This is Kelly Custom Drapery & Bedding page

Square rooms can be tricky, but not for you — you will plan ahead with this little hint to help you scale your furniture pieces to the room and to each other.

If you have a square dining area, try a round dining table.  To decide the proper size for your table, use cardboard cut into circles — 48″ diameter, 60″ diameter, etc.  Although placing the cardboard on the floor in the center of your dining room will give you a decent visual,  I find it helps to elevate the cardboard by placing it on chair seats or a bench.  Do not forget to consider the space necessary to pull your chairs out from under the table to sit in them.  You do not want your chairs backing into other furniture pieces or into the wall.

If you plan to place other furniture pieces in the space, using blue painter’s tape, tape off the width and depth dimensions of the furniture piece on the floor where you plan to place it.  Run some tape up the wall at the “width” lines and also horizontally across the “height” line.  This will give you a nice visual to go with your carboard “table”.

Professionals draw ”to scale” floorplans on paper all day long, but the cardboard and the painter’s tape provide an additional, almost 3-D visual, one my clients appreciate more than a paper floor plan.

Happy decorating!

Duvet or Decorative Comforter?  Do you know the difference?

A duvet is a decorative cover for a basic comforter.  The comforter, usually filled with down or a hypoallergenic, downlike product,  is inserted in the duvet.  The comforter should be “tied in,”  or secured somehow so it does not shift inside the duvet.  We put 8 ties inside our duvets so the insert is nicely secured.

 A decorative comforter is a cover for the bed and the filling inside a decorative comforter is always permanent.  The filler cannot be removed, unlike the insert in a duvet.  The permanent fill can be down, poly, or a hypoallergenic downlike product. 

My two cents:  If you are investing in custom decorative bedding, you will want to take care of it so it will last.  Decorative bedding is just that:  DECORATIVE!  I suggest you do not sleep under your decorative pieces, either duvet or comforter, to protect them from body oils and soiling.  Instead, purchase what I refer to as a “utility” duvet and insert a basic comforter in it.  Sleep under this piece.  This duvet can be purchased at any bedding store to match/complement your linens and can be laundered with your linens as well.  The utility duvet will protect the insert from body oils and soiling, resulting in minimal, if any, laundering of the insert.  This will extend the life of your insert.

Here in Dallas, even in winter, a wonderfully lofty down comforter can be suffocating.  We suggest inserting a down blanket instead, a product you can purchase from Kelly Custom, of course!  Down blankets provide ample snuggly warmth and slip nicely into a utility duvet.

Touch, Break, Crush, Puddle — how do you want to dress the hemline of your draperies on the floor?  Do you have pets?  Children?  Maybe you want a dramatic look.  Maybe you want a neat, tailored look.  How you dress your drapery hemlines truly influences the entire look of your room.  If you have pets, or you prefer a tidy, tailored look, you probably do not want deep puddles in your draperies.  If you love drama, puddle away!!!  These definitions will help you decide:

Off the Floor — Operable, traversing draperies should be dressed off the floor for ease in operation.  As the draperies open and close, they will not drag on the floor.  A great installer can dress draperies off the floor 1/4″.  At the most, try to dress draperies no more than 1/2″ off the floor.

Touch — The drapery hemline just touches the floor and remains straight, no crumple, no bending.

Break — Similar to a pant break in trousers.  Drapery hemline touches the floor and bends slightly.  This can be a gentle break (slight bending) or a heavy break (lots of bending).

Crush — Think of this as a mini-puddle.  Drapery hemline not only touches the floor, it crumples a bit.  A crush can be light or heavy but stops short of puddling.

Puddle — This is fabric on the floor, baby!!!  Anything from approximately 10″ to…geez — infinity?  Super deep puddles are very dramatic.  Puddles can be dressed with the hemlines tucked under, or mermaid style with the hemlines flaired.  I love adding trim to hemlines dressed with a flaired puddle – trimming the hemline adds even more drama!  I teach my clients how to properly dress a puddle so their draperies are “Installation Day” perfect forever!

Dressing the hemlines of draperies is subjective.  However, a contemporary room will probably not have puddled draperies.  An antebellum look probably will.  Consider the style of the room when deciding how to dress the hemlines of your draperies, whether they are traversing or stationary.

On a pair of draperies, even on a one way draw drapery panel, there is a “lead edge” and a “return”.  The lead edge is the side of the drapery panel that draws across the window first.  It is the space from the outer edge of the side hem to the first pleat, and usually measures 3″ to 3.5″ wide.  The return is the same space on the other side of the drapery panel, the back side.  This is the portion of the drapery panel that “returns” to the wall and is permanently attached to the wall.  Returns can measure as much as 7.5″ wide depending the multiple layers in your window treatment.  If there are no layers under the draperies, the returns will be 3.5″ to 4″ wide, and your bracket will project 3.5″ from the wall.  If there is a valance (pronounced VAL ance, accent on VAL.  Not val ANCE, accent on ANCE.) under your draperies, the return will probably be 5.5″ to 6″ wide, and you will purchase a bracket with a 5.5″ projection from the wall.  If there is a blind mounted outside the window, then sheers, then draperies mounted over all layers, your returns will be 7.5″ to 8″ wide and your bracket will have 7.5″ projection from the wall.  Dressing a window in more than 3 layers will result in the draperies projecting into the room a bit too far.  You should limit your layers to three.  This rule of thumb for returns is proper for valances and cornices mounted over layers of a window treatment, also.

