Judith Carol Ellis was at the Victoria And Albert Museum in London recently and was kind enough to bring back some ideas and images in hopes of providing some creative inspiration. It is flattering that one of our clients would think of us while on vacation, but to actually go to the trouble to put together ideas and photos for us is just a beautiful gesture. Thanks Judith!
My 30th High School Reunion was this weekend, and I traveled to Ohio to see all my friends from long ago. I was impressed with how accomplished they have all become, and how they have blossomed in their skills. The drive up and back seemed longer than the actual reunion, as it was 12 hours each way. Along the way, I came across the most unusual sculpture I’d ever seen. Ohio is known for its coal mining and steelworkers, and that particular area has also taken an economic hit. But there is still a lot of pride. Take a look at the quality of craftsmanship in this architectural feature found along the side of the road, in front of the Steelworker’s Union House in Niles, OH.
I imagine someone building it onsite, with scrap metal as it came along, fellow workers checking it out as they came and went from their jobs/meetings. It has weathered well outdoors, and is still inspiring others as they pass by.
Helser Brothers Hardware is the same….built on site, compiled by skilled artisans, and a piece of art in the making. Just ask them can they make (fill in your questions about hardware here)….and the answer is usually yes. They are a united team that can make all your draperies look even better. Call for a custom quote now!
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Contributed by Cheryl Draa of Cheryl Draa Designs.
Tom from Specialties by Joanne had accumulated some extra Helser Brothers drapery hardware, and is pretty proud of the mailbox that he created with it. You should be Tom, it is a beauty!
Have you ever created anything from excess drapery hardware?
I look forward to the red carpet Oscar glamour and all of the hoopla as much as anyone else. I tune in every year to see who wears what and to jot down the names of all the dark horse winners and offbeat foreign films that I will want to rent after seeing snippets of footage during the Oscars. Of course I’m curious about who will win the biggies like Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Film – but every year I’m amazed by the number of Oscars that are awarded to people I’ve never heard of, whose hard work and creative energy behind the scenes is absolutely essential to the making of a great film. In addition to the Best Composer of a Musical Score, the Best Set Design, the Best Special Effects, etc., think about how many more collaborators on those films never set foot on stage: the musicians in the orchestra, the carpenters who built the sets, the writer who wrote those memorable lines, not to mention the key grips, assistants, and countless others without whom film production would come to a screeching halt.
Filmmaking is a collaborative effort on a gigantic scale, but the parallels to the design industry are striking. The client sees a fabulous finished room or a beautiful window treatment, and usually only has the designer’s face to associate with it. Can you imagine what it would look like if we could present the client with a group photo of everyone whose efforts and ingenuity went into pulling off that one show-stopping design? The designer would be in the picture, as well as the client (producer) for financing the production and influencing the direction of the project. But we’d also have our ingenious drapery installers and our workroom owners, seamstresses, and the workroom assistant who calculated yardages and coordinated the project to ensure it was finished on schedule. The showroom manager would be in my photo as well, along with her staff for assisting me in locating the perfect trim to complement that gorgeous fabric. My cast and crew photo would also include the artisans who created our handmade molded tassel fringe, the people at the fabric mills who wove the breathtaking silk damask, the fabric company that imported that fabric from the mill and their sales rep, who provided me with samples, as well as the person who designed the trim and the textile historian who discovered the antique damask pattern in some dusty archives somewhere. The hardware manufacturer would be in my photo, along with the men and women who designed, crafted, and carefully packaged each exquisite piece for shipment. I’ve got hundreds of people in my photo already, and those are just the ones responsible for the window treatments – imagine how many more are involved if we’re designing an entire room or an entire home. Clearly, the success of the design industry is made possible by the dedication and passion of millions of unsung heroes whose work goes on behind the scenes. This year, as Oscar night drags on interminably with speech after speech thanking everyone from the gardener to the kindergarten teachers, I’m going to be thinking of all of the many people who have made my successes possible… this year, the Oscar goes to YOU!
