Tableaux Virgin Tells All

Tableaux traceries piqued my fancy from the first time I saw the ad in Window Fashions Vision magazine a few years back.  In case you’re not familiar with Tableaux, it’s a lightweight faux wrought iron product that can be customized to virtually any size or shape, in just about any pattern homeowners and their designers can dream up.  Because Tableaux weighs only about 10% of what a comparable wrought iron piece would weigh, it’s ideal for windows, doors, and ceiling applications.  As an added plus, Tableaux is constructed out of 100% post-industrial recycled wood fiber and formaldehyde-free resin and is LEED certified.  What’s not to love?

   So I’ve had this cool Tableaux product floating around in the back of my mind for a few years now, and although I had suggested it to clients on several occasions it never panned out before now.  In retrospect, I think that’s because there are so many cheap-looking aluminum faux iron “wall art” pieces for sale through catalogs and discount stores these days and clients were hesitant to place a Tableaux order without seeing the product in person.  Before pitching Tableaux to this client, I ordered a sample kit with two big actual Tableaux pieces (about the size of a sample plantation shutter panel) along with a ring of finish chips.  I work out of my home, so finding storage space for all my sampling is an ongoing challenge.  However, seeing those actual Tableaux samples in person was crucial for reassuring my clients that this product looks as good in person as it does in the pictures, and that it wasn’t going to detract from their beautiful custom home.

For this particular project, the home had an odd little niche built into the wall in the upstairs hallway.  This area is open to the two-story formal living room on one side, and open to the two-story foyer on the other side.  The railings are a mixture of wood and wrought iron ballusts, and the home’s architecture is Old World European although the clients’ tastes run a bit more transitional and sleek.  My clients’ don’t remember what the previous homeowner had displayed in this wall niche, and didn’t quite know what to do with it themselves.  They had thought of hiring a muralist to do a trompe l’oeil window scene in the niche, but because the niche is so close to the foyer window on one side and the dramatic two-story living room draperies on the other side, I really didn’t want to make it into another window.  Plus, located on an interior wall right outside a guest bedroom, a window would have been pretty unconvincing.

   My clients liked the Tableaux samples so much that they chose the exact same design as one of the sample pieces, in the exact same finish.  Because I wanted to do an inside-mount within the niche, I sent my installer out to create a template, and I’m glad that I did.  The niche is totally out of square and the walls of the niche slope so that the opening is smaller at the front than at the back.  To ensure a perfect fit, I had the installer cut a rigid template out of foam board insulation from Home Depot and test-fit that in the client’s home prior to sending the paper template to Helser Brothers for fabrication.  The last thing I wanted was to be stuck with a non-returnable, custom-made Tableaux piece that ALMOST fit in the niche! 

I have to show you how well packaged this product is for shipment.  After reading the instructions on the order form about the shock sensors and what to do if they indicate shipper mishandling, I was a little apprehensive that my Tableaux was going to arrive damaged, but it arrived in immaculate condition, wrapped in bubble wrap and carefully crated in plywood that was held together by honest-to-God real screws. 

  On installation day, my installer arrived a few minutes before me and had the Tableaux piece easily installed in about 5 minutes flat, before I even got there.  He told me afterwards that my client had followed him up the stairs anxiously and wanted to immediately touch the Tableaux as soon as it was unpacked, so I know she was still nervous about whether this “faux iron” stuff was going to be something she could be proud to have in her home.  By the time I left, she had already called her boyfriend and gushed about how much he was going to love the Tableaux when he got home, and she had invited one of her neighbors to come over and see it that evening – a neighbor who had just spent a small fortune having a fairly plain wrought iron grille custom-made for the door to her wine cellar.  The client is so pleased with the Tableaux product in this niche that she’s looking around her home for other places where she could use it as well.  At the end of the day, the niche looks beautiful, the clients are thrilled, the installer is pleased with how easy this product is to work with, and my imagination is going into overdrive thinking up more creative Tableaux applications.  I can’t wait to use this product again.  I want to send a big thank-you to Jocelyn and everyone else at Helser Brothers who helped make my first Tableaux experience a success!