(Spoiler alert, you won’t find them at your local window treatment gallery.)
Have you ever come across gorgeous window treatments you absolutely loved when browsing through a magazine or while ferociously scrolling on Instagram? I’m sure that many of us have had this thought, after all design is something that can be appreciated across cultures and worlds apart.
I for one (Camille, Drapery Designer/ Owner) work with many clients who come to me and my team here at Rosenberg Interior Technologists with photos from magazines and random places they’ve been, wanting to recreate the draperies in a room they have at home. I’ve also worked with clients who have gone to the local window treatment store in town that tried to recreate an idea they had for their custom draperies – and the disappointing results landed them here…
Why does this happen? For starters, your local blinds store only offers a few different manufacturers to choose from – if that. With limited options there are only so many quality capabilities and customization options that a local window treatment dealer can offer. They are limited by what their vendors can do.
Additionally, what a lot of people don’t realize about trying to recreate drapes they saw in a magazine or online is that a lot of the time the space the drapes are hanging in had been carefully thought about during the blueprint stages and/or have custom shade pockets, which makes a huge difference to the human eye when completed because the system is actually built into the structure.
Here is a look at one of our custom shade pocket mock-ups for a client:
Beyond the draperies being built into the actual home, we have a different approach to how we find our fabric for our clients. You’ll rarely get a swatch book when you work with us on your custom drapery project, not because we hate samples but because our fabrics are sourced at the time of your project so they are completely unique. Sometimes it can take quite a bit of time before I find exactly what I’m looking for when it comes to my drapery designs. Vintage fabrics are always a personal favorite of mine, just like the stunning print below:
If you take a look back at those window treatments you were adoring in your magazine, they probably have a unique element, such as fabric. When sourcing fabrics through swatches, you are looking through all the different materials a manufacturer offers. Yes, sometimes there are a few different materials to choose from but overall again your choices will be limited. For custom looking window treatments, the fabric also has to be custom and while colors and prints play a huge role in aesthetics, the material plays a huge role in how the drapes will lay over a window – chances are you won’t find a unique material blend at your local window treatment dealer.
Seriously, if you want the kind of window treatments that you saw in a magazine, you’re going to have to go to the drapery experts – which is usually not the most cost effective solution. When looking to put incredible window treatments into your home you can go either of two ways, cost-effective or what you want. Our clients are the ones that choose to go with what they want, in order to achieve their desired design goal. Would it be cheaper to go to the blinds store down the road? Maybe. Sometimes they charge lots of money for inferior draperies. Would the outcome of the draperies look like they came out of a mansion in Northern NJ or a fabulous New York City penthouse? Definitely not. The choice is simple for those who only want the finest.
We aren’t allowed to say who we’ve worked with, but we have worked with lots of celebrity interior designers in the city to create fine custom draperies for many of the most elite and famous A-listers.
If you’d like more information about our custom drapery process or to request a consultation, please call 201.848.8827 or visit us here.
Xoxo
Cami
