Turning Windows Into Royal Panes

A properly dressed window today is more than a pinch-pleat drapery, sheer curtains, a valance or blinds. It may be all of these things. And more.

When the fabric is long enough to “puddle” on the floor and is layered at the windows; when the rods are decorative and capped with fancy finials; when a valance, fringe, braid and tassels complete the look, you’ve probably spent big bucks.

Sheers, valances and decorative hardware are popular. And, like most other window treatments, they come in three tiers: ready-made, ready-to-cut and custom.

Custom, made-to-measure with fabric and style of choice, is generally the most expensive. The less-expensive ready-to-cut treatments offer a limited selection of styles made in your choice of fabrics. Ready-made is the lowest tier in window dressing: While these mass-produced styles available at retail are plentiful and can be combined into fashionable treatments, they lack the fine workmanship, and you’re stuck with the installation.

But they shouldn’t be discounted.

“Layering is the key word for stylish, new, ready-made window treatments sold in curtain departments,” says Cheryl Johnson, product manager of windows for Croscill Home Fashions of New York.

By combining several ready-made curtain lengths, shaped valances, ornamental braid and tassels and decorative hardware, you can create a custom look for less than custom prices.

Johnson says that for a standard double-hung sash, Croscill offers a three-layer treatment for about $300 plus hardware. Start, for example, with a textured pink polyester panel that looks like raw silk and top it with a white-on-white floral sheer. The two rod-pocket curtains are strung on a double curtain rod. Top it with a decorative rod and finials and a pink teardrop-shaped valance with a tab top and tassel trim.

Lillian Bender, merchandise director of Country Curtains, a mail-order house in Stockbridge, Mass., says repeating the pattern or color will give ready-made window decor more of a custom look.

Carl Rothbaum, president of Robert Allen Fabrics of Boston, says decorative rods are important for today’s look. “There are some unbelievable rods out there,” he says, “brass, wood, even gold-plated.”

Country Curtains is among retail outlets with a large selection.

“We now sell rods in wrought iron, brass, wood and resin,” Bender says. There are decorative finials, too, and motifs as diverse as birds, leaves and stars.

Many manufacturers are using chameleon-like resins to create faux finishes ranging from verdigris on metal to plaster rosettes.

Shoppers will also find a variety of shaped and draped window-top treatments. Croscill, for example, has a gauzy, Fortuny-pleated polyester window wrapping to twist and tie over a curtain rod and a window scarf that can be wrapped around a rod or pulled through hardware rings or used as a topper over standard curtain panels.

Trimmings such as braid and tassels also are important for today’s window treatments. A 90-inch length of braid for tiebacks or to loop over a decorative curtain rod is about $15 from Croscill.

Ready-made curtains come in a variety of widths and lengths to fit most of today’s windows made in sizes and shapes far removed from the traditional double-hung sash. Ready-made curtains also come in a variety of fabrics, patterns and colors. Croscill has a white sheer with a subtle vertical stripe of metallic thread and a floral sheer in soft mauve, lavender and green.

Buyers who don’t mind spending a little more time and money might want to consider cut-to-order window fashions where pre-designed styles are available in a choice of fabrics.

Rothbaum’s company has created 12 high-style window treatments sold through Home Depot’s Home Expo stores in San Diego, Atlanta, Dallas and Westbury, N.Y. The customer chooses the style from samples on display, then selects fabrics from a swatch rack of 1,180 fabric samples. Prices start about $250, and the finished product takes about 10 days.

Choices include heavier fabrics such as damasks, yarn-dyed wovens and natural linen, all textiles associated with custom window treatments.

“Prices start where ready-made treatments stop,” Rothbaum says.