Window Treatments and Slipcovers For Dummies

Mark Montano, Carly Sommerstein

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780764584480
• eBook ISBN: 9781118070093
• Edition: 1

Gain inspiration from 8 pages of full-color photos Create a stunning room with dozens of step-by-step projects Want to ditch your drab drapes and so-so slipcovers and create a style that's uniquely your own? Top designer Mark Montano reveals how easy it is to jazz up your windows and furniture -- without breaking the bank! You get expert tips on everything from measuring and cutting material to accessorizing, as well as savvy shortcuts and quick fixes. Discover how to
* Express your individual style
* Choose fabrics, trims, and hardware
* Ensure the perfect fit
* Create no-sew or low-sew treatments
* Add decorative details

Part I

Window Treatments & Slipcovers 101

In this part . . .

**IN a DROPCAP**

P lanning your new window treatment or slipcover — or both — and getting all the materials and your workspace together may seem demanding, but we’re going to make sure it’s also fun. Furthermore, we promise that if you take everything one step at a time, you’ll discover your hidden designer and see your project through from beginning to end.

In this part, we start off with some style and design choices to mull over, recommend where to go for inspiration so you can start fleshing out your projects, and provide a quick overview of construction techniques and advice on organizing a simple workspace. We tell you all you need to know about choosing, shopping for, and pretreating fabric; deciding on accessories and trims; and picking (and even making) complementary hardware and mounting it correctly. We also recommend some helpful tools that you want to keep around to make your sewing life a lot easier — and fun.

Chapter 1

Covering the Basics Before You Start

In This Chapter

Thinking about color, print, scale, and texture

Searching for inspiration everywhere

Choosing your construction

Creating a workspace and gathering your supplies

“But where do I start?” Many people, even design professionals, have uttered this phrase when faced with starting a designing endeavor. Creating something seemingly out of thin air can seem daunting, and you may even put off starting your project because you feel overwhelmed by everything. Don’t worry, we’re here to help.

This chapter offers some basic information and helpful tips to keep in mind when you’re beginning to think about slipcover and window treatment projects you want to make. From choosing fabric to seeking out style ideas, to thinking about trims and considering whether to sew or not to sew, to organizing your workspace and getting your sewing kit together, this chapter is a great place to start — from the beginning!

Thinking about Color

Do you like light-colored, sheer fabrics for an open breezy feel? Do you like bursts of saturated color? Are you attracted to the richness of velvet? Fabrics have unique qualities that can help you express your true style (see Chapter 2 for more).

One of the first things you think about when starting a new design project is your color choice. Whether you like or dislike colors and combinations of colors is subjective, but you can rely on a few principles to help you decide what color/colors work best for your project.

Using the color spectrum

The color spectrum comprises the colors of a rainbow. If you remember your high school science or art classes, you may recall old Roy G. Biv, which stands for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The warm colors — red, orange, and yellow — register in many people’s eyes as advancing. They make an area look larger, tend to impart energy and vigor, and are at the left side of the color spectrum. The cool ones — green, blue, indigo, and violet — register in many people’s eyes as receding. They make an area look smaller, tend to impart calm and relaxation, and are on the right side of the spectrum.

Black and white are “color-free” colors that go well with warm or cool hues. Neutrals like beige, tan, cream, and wheat can also be combined beautifully with either warm or cool hues.

Deciding whether to go cool or warm

Most people choose either warm or cool tones, and stay within the one family of colors — for example, robin’s egg blue matched with indigo — which decorators call a monochromatic color scheme, depending on what kind of feeling they want to impart in the room. Warm tones impart a bright, happy, stimulating feeling, while cool tones give a calming, relaxing tone. Bedrooms are rooms where you relax and sleep, so many people favor cool colors, like blue, while a den and kitchen are livelier spaces that oftentimes benefit from a warmer palette. Dining rooms are often red, which is considered an appetite stimulant.

Mixing it up by choosing both

No rule says that you have to stay exclusively within the cool tones or the warm tones. In fact, we wholeheartedly advocate using both sides of the color spectrum — what we call the cool/warm paradigm. For example, a warm orange and a cool/neutral tan always look great together, as do a sunny yellow and a cool blue. Another winning combination is red (or pink) and gray, or blue and orange.

