I know that Pottery Barn and the like want you to buy those tabbed draperies, or the ones that simply slide onto decorative poles. But this is definitely not the right answer if you are in a midcentury home and want an authentic vintage look. You need pinch pleat draperies, and that is that! In addition to looking so much better — in fact, I would go so far as to say that they are essential to a mid century interior — pinch pleats provide some insulation against drafts… and, you can actually open and close them every day, with ease. My husband is a real stickler about the open-and-close part, and he is right. Nothing beats traverse rods for functionality.
It took me a long time to conquer my fear of traverse rods, but I endured – and triumphed! Now I have beautiful vintage draperies lining my living room walls and get this, they were only $20 — I bought them right off the windows at an estate sale. If you must make up your draperies new, you will have to work hard to find someone at a reasonable cost, the labor charge can be brutal. The cost of fabric can be shocking, too. So choose carefully — and plan on having your pinch pleats for a lifetime.
And, if you are really ambitious, consider pinch pleated sheers underneath heavier cloth pinch pleated draperies. I am going to do this someday, it is such a heavenly look – to have the sun filtering through sheers blowing softly in the breeze.
Some other tips:
- Draperies that go all the way to the floor create a more formal look, a bigger statement. In the 50s you certainly saw drapes that only went to the sill or just below it. That’s fine, especially in bedrooms, but in living rooms and dining rooms, I think that to-the-floor…just brushing the floor, not puddling, is better.
- As in the bedroom photo, draperies also can go along an entire wall, if this works in the room you are dealing with.
- In addition to layering cloth with sheers, you can put horizontal Venetians underneath — see my story on 2″ aluminum blinds — as in the first photo. You can also layer over a roller blind.
- When you’re planning, you need to plan for the ‘stackback’ — look this up online.
- Regarding how high to install draperies, this is an aesthetic decision. You want to balance the height of the perceived window (and the drapery becomes part of the window) with the rest of the room. In general, I think that people make the mistake of installing the draperies too low, rather than too high.
- Finally – I actually spray painted my Kirsch traverse rod to blend in with my grasscloth wallpaper. It turned out Great!
Linda Haas says
I find vintage curtain and fabric on eBay and better yet at out local vintage stoe. While I haven’t gotten a traverse rod yet, I will will the time come for one of the bedrooms. The one it my kitchen a remade with that special tape and just hooked them on a regular rod since opening and closing would not work in there. This was an okay solution, but now I was thinking I could sew 1/2 wide ribbon in the places where I put the hooks. Hopefully I can achieve the same look without the hassle of trying to balance the hooks on the rods. Mind you, these are single hooks, not the triple ones. We shall see..
Michael Stanley says
I moved into my transitional mid century 1959 time capsule home in August. The house has the original awning type windows. There was already 2″ wood slatted blinds on the windows. Believe it or not JC Penny still makes pinch pleat so I bought them there. They are sized to meet the floor. I also had cornice boards made so the traverse rods are not seen.
pam kueber says
Sounds great!
Nancy Long says
When we bought our time capsule home in 2000 all the windows had custom pinch pleated drapes which we absolutely kept. The master bedroom even has the sheers behind the drapes. We do have one thing you may have never seen before which is pinch pleated drapes in front of the bathtub. There is a rod behind them for the actual shower curtain. There are on a traverse rod so that they can be fully opened when someone is in the tub. Did I mention that they are avocado green with a ruffle? They are usually kept partially open by a tieback, but the tiebacks can be unhooked so that the drapes close completely.
pam kueber says
hehe, send me a pick! I think I have heard or seen this on very rare occasion. Is the curtain a dust magnet in that space? Does it get musty smelling?
Nancy Long says
They don’t collect dust or smell musty. The shower curtain keeps them from getting wet. The window curtains are the same material and style. Where should I send the picture after I take it?
pam kueber says
you can connect with us via the contact form at the bottom then we’ll give you the email
Catherine says
if you can sew a stright line on your sewing machine, you can make your triple pleats yourself! There’s this wonderful tape that you can buy online from various sources (just Google triple pleat tape) and there are several sets of very good instructions as well that explain how to measure the fabric and make the curtains. I made mine in one day for the guest bedroom with good barkcloth.
What baffles me is where to find a good traverse rod that does not look “chateau” style, but fits into a mid-century decor. If anyone has suggestions, please help!
pam kueber says
Just get a plain Kirsch traverse rod. I also spray painted mine to blend in with the wall color when the pinch pleats are drawn open.
