Updating a Dining Room

It was time to peel the wallpaper and take down the swags. This homeowner has been doing a total update of her home, room-by-room. If you read the posts last year on "How to dress a window", you got to see the new window treatment in the kitchen. Around the same time, we traded out teal roman shades for some woven wood shades in the living room. Now, it was the dining room's turn!

Here's the before: As was typical, the curtains were hung almost even with the top of the window frame. Not that it looked bad, but it certainly left the dining room feeling smaller and the ceiling a little shorter. Also hiding under the swags was a pleated shade which was needed for the strong sunlight the room receives in the afternoons.



Here's the after: We mounted the drapes as close to the ceiling as we could to help add height to the room. We won't need the pleated shade since the drapes are lined with a blackout lining and can easily be open and closed with the special rod/ring combo we used behind the first pleat of each panel. We are currently on the lookout for a new light fixture, and some new wall decor.


You really need to see the closeup to see the fabric. It is a new one from Trend Fabrics. You can see the pale blue stripe next to the dark gold dots. There is also a dark gold stripe between the lighter gold one you see peaking out between the pleats. Did you notice the header of the drapery is pleated to the pattern of the fabric? We have the custom workroom at RM CoCo to thank for that. Thanks to Cindy and Shannon, we got exactly what we requested! Also note that the pleats are double and not the typical triple finger pleats. This was done to ensure the panels would stack back very neatly and not become bulky. With the total width and the blackout lining, we wanted to make sure they would stack completely off the windows when opened and keep a neat, tailored appearance.


Here's a picture of the ring/rod combo we used:
The pin on the first pleat is placed in the eyelet below the ring and the wand is just behind the leading edge of the drapery panel. This combo is part of the Helser Brothers Drapery Hardware collection. We do rely on this company for many of our iron hardware selections. They are truly a custom company and are always bringing some of the newest ideas to the window treatment industry.

Next time you are in the store, notice all the displays with the iron rods: they are from Helser Brothers.