Drapery hardware: short rods or full length?

Choosing the appropriate drapery hardware can be a challenge.  "Off the rack" hardware is seldom the best solution---unless you are able to make some type of modification.  One question we are asked quite often is "should I use one long rod or two shorter rods on my window?"

Looking back at a few years ago, we still think this was a good choice:

Before

After

  Considering the pale color on the walls but dark dining room table, we felt that the rods should pick up the darker stain color.  However, having one long "line" across the top would distract from the treatment itself.  In this case we used 2 low profile finials, not wanting anything extravagant, but not too plain, either.

In recent weeks, we've been working on a sunroom with one large window and another wall with a window/sliding door grouping.  The need for some type of fabric was obvious, although privacy was not needed from the drapery (the windows have blinds inside the glass), we knew full length panels would help soften the heavily trimmed windows, but still allowing most of it to be visible.  

Before (wall with slider and 2 windows)

 

 

You can see that this room is all window, except for an inside wall and the entry.  A full length rod over this expanse and onto the next wall (to the right) might start looking like a race track!  It was decided we would treat each window to their own "dress panels".  The appropriate fullness, without being too full and covering the view, was a huge factor in deciding the width/length.  Did you notice there is no extra wall space by the windows to place any extra "stackback" from the drapery?  There were several obstacles to work around.....

Before, right wall of windows

After, left corner

After, opposite corner

After, right side of window wall

We hope to finish off this room next month, as soon as all the furniture arrives (notice the lonely table), and we'll get some overall photos of the room!  If you are looking at the fine details, you'll notice that we didn't use finials on these rods, just endcaps.  Drawing attention to the four different rods was not our intent, but rather to show-off the fabric.  In addition to the expanse, we had to make sure we could have custom brackets fabricated due to the size of the window trim.  The projection is larger than normal, so the "off the rack" hardware would have never worked.  Thanks to our custom hardware vendor, Helser Brothers, for helping us get the perfect solution for this beautiful home.

Keep watching our blog for more "after" photos.  We'll be ready to talk furniture, then!