Delightful Draperies

I have a thing for Asymmetry. It’s probably why I am the most drawn to Victorian architecture. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE symmetry, and it ABSOLUTELY has its place. I just find things that aren’t symmetrical so much more interesting.

And when it comes to curtains (okay, when it comes to almost anything with interior design for me), I think the room dictates how everything should go. When I sewed curtains for the Black Bedroom, it SCREAMED symmetry.

But when you just have one window, I think it’s much more license to play. I picked up this book years ago – at Half-Price books, maybe? It has tons of different drawing and pictures of windows with all sorts of treatments. It’s a good jumping off point, and makes my head spin with ideas.

This was the window that jumped out at me. I thought this was a really fun starting point! It’s so ridiculous, which is why I love it so much.

Here’s the fabric for the right side of the window – a gold and black stripe.

The pattern play is fun! I always love mixing patterns. Sometimes I like when they really battle, but here, I didn’t want to compete with the wallpaper, so the stripe is a MUCH smaller pattern, and doesn’t compete at all. (To me. It probably triggers hatred in others. Sorry.)

The “base” curtains are still two panels, and wide enough to cover the window entirely if needed. And, YES, there is some furniture in the room and a sconce on the wall and some pictures hanging that I haven’t shown you yet, because we partially staged it for the hometour. But until everything is in it’s final place, I’m pretending it’s not there.

Okay, except the sconce. You can see that.

Isn’t he AMAZING?!?! We bought him from an antique dealer in Chicago, with the intention of selling him at the Salvage Shop, but he sat there for 3 years and no one bought him (which is a travesty). But, it meant he needed to live here.

He’s not totally done – we hung him hastily for the hometour to avoid wires hanging out of the wall, but he’s going to be a touch lamp – you’ll have to pet him to turn him on. Ha.

Back to the curtains, and another thing that’s fun to pet – Velvet!

It took forever, but on the seams without trim, I used this fun stitch pattern on my machine.

Gold trim on the inside and bottom seams!

Maria Von Trapp could make a killer cape out of this.

Left side, strong side.

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a proper tie-back before – usually I just make them out of something else. But I bought this on Etsy and it’s super fun!

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The tieback got a tassle as large as my head (again, thanks Etsy).

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And another tassel went on the velvet side, but this one tied up to the curtain rod. I used a double rod here.

The result? Asymmetrical, Whimsical, and Delightful.

Luckily, when I asked Doug if he liked it, he said he did. “I especially like how the left side is tied up higher than the right.” Me. Too.

I love the wallpaper even more now that it’s accessorized.

It’s so dramatic. It’s feeling REALLY fancy, but hopefully fun as well.

Just a recap – the inspiration picture :

And my take on it, mainly just using the shape and texture.

Next up? A chair for that corner!