Rosalie says
We recently got a 1966 rancher. It’s made long and low and has baseboard heat (steam pipes). We left the long (puddling) drapes in the living room until I can decide what I want. Now it’s winter, and darn – the curtains are funelling the heat right up the wall, along the window! My new curtains will end just below the sill, though I will do pinch pleats and probably sheers – the picture window is 10 feet long and we are just losing too much heat.
We are not doing a “time capsule” but definitely want to keep the vintage proportions, and I even have an original “mad-men” style sectional couch from my aunt, so we are including nods to the period.
Love your site, it’s a real source of inspiration!
pam kueber says
Thanks, Rosalie and welcome!!!
Katherine says
Hi!
I’m an American designer and I live in Bali where I make 50’s vintage dress styles and wedding dresses. (www.Whirlingturban.com) I can print my own fabrics here (HOORAY!) and share the desire the common at this site to use wonderful vintage fabric. I’m really a stickler for the small details that gave vintage fabrics and garments their unique charm and magic.
I’ve finally made good a threat to print a suitable fabric and make some mid-century style draperies. (I brought my red -and turquoise and black and chartreuse- Chinese vintage curtains all the way from the U.S. here to keep me company! But I only have the one set!) Like the author of this thread, for me it was pinch pleats or nothing at all.
I found an authentic upholstery fabric design by Eames that is a one color design made from simple repeating shapes. One color designs are the type I can do here using the batik process. (Batik was used in the 50’s and, with care, one can get an authentic look with that process.) So I did my own version of this organic geometric motif and had it made into a copper stamp to use to print my curtains.
(Batik printing is done by dipping the copper stamp, which is about 8″ x 10″, into hot wax and evenly stamping the entire fabric with this repeating allover motif. You then dunk the fabric into a huge vat of dye and the parts of the fabric where the wax was do not absorb the dye. You then wash the wax out of the fabric by boiling in hot water and you have your two color or positive-and-negative motif.)
I have long been eying a handwoven fabric that is made here in Indonesia. It is a natural thick white cotton that I felt had a feeling similar to barkcloth. It’s also somewhat similar to silk dupioni, except that it is made from cotton and is much, much, much thicker. It also has a look somewhat like a woven grass wall paper. However, I had never seen this fabric batiked so I held my breath and crossed my fingers.
The result was absolutely wonderful!!!!! The feeling I am getting from this printed fabric has the subtle whimsy of some of the boomerang type reproductions without the overwhelming multicolor motifs, which I LOVE but they are so statement-making that they can dominate the room. (While ya gotta love it, you don’t always want that effect.) The ones I’ve done have cream white motifs that look somewhat like (hugely oversized) abstract jacks -as used in the children’s game- and the background is a gray that verges on the beige. You can see the motifs without them knocking you over.
I’ve made a lot of curtains for myself over the years but had never done a “real” pinch pleat. I once bought the pleater hook contraptions and used those, but the result just wasn’t as tailored as the real thing.
I considered not lining the curtains to save time; I figured they were already thick. But I didn’t want to risk my printed fabric fading out from the sun, so I decided to just “embrace the labor”. Besides, I do have help here 🙂
After reading carefully from some drapery-making books I brought here to Bali with me, I could see that there was no avoiding 1) needing a table big enough to place the entire curtain on at one time to work with it or 2) the hand stitching that was going to be required to get the perfect right angles and the mitered corners that give this genre of draperies their richness and tailored look. I read and was convinced about the need for weights in the hems at the corners and seams (where the fabric panels are joined so that the panels are wide enough). If there had been a shortcut, believe me- I would have taken it!
I do love to sew, so once I just accepted that I wasn’t going to be able to race through this project or outsmart the drapery experts at their construction methods, I got myself some big-and I do mean big- wooden panels to extend the size of my fabric cutting tables and began the zen of handstitching the curtains, linings and pinch pleats together.
It was so worth it! These are just beautiful and so authentic! I LOVE them!
-Katherine
Katy McCoy says
Pictures?
Tera says
YES! Thank you for stating this for all to read. I’m all about the details and pinch pleat really brings mid century decor together. And there is nothing like pulling them open. Always makes me feel like a million bucks!
Monimania says
When I was growing Up we had the rods with the pull strings and the metal hooks is that Traverse?
I got vintage curtains in the living room, I just undid the pleats and sewed a hem and put them on a normal rod just straight across, they look fine and they go all the way down tot eh floor even though you don’t see it, its behind furniture
My grandmother has two walls with curtains, it was there until the day she has to move to the retirement home