By Rebecca Deming Rumpf of Custom Interiors By Rebecca
We were invited to “ride along” with a local installer recently. This particular “ride along” was a very special one, as the hardware has not been released yet, and is of the highly classified top secret nature 
As usual we left with piles of good information including tips for improvement. I can’t tell you how valuable it is to us to be allowed to observe and learn in an installation setting and how much we appreciate it.
The client had the most incredible views. Here is a shot of Camelback Mountain as seen from one of her windows. WOW! Can you find the “Praying Monk” rock formation?
Our draperies came back from the cleaners the other day without pin-hooks. Being the cool-headed and forgiving Gentleman that I am I smiled and said to myself “oh well” and ran down to fetch some at Wal-Mart. (You know where this is going, don’t you) In the hours that followed, I lost a dangerous amount of blood and invented several new cuss-words.
Keep in mind……I am no chump when it comes to hanging drapery. I have inserted thousands of pin-hooks in my lifetime and, though no person in possession of all of his marbles enjoys it, I don’t really mind it much.
Excited to strike one more thing from my honey-do-list, I commenced pin-hook insertion. Five minutes later, I was still working on the first hook, and was running through possible explanations for this unwelcome challenge in my head….”Maybe I got a bad batch”…..”Perhaps this is some new fan-dangled high-strength buckram technology”….and…..”Am I getting weaker with age?”….. After twenty excruciating hooks I start looking around for hidden cameras and trying to imagine what I could have done to deserve such a cruel prank. I was thinking “dull pin-hooks? what the hell is this world coming to?”…and…..”It has been a while since I have done this, but I don’t remember all the bleeding!”
After verifying with a dictionary that the word “pin” does in fact strongly imply sharpness, I moved on to the next drapery panel. I managed about ten more hooks when my fingers started screaming “uncle” and refused to go on, so I headed out to the garage with a big dark Eeyore cloud over my head to find some pliers.
The pliers helped, but those damned “hell hooks” (I needed to name them so I could curse them directly and with conviction) were still a nightmare to insert. I finally had to go to the hardware store to buy an awl to start a hole, which worked pretty well, but did not prevent me from quietly repeating “what the…?” in a state of defeated disbelief for the remainder of the project.
Like the mother whos’ tragic experience causes her to start a foundation to help prevent further suffering, I came in to the office this morning determined to raise awareness and was filled with the standard ”if I can save just one person from…blah…blah…, then all the hard work on this ridiculously long blog post will all be worth it…yadda…yadda…yadda.”
I started by hitting Wal-Mart and the Home Depot which are the two main “uh-oh, I am at a job site without enough pin-hooks but don’t want to drive all the way back to the workroom” hot-spots, and bought pin-hooks. When I got back to the office, I borrowed a Rowley Company pin-hook from Anita, and was ready to find an answer to the burning question, which, as we touched on earlier, is ”what the…”?!?!
I took a photo of the three pin-hook specimens together, and I am the first to admit that my eysight ain’t what it used to be, but they all look about the same……
But look what we discovered under the intense scrutiny of our super-duper macro lens!!! The bloody fingers…..the new cuss words…..it..it..it all made sense now! The Wal-Mart “pin”-hook (left) was just chopped at a slant and called good, the Home Depot version (middle) was pretty but duller than Al Gore, and the Rowley pin-hook (right) was gloriously sharp and efficient looking. So my advice to you window coverings professional out there is to double and triple check your pin-hook supply before heading out to an installation. I would not wish a Wal-mart “hell-hook” debacle on my worst enemy!
