Easy and Breezy…..

As you already know, for years, I struggled with finishing our master bedroom. I never quite felt inspired enough, having made a few mistakes in there, and never really addressing them. The wood wall that divided our dressing area from the main room was an issue. The contractor mistakenly used walnut instead of oak; and from there it went downhill. It was all a mess.We needed something as window coverings so I cobbled together some leftover silk fabric from our home in California as makeshift curtains for the time being, and over the course of the years they became more and more shabby (not in a good way!)

(this was before!)

This was an area of our home Phil had an opinion about usually he doesn’t care what I do. In our bedroom he wanted clean and modern lines, nothing fussy- and no clutter! I agreed, but I wanted it to also feel cozy and ZEN.

This year I finally changed out that walnut wall and suddenly felt inspired. It was time to find the perfect window treatments to soften the space and make it inviting. I usually have our curtains made by a seamstress friend. I look for a beautiful fabric in the design center. Historically, I go very simple. And I am not always happy in the end. Spending a lot of money on expensive fabric with the risk of not getting it right is discouraging!

I decided it was time to leave it to the experts so I reached out to The Shade Store. I never realized how beautiful their fabric selection was (and I’m picky!) and ordering as many swatches as I wanted was fast and easy. Before our initial meeting, I made a wish-list of what I wanted. We have a mish-mosh of windows in there: French doors that open to a small deck, a large picture window that overlooks the beach, and a few smaller double-hungs. Additionally, our master bath has a couple of windows so of course I wanted to have both rooms work together yet function differently.

All summer long we open our windows and enjoy the the sea breeze. For the two large bedroom windows, I wanted a light and airy linen that would sway with the wind. However, I didn’t want to be constantly adjusting them – a problem I had with the existing curtains.

Fabric and construction are so important to me – I needed both to be beautiful! I wanted to be able to close the drapes at night and have privacy, but not block out the light totally. (We like waking up to the dampened light of sunrise.) I wanted to have the option of total darkness! In our bathroom, I wanted complete privacy. Most importantly, I needed to easily open and close all of them, without everything looking wonky!

(The closed drapes offer privacy without making the room too dark. However, if I close the blinds beneath, the room becomes dark. Layering both gave us options!)

Having this list of my “wants” made it easy for The Shade Store to come up with the perfect solution. They recommended their Luxe Linen for the drapes (I chose the color “Beige”) with pinch pleats to keep the structure. We used the Tribeca Track system (no curtain rings!) which works to keep everything perfect all day and night, open or closed! Then we layered them with their Woven Wood shades (I chose the Seaview waterfall woven wood shades, in the color “Salt”) for a bit of texture and privacy. We used simple Roman Shades in the same Luxe linen for the smaller windows, and added the beautiful Capella Mohair trim (color “Sand”) for a little unexpected detail. For our bathroom, we carried in the same Waterfall woven wood shades to keep the look seamless and beachy. Layering the textures and fabrics across the two rooms and adding the small trim detail made such an impact!

(It’s all in the details!)

Once installed, I could not believe the difference having professional window treatments makes – the craftsmanship is stellar, and their attention to all the little details, made the simple but luxurious statement I had hoped for! The folks at The Shade Store were incredibly helpful, knowledgable, and professional from start to finish.