We encourage you to add color to your life in ways that please you. But moving all over the color spectrum with four or five colors that don’t relate to one another may make the room a bit too busy, creating a space where working or relaxing is difficult. Stick to two or three compatible colors and you’ll never go wrong.

Say your existing decor features a brick-red sofa, a white armchair, a light green rug, and off-white walls. You have one warm element (red), two neutral elements (white and off-white), and one cool element (green) in your room. You may decide that you want to move toward the cool family, playing up the carpet’s color by incorporating another cool tone in your window treatment, say, a window treatment in a similar green, or a blue with green tones. Or you may want to move your decor toward a warmer palette by choosing a cinnamon brown slipcover fabric to cover the armchair. Saffron is another color that looks gorgeous added to warm tones.

Paint samples, the kind on paper that you get at the hardware or paint store, are very useful to keep specific colors, or families of colors, handy when you fabric shop. Take a few home and match them to the elements of your decor you want to keep in mind when you shop. Staple ’em right into a notebook where you can easily locate them. (Check out “Nearer to thee (your references, that is)” later in this chapter and Chapter 2 for more on creating a notebook.)

Are you feeling it?

When selecting a fabric for your project , you want to consider how the fabric feels. Some fabric has a shiny finish, some is silky, some is rough, and some is a bit scratchy (see Chapter 2 for more on choosing fabric). How does the fabric feel when you sit on it, lounge on it, and touch it with your bare feet? Do your family members, especially children, who tend to have more sensitive skin, like it? At the same time that you’re evaluating the feel of the fabric, consider its “hand”; how does the fabric handle, drape, or crease? Is it stiff or flimsy?

Although the fabric’s feel applies more to slipcovers than to window treatments, it’s still important for both types of projects that you enjoy handling the fabric while you’re making your project, because that’s half the fun.

Picking prints

Prints, including stripes, polka dots, florals, geometric shapes, plaids, paisleys, sunbursts, and so on, are a terrific way to add pizzazz to a room. Choose a print whose background color echoes another color in your decor to give your project and room an extra punch.

When selecting a pattern, consider contrasting its scale with other patterns in the room. Scale refers to the size of the patterns and how they relate to other patterns in the room. Add a small check to a large floral print for a traditional look. Mix a medium stripe with a small geometric print for a great-looking modern design scheme.

We especially love bold prints with large motifs and recommend them if they fit your decor. Large prints can provide a nice focal point to your room, like a design exclamation point. However, they can be a challenge to sew because you have to match the repeated motif across fabric panels (see Chapter 6 for more on repeats).

Particularly with slipcovers, you have to be sure the motif always runs the correct way across the entire sofa or chair. Our recommendation here and throughout this book is to use a small, all-over print fabric for creating slipcovers. It saves you time, money, and sewing frustration, and y...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Window Treatments & Slipcovers 101
• Chapter 1: Covering the Basics Before You Start
• Chapter 2: Choosing the Right Fabric for the Job
• Chapter 3: Buying, Pretreating, and Caring for Your Fabrics
• Chapter 4: Latching On to Hardware
• Chapter 5: Getting the Right Tools within Reach
• Part II : Window Treatments in a Snap
• Chapter 6: Measuring, Making Patterns, and Cutting Fabric for Your Windows
• Chapter 7: Making Easy No-Sew and Low-Sew Window Treatments
• Chapter 8: Accessorize! Window Details That Dazzle
• Chapter 9: Quick Fixes and Timesaving Techniques for Window Treatments
• Part III : Slipcovers Made Easy
• Chapter 10: Calculating, Measuring, and More: General Tips for Slipcovering
• Chapter 11: Tackling the Easy Stuff: Simple Slipcovers
• Chapter 12: My Slipcover Is Better Than Yours: Knockout Accessorizing
• Chapter 13: Easy Street: Slipcover Shortcuts and Mistake Meltaways
• Part IV : Challenging Projects to Try
• Chapter 14: Intermediate Window Treatments to Sink Your Needle Into
• Chapter 15: Gearing Up for More Ambitious Window Treatment Projects
• Chapter 16: All in a Day’s Work! Intermediate Slipcover Projects
• Chapter 17: Slipcover All-Stars: Advanced Projects
• Part V : The Part of Tens
• Chapter 18: Ten Interior Design Tips to Follow
• Chapter 19: Ten Interior Design Rules to Break
• Chapter 20: Ten (or So) Web Resources for Fabric, Hardware, and Notions
• : Color Insert