Making a House a Home-Personalizing Touches

The front door, painted Hocky Puck, Ralph Lauren High gloss paint

Today I have been busy painting the front door and painting the basement steps. (finally!) I have the centers of the alternating steps to finish up as I didn't want to paint myself down there. There are boxes everywhere and things to unpack. So, no photos of the basement today. There are small carcasses strewn about as the creatures try and escape after we painted. There isn't too much activity down there, other than myself for moving things around and unpacking. I think I am going to like it.

The front door color is some old paint I had in my storage. It was still good and the front door painted out quite well. Some of the rusty red was peeling off, so I scraped a bit and put two coats of the dark blue/black on the door. Wow, wet it is very blue! As it dries, it is a lovely deep midnight blue...remember the color crayon? That was one of my favorites. It was such a surprise to get that deep blue with the slightest hint of teal as the light absorbed into the darkest areas of the colored patch. It is a beautiful contrast against the velvety smooth Revere Pewter on the walls. a very elegant combination. Timeless, it is working for me.

The sketch below is the window that I have to make the first drapery for. After doing the measurements, I determined that I would do 2 and half times fullness. This is standard fullness for custom draperies. Two times fullness is typical of ready made draperies, I try never to use less than 2.5 fullness and if the fabric is lightweight I will multiply three to four times fullness. On sheer fabrics, the more fullness equals more privacy. 

Sketch of the Living room window elevation

For this window,  I am using the vintage fabric as the main fabric. Two and half times is plenty. I have two panels, however, I am planning to only use one. I will split it in half and make two panels. This means that I am 9" short. Earlier in thinking about the design, I thought to only make a cafe type curtain, one that didn't go quite all of the way to the top, however, as the seasons change, the sun changes positions and I don't want it peaking in the tops of the windows at mid day. So, I thought to bring it all the way to the top and clear the sill by 3/8".  

As I don't have a long enough panel to do two at full length, I am going to use the main fabric, using what I have available, then add a 9" extended hem that can be hidden up behind the lining for a shorter version. The piece of vintage fabric I have will be a great proportion to the full inside width of the window and the contrast hem extension will add interest. I will also add a contrast header facing of the same fabric. The drapery lining will be ivory so as not to be distracting from the street view of the windows. Different linings on different windows is aesthetically odd, the sunlight also wreaks havoc on the color, fading it quickly. So I prefer not to use contrast linings.

 This week as I unpack and set up the sewing studio, I will be searching through the stash to determine good candidates for the decorative details of the draperies. Details of the design will be shared in a future post this week. Have a happy monday!