More “drapery speak” — I want you to be an educated consumer!  There are a variety of trimmings on the market today.  Let’s discuss the most popular.  First, welt cording, actually fabricated in the workroom along with your draperies, bedding and pillows.  “Self” welt cording is made from fabric, usually the same fabric as the drapery, pillow, chair, sofa (to whatever it is applied).  Self welt can also be in a contrast fabric.  It is cut on the bias of the fabric.  One can also purchase a variety of twisted cordings, with a lip that can be sewn into the seam and used in place of self welting.  This is frequently referred to as “lip cord”.  Another frequently used trimming one can purchase is “brush fringe,” a thick, brushy trim of uniformly cut length of threads, usually around 1″ long.  Bullion is the longer trim, anywhere from about 3″ to 8″ long, and consists of thread twisted together in ropey fingers.  There is a vast variety of tassel trim available today.  Tassel trim comes in a variety of lengths and styles and usually has tiny tassels, made from thread, or tassels made of fabric covered beads tied to it.  Finally, one can purchase beaded trim in a variety of lengths and styles.  Most trims come with a “gimp” edge, either decorative gimp, so that it can be applied exposed, or a nondecorative edge, meant to be sewn into a seam.   In addition to colors and styles, scale and proportion of the trim to the application should always be considered when making your trim selections.

We just celebrated the 4th of July — hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends!  Now is the best time to begin sprucing up your interiors for the winter holidays — Thanksgiving through New Year’s.  Turn around times are much shorter right now — instant gratification!  Beat the holiday rush and crush, get your orders in now and lessen  your stress when the holidays arrive!

Drapery pleats are located at the top of drapery panels.  In addition to being decorative, pleats assist in the opening and closing of the drapery panel.  I am frequently asked to explain the difference in the variety of pleat styles.  There are many creative pleat styles for draperies.  I will discuss the most popular.  Pinch Pleats are the standard pleats one finds in drapery — the 3 finger (3 folds) pleat tacked together approximately 4″ from the top of the panel.  Euro Pleats are usually 3 finger pleats tacked together at the very top of the pleat.  A butterfly pleat is usually a 2 finger pleat and can be tacked at the top or 4″ down from the top of the panel.  A Goblet pleat looks like a little wine goblet and is tacked 4″ down from the top of the panel.  Pencil Pleats are thin tubes, less than 1″ in diameter and are not tacked together so that they look like little tubes across the panel.  Cartridge pleats are larger tubes, about 1.5″ in diameter and are also left untacked.  Traversing, or operable panels that open and close must have some sort of pleat in order to open and close in a uniform fashion.   Rod Pocket panels can be opened and closed but are not an optimal choice for operable, traversing drapery panels and must be opened and closed by hand.  Uniformity and ease of operation in drapery panels are so important at Kelly Custom, most pleat styles are provided at no additional charge.  Why settle for rod pocket when you can have beautiful, pleated panels for the same price?

There are a variety of linings for draperies.  A couture drapery panel can actually have 4 layers — face fabric, interlining, blackout lining, and finishing lining.  Most draperies are face fabric and finishing lining, or blackout lining.  If the fabric needs more body, an interlining should be used between the face fabric and the lining, and there are a variety of interlinings, also.  Depending on how the draperies will be dressed determines which linings should be used.  Valances should always be fabricated with blackout lining.

Huh?  Drapery Speak?  What does this mean?  WOM = Width of Material.  On average, most decor fabric is 54″ wide.  Regarding draperies, WOM refers to the number of widths of fabric necessary to dress your window.  Stationary panels do not open and close but are important for adding color and visual interest to your window.  Stationary panels are usually (1) width to (2) widths of material on each side of the window, depending on the amount of negative space on either side of the window.  Traversing panels open and close and require as many widths as necessary to cover the window without tugging.  Stationary and Traversing panels can be mounted on a variety of decorative hardware.

I am asked frequently to identify pillow shapes.  Here goes — Euro Shams are the 26 x 26 sized pillows usually placed against the headboard.  King, Queen and Standard shams are the large, rectangular shaped (sleeping pillow shaped) pillows usually placed in front of the Euros.  Throw / toss pillows are usually square pillows, or the rectangular pillows — referred to as lumbar or kidneys.  Boxed Pillows, square or round, have the wide perimeter edge – usually 2 – 3 inches wide, and bolsters are the tube shaped pillows with capped (flat) or starburst (gathered) ends.  In recent years, Euro Bolsters have been introduced — anywhere from 40″ to 68″ long.  Any creative combination of pillows is acceptable as long as they are balanced and appropriatetly proportioned to each other and to the size of the bed.