In this post I thought I would go through the process of how you get custom window treatments. There are several ways this process can happen. For the room I am going to show you the customer was referred to me from a previous client. This is the most common way I get new clients. I also work with a few designers who have their clients. When I work with my own clients I state that I am not a designer and can give suggestions and help them select the fabrics, but that is not my speciality. If the client would like to work with a designer I will gladly give them suggestions. JCR Design Group is a firm I work with and have worked with all the designers on staff. Jenny is the main designer and she has great taste and is very professional. Below is a sample of her work. I fabricated the cornices, panels and pillows, but she pulled the whole room together. She later added art work and changed up the lamps.
Back to the process of working with me directly. Some of my clients like to shop for their own fabrics and I will figure how much they need to purchase and then they can drop it off and I will fabricate the window treatment. Other clients prefer for me to bring fabric books and hardware samples so they can choose right from the comfort of their own home. Several of the companies I carry are Kirsch Hardware, Select Hardware, RM COCO Fabrics, Kasmir Fabrics.
While I am at the home I take detailed measurements of the window and often take pictures of the window. Then we look through books that have different styles of window treatments and select a style or two that the client likes. Once we have selected a style we move on to the fabric and hopefully can find a couple of fabrics that the client likes. I can then have samples of the fabrics sent directly to the client so they can think about them and see them in different lighting.
I can also create a rendering of several treatments with the fabric they have chosen. This is a great tool to help the client visualize the treatment. I can also do several styles, so it helps them make the final decision. Sometimes I can create the treatment right on the actual picture of the window.
And other times I have to create the window. Even though it is just a drawing it still gives the client a very good idea of how it will look. With the featured room, I had to create the window and I offered her a couple of ideas.
The first one are standard pinch pleat panels on a long rod with rings. In this reading I didn’t add the fabric. At first she thought she wanted white fabric, so I just left them white. I also didn’t change the color of the walls or the floor.
In this rendering I darken the floor and changed the walls to a color closer to her color, and I gave her a different style of drapes, this is an inverted box pleat drape, a more modern and contemporary look.
In this one I actually added the fabric, and put the grey and white on part of them, to help her visualize it better. As I stated before when she first started thinking about drapes, she had thought she wanted white, I sent her samples of the grey and the white, and included both on the rendering. Her final decision was the grey, and I think it was an excellent choice.
In the mean time I work up a proposal that includes everything from the fabric, hardware, labor to fabricate, and installation of the treatment. This is just an estimate and may change depending on the final selection of fabric and hardware. Once they select the fabric and or hardware, I have them write me a deposit, usually 50% of the estimate. Then I order the fabric and we wait for everything to come in. Once everything has come in I add the client to my working list of jobs.
And the final result was a very happy client! She loved the treatment, and really thought it completed the room. She is going to change-up the pillows and I gave her a couple of suggestions. I usually don’t think of grey as a warm color, but these really warmed up the room and added so much height, and color to the room.
So if you have a room that needs to be completed, warmed up, or refreshed give me a call and I will try to help you!
Would love to hear from you!