“These drapes finish off our house”. When this Reno homeowner saw the completed draperies, she made that statement. We’ve heard these sentiments many times. Drapes add a personal touch to a home. Especially when great care is taken to select the perfect fabric for the existing decor and the personal tastes of the homeowner.

In this video, we combined 3 different fabrics to create a fun and bold look for a monochromatic kitchen. The roman shade is custom made by Horizon’s Window Fashions of Illinois, and the drapes were made by my local workroom here in the Reno area. All the fabrics for this job were sourced from Kasmir Fabrics.

The process of selecting fabrics is important. There is no single way to do it. Sometimes we focus on the color that is needed. Sometimes we focus on the weight of the fabric. Sometimes we focus on the type of material needed. Sometimes there are other factors that must be considered. As a drapery designer, I must know where to start and how to best meet the needs of the client. There are so many factors to consider, it is hard to enumerate them here. When you SEE how the process goes, it makes more sense. The one thing I can say for sure is that it does take time to choose the right fabric. On average, I try to make sure we have at least 3 hours available to finalize a room treatment. The fabric selection is just part of the process. For example, in this job, we needed to select the fabric for the roman shade, the fabric for the drapery, the banding, the lining, the drapery rods, the pleat type, the fold style of the shade, the height of the treatments and some other more technical features. It all sounds very clinical, but in the end, it is all about how you feel about that room every time you walk into it.