-I was having a conversation with our web guru about how once a person starts blogging they tend to see little blog posts everywhere they turn. This is the first (and hopefully the last) time, though, that I have found one in the shower! I think that I can speak for all drapery hardware guys when I say this…… if every hospitality designer on earth thinks it is a good idea, then it is! I remember thinking “wow, that is pretty clever” the first few times that I saw it, but then occured to me this morning that this shower curtain design has been in every room that I have stayed in for a while now! The design is a no brainer for the hospitality industry because you can remove them very easily for cleaning and they just simply work well.
Pam Largura showing her bike guarding moves
Pam Largura at our local Barnes and Noble greeted me with a cheerful “Good morning sir, can I help you?” I explained that I was there to get a book called “Homer and Langley” (great so far by the way) but that I had forgotten my bike lock and was nervous about leaving it outside. She quickly said “well I will watch it for you while you shop then.” I knew exactly what I wanted and it was clearly displayed so I only took about ten minutes, but Pam stood out in the heat and watched my bike just as promised. Pam, you really blew my mind with outstanding customer service, thanks!
Well look what our brown santa brought us way, way, way faster than we thought he would! The Design Directory Of Bedding is the undisputed hottest item in our industry and now that I have them in hand early I can bring them to the WCAA events in Richmond, VA and Raleigh, NC to give them away…………………As if you needed another reason to come see us!
For years it seemed that every designer under the sun was maximizing each room’s exposure to the sun’s rays by leaving windows stark. But modernism has now embraced ye olde yard goods as part of the mix (especially the glamorous mix), and curtains are definitely back. Here are some tips: read entire post…..
Our buddy Mark Erwin has struck again! Ideas like this are the very reason I drag my keester out of bed way too early a couple of times a month to meet this ingenious inspirator and creative business strategist for breakfast……ok…….I am slightly (a lot) motivated by the fantastic food at La Canasta too….
Here is the lowdown on the Pacific Manufacturing cash for clunkers furniture program, as reported by Penny Bonda over at the interiordesign.net Design Green Blog….
” Pacific Furniture, a fourth generation to-the-trade high-end furniture company is promoting a win-win deal. Select or design any new furniture piece or mattress from Pacific’s line and take 10 percent off the price when you donate a “clunker.” You or your client will also receive a tax-deductible receipt for the donation, which will be delivered to a family in need. Pacific is partnering in this effort with Neighborhood Ministries, an organization that provides outreach and empowerment programs to the community, as well as with Miranda Delivery Services who will deliver the clunkers locally at no charge. The program expires on September 18th.” read the entire story….
The NY Public Library has a fascinating digital gallery with hundreds of thousands of vintage images. I am going to include the link, but click at your own risk! You might find yourself missing a few hours that you needed for something else. If you click on an image, you are given the option to order things like prints (framed and unframed), coffee mugs, greeting cards, totes, and even Christmas ornaments! If you type keywords in the search field of things that interest you (like…say…curtains or drapes) you might be amazed at all the interesting images you will find.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a cigarette card yet here I found one with instructions for the renovation of venetian blinds from 1922. Does anyone else think this stuff is as cool as I do……….or should I check myself in somewhere?
I used their very cool custom gift application to make this tote to give away so….you know the drill…..just leave a comment for a chance to win it. Thanks for reading, and remember, we are never too busy for your referrals
Is it just me or are hand written sentiments ultra meaningful? We have many clients who still take the time to pick up a pen and boy does it mean a lot. The world has gotten very small and I think it is very easy to forget that there is a real person with feelings on the other end of that email. Hand written notes like the one above feel like a warm handshake and, like I said, it means a lot.
Carlette Cormier of CC’s Designs has created a traditional Toile fabric in honor of her home town Savannah, Georgia. She used images of well known historical buildings in her design. Carlette worked with Adaptive Textiles to help lay out and design the fabric. She then had it screen printed in four classic colors.
With the downturn in the economy, Carlette is busy designing souvenir items to be marketed in local shops. But we think the fabric is so beautiful, Toile lovers and Savannah fans will want full scale draperies and bedding too.
Good luck Carlette, we think you will do very well.
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