Soft Linen Shading

A couple of years ago we were commissioned to make these soft sheer linen shades for Designer Leslie Small. This amazing farmhouse was situated on lush rolling acres. The sheer romans were added to the space to create a filter layer between the inside and outside, helping to diffuse the light. What a beautiful soft way to quietly change the light quality, look at how simply they hang, how the texture really works. This has to be one of my favourite window treatments.

Roman Shades

Linen is a favourite textile of mine and I use it fearlessly everywhere. in this marvellous example of flawless roman shades I used a natural unprocessed linen, laundered to a soft buttery hand. To add some interest I paired this with a silk banding in a similar toned power loomed duppioni. The silk has a refinement absent in the linen, the linen has a coarseness that counters the silk perfectly. The contrasting nature of the two cloths mix well to create a simple casual elegance. There were a total of six shades, running side by side controlled individually. Roman shades are a simple way of dressing windows where simplicity is required.

Obscure Inspirations...

 On the Thames Clipper one Clear September morning I found myself looking through the Union Jack on the back of the ship. The light coming through was so beautiful and moody, so dark despite all the brightness around it. I want to translate this into a curtain or filter panel.

Vancouver Photography Series

I am going to start posting some of my favourite images from around my beautiful city..... starting with the beautiful steel crab at the Planetarium.

Velvet Curtains, Killer Install

Today I was hanging velvet curtains, no small task. Velvet is a troublesome beast, looks great, but hard to work with and a challenge to handle and dress. These curtains were for a client of Kelly Deck Design, a beautiful home in Rockridge. The dark grey walls demanded a dark similar toned warm velvet to add a sculptural element, a softness at the window and general mack daddyism... as we all know only the hippest of people can pull off velvet curtains. As you can see these turned out great but that is no surprise. It was the install that was an absolute KILLER! Typically an hour and a half, this install ran 4 HOURS! I attribute it to the EXTREMELY CLOSE clearance between the mounting hardware and the ceiling... making for a very difficult task of tightening and adjusting the drapery rod. Nevertheless here they are... Enjoy!

Owch, less than a quarter inch of clearance makes for a tight fit!

Anyone who has had to install this system before will understand the complexity of this install, for everyone else they're just curtain rods. :)

Nuri and the Torch!

The Olympic torch paid a visit to Nuri's school today... he seems a little mystified... Poor Chap.

Bye Lee

You will be missed....

Track Details Part 2

I Love the simplicity of a ceiling mounted track. 75% of my installs utilize some form of track hardware versus decorative hardware. Most of my curtains "float" on curtain tracks, allowing them to be moved strategically from one side of a room to another, dock against a wall, or even turn corners. In this way the curtains can become more than just a window covering, they can become an architectural detail or an acoustic element ... curtains should always be flexible. When working on concrete however it is very difficult to conceal or disappear the track as heavier mounting hardware is necessary, and concrete is an imperfect substrate to mount into... making for a terrible mess and a potentially inaccurate installation. I solved this on a recent project for Kelly Deck Design. We installed a flat ceiling grade moulding, with a channel cut out for the tracking. This was then installed against the ceiling, allowing me to easily insert the track and conceal the track, giving the illusion that the curtains dropped from the ceiling. I love this space and it was a most effective install. The curtains themselves were constructed from a sheer voile in two layers. The curtains were entirely handsewn, and hung beautifully.

Beautiful Wall Tile and Track Detail Part 1

I recently had the pleasure to work in a phenomenal home designed by Diana Bralic at Veniva Interior Design. I made a wool ripplefold free floating curtain for the master bedroom. Normally my curtains take center stage, in this case though i have to throw some props over to the damask stone tile on the wall. They looked like leather, felt like stone and made my mouth water!

But back to the curtain... here we cut the tracks into the ceiling for a very custom look, very clean and free of all clutter. I think they turned out quite nice.

JAB's Grandezza... the most luxurious fabrics in the world....

JAB is a German based Fabric house that specializes in some of the most innovative and contemporary fabrics available anywhere. Recently they unveiled their newest ultraluxe offering... Grandezza. Today we had the good fortune to preview some of these magnificent fabrics. Definitely not for the faint of heart....