Joseph Rice Interiors, Inc., ( 773 ) 271-2361 or at jos.riceinteriors@att.net
