How to dress a window: Part I

I thought it would be interesting to watch a new project develop. We've all looked through the fabric books with paint swatches in hand, looking for just that perfect match. Sometimes it doesn't occur to us that by mixing several fabrics we can come up with a more interesting design. We always tell our customers that loving a fabric may not be possible, but more importantly it needs to be part of the whole scheme. It is great when we find that one perfect fabric and it alone brings the plan together, but many times it takes more than that one to get the look we want.

I'll assemble the "cast of characters" (yes, I stole that phrase from one of my favorite websites) and then we can follow the progress over the next few posts.

A bare naked window:

The chosen fabrics and trim, along with the staple gun, needles & pins, measuring tape, iron-on tape, my work table, and out of view is the indispensible iron!

Other handy gadgets like scissors, cording, and clamps which will probably all be used for this project.Not making appearance is the saw, air compressor and brad nailer, and the additional lining fabric for drawing the pattern and using inside the window treatment.

I need to give credit to the following companies that provided the fabrics and trims: Carole, Kasmir and Wesco. The websites for the last two companies actually show the fabric samples on-line.

French Invasion!

During a quick trip to the KC Gift Mart, we were happy to find one of our vendors was carrying a line of home decor we'd had our eye on for some time. The catalog we had been saving looked great, but we have learned to look at things in person! What a relief to find the products from "Comptoir de Famille" looking just as we had hoped. They offer several smaller furniture pieces, and some nice larger pieces such as tables and chairs. We have a few pieces to start with, but browse their web pages and then come by to see it in person. If you want something we don't have, I'm sure we need an excuse to buy more inventory! Let us know what you think.

This cart provides 3 shelves and a wine rack on the bottom. The brass bar on the side holds a hand towel.

A triple basket could hold a lot of things around the house. I'm sure we'll fill this one up fast with things around the shop! It has a really pretty detail of some colors woven into the handles

Sorry about the poor photography, but you can at least see the tray table and get a good idea of it's size. It looks great next to a chair and we have a full sized lamp, a tea set, plate and some books all sitting on top. Another great thing about this table is the small area it actually takes up on the floor---while the top is large, the base does not take up much area at all.