Have you left white sheets hanging in your living room’s picture windows because you can’t decide whether you should spring for custom shades, buy some off-the-shelf curtain panels or hire a home couture pro to whip up some luxe drapery? Oregon Home asked four draperymakers and a window coverings expert to detail what a well-dressed window looks like.

[1. SHOW RESTRAINT IF YOU OPT TO ACCENT YOUR CURTAIN RODS WITH FINIALS.]

You want guests to admire your window treatments as a whole, not point to the ends of your curtain rod and say, “Wow! I haven’t seen a pair of glass balls that big since I inherited Grandma Duchene’s collection of vintage Japanese glass floats!” Finials should be an integral part of the drapery design rather than an afterthought. “My own draperies hang from inch-thick copper rods,” says Dan DeMoy, the Portland-based designer behind DnDy Design, a maker of custom drapery, curtains and duvets. “I just sand-papered the ends and took a blowtorch to them, which gave them a rainbow patina. I put plumber’s end caps on each end and left the rod smooth. If I’m doing curtains for a boy’s room, and the boy is into trucks, I’ll buy a toy truck and use the wheels as finials. If I’m working on a girl’s bedroom and she’s into horses, I might go to a tack shop and buy bridle gear to use as finials on the curtain rods. A finial doesn’t have to be a giant carved acorn. Have fun with them!”

[2. BE BOLD IN YOUR FABRIC CHOICES.]
Drapes are a good way to add color and texture to a space. Mixing fabrics can add visual interest to a room and make it livelier. “My whole thing is to mix and match prints and fabrics,” says ace slipcoverer and draperymaker Kate Nason, who also does designwork as the owner of Chairwear in Portland. “I’ve made draperies out of vintage fabric. If a client has vintage panels that don’t fit her home’s windows, I can add a border to them in a complementary print. I once did silk draperies in two different colors of silk velvet for a client. I used antique sari trim that I cut off the bottom of saris to cover the seams.”

 
[3. DON’T SKIMP ON YARDAGE WHEN YOU BUY FABRIC FOR WINDOW COVERINGS.]
If you’re out cruising the aisles at your  local fabric store and you see the pattern of your dreams for your living room windows, make sure to buy enough yardage or you might find yourself a panel short.  “You need a lot of fabric for draperies,” says Nason. “And if you want any kind of pleat or fullness, it’s usually two to three  times the width of the window. You have to add inches of fabric for the top and bottom hems, which should be generous: The classic hem is a ‘double four.’ Another thing that you have to take into account with a print is its pattern repeat on the fabric. For a professional-looking job, the pattern needs to match at the drapery seams.”