In this week’s Retro Design Dilemma, reader Lori has asked for ideas about window treatments for the living room in her 1949 mid century modern house — which she just moved into, she begs pardon for all the boxes. Hey, we wall understand. Read on to see more of Lori’s living room — and to hear about her window treatment design dilemma.
Thank you, Pam, for inviting me to present my retro design dilemma. Some background on the house first, it’s a 1949 flat roof ranch house. It is on a cul de sac of about 8 houses, 6 of which were built at the same time by the same architect and his friends as an experimental project. They wanted to live near each other as they often entertained together. Most of the houses, like mine, have South facing windows to take advantage of passive solar heat, radiant floor heat and there is a community pocket park for the residents.
Our house came with a wall of windows on the South side. It gets blasted with light during the daytime. This is in our open living and dining area. There are 4 windows in the area, 3 of them being large picture windows. All the windows have short, pinch pleat drapes in a faux silk slub fabric. The drapes only come to the bottom of the sills. I think that this looks a little odd. I don’t mind the color, which is ivory, or the pinch pleats but I’m not keen on the length.
I love the clean lines of our house. The windows are really what makes this simple house special. I’d like to find a way to get privacy and protection from the sun’s glare while not hiding the awesome windows.
My husband and I are not into fussy patterns or designs. We tend to like clean lines, bold stripes or color blocking. We have used pleated shades in other houses, but I’m not sure if this would be sacrilege in this house or not. We absolutely love our views of our woodsy yard and the evening sunsets through our huge windows. I’d saw our style is modern with natural elements and colors.
Getting new pinch pleat drapes is going to be cost prohibitive, I think. The largest picture window is 5×8 ft, add the side windows to that and it’s 12 ft of glass. I’ve thought about adding fabric to the drapes to make them longer but wonder if that’s going to be too difficult.
Thank you for considering my questions! Sorry that our room isn’t tidy, we just moved in 2 weeks ago.
Lori
What a gorgeous house, Lori, and your neighborhood sounds terrific. For the record, be sure to check our entire category of stories about window treatments for midcentury homes. And, Pam did this story, too, outlining 11 key ideas for curtains, shades, blinds and more.
Pam here. I chose the items for the “natural colors” mood board:
- Do I think it is “sacrilege” to use pleated shades in a mid century modern living room? No, I don’t! Pleated shades can be purchased very cost effectively, they are easy to operate, and they get the job done. I found these simple pleated shades on SelectBlinds.com. I actually had been looking for pleated shades myself — for my office — and after poking around the internet doing comparison shopping for as long as I could stand it, landed on this site. Looked to me like they have pretty good prices — and be sure to watch for the coupon deals, which can help save even more. When I buy a pleated shade, I usually choose something neutral, so that I can live with it a long time. This color is Cottonwood. We thought Lori could paint the walls to match. If she ever wants to soften the blinds and the window, she can easily add some fabric panels in front. Finally, I really prefer it if you can mount the shades “inside.”
- For color and gravitas (“weight” to balance with those tile floors), I found a stoneware lamp in rich green from lottelamps.com.
- And for fun over the fireplace, how about a big starburst mirror from Horchow.com. I like the gold of the mirror — it picks up the gold in the fireplace screen, the gold tones of the vintage mid century credenza, and the gold in Lori’s beautiful oriental rugs.
Kate here:
For my take on Lori’s blinds, I chose the IKEA KVARTAL curtain rail system.. The KVARTAL curtain rods are relatively easy to put up and can be configured for panel curtains or as tracks for fabric panels. You can make your own panels out of fabric, paper or other like material or you can buy premade panels from IKEA like the MALIN TRAD curtain panels (this product now no longer available, but check Ikea for current designs) that I chose for the room. The pattern on this curtain panel is not overly “fussy” or loud — and reads almost like a texture from across the room — while up close they coordinate with many of the colors that already exist in the room. The grey ties in with the flooring, the green with her plants and plant table, the red goes well with her rug and the bluish grey could be used as a wall color — which would help visually cool down Lori’s room. To add more red to the room, the Jonathan Adler table lamp from Lamps Plus and the playful, simplistic Kandinsky print from AllPosters.com would also help spread the red accent color around the room.
kkmk says
The link didn’t seem to get posted with my comment. Let’s try again.
http://www.jcpenney.com/dotcom/for-the-home/departments/window-treatments/in-home-services/custom-decorating-/love-letters/cut-to-width-solar-mesh-roller-shade-/prod.jump?ppId=163baad&cmvc=JCP|dept20000011|cat100260213|cat100260228|RICHREL&grView=&eventRootCatId=¤tTabCatId=®Id=
pam kueber says
nice. i am unclear whether these include the clutch system, do you know? thanks!!!
Eartha Kitsch says
I think that besides the floppy pleats, they look pretty great. I agree that you might learn to really like them if you live with them a while. Pam is right about those longer, fuller drapery pins being just the thing to make those pleats stand at attention at the top.
Here is the link to the Window Covering Safety Council if anyone needs it. You can get all of the hardware that you’ll need to make your blinds, curtains and shades safer for FREE on their site:
http://www.windowcoverings.org
Eartha Kitsch says
For some reason, the link I posted above takes us to a dead link. Here is the page where you can order safety hardware: http://www.fulfillmentinnovations.com/v5fmsnet/ordent/OfferList.asp?XPath=*1&xgroup=1&NotMain=0&PmSess1=22
pam kueber says
Thanks, Eartha — the other links works for me but not this one…
Katie says
I like the look of the existing window treatments a lot. Adding some sheers to filter the light, might help. If that doesn’t work, you might consider using landscaping to shade that window during the part of the day when the light is the brightest. Maybe shutters or external blinds of some kind.
Jac says
My first instinct was some nice, old, large slat horizontal venetian blinds (with wide tape on the pull-up holes) for the lower portion of the windows. Then, I found this vintage photo. http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4090/4848055942_48979859df_b.jpg
Also, a whole selection of ideas, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/americanvintagehome/sets/72157608089763432/with/3208369337/
Diane in CO says
Now you’re talkin’ — that is awesome, Jac. I was just reading the comments and thinking that they could use floor length drapery panels on either side of the windows (that don’t close) with grass shades on the windows for privacy and light modulation. (But I like what I see in your photo and short panels would work also.)
Grass shades are reminiscent of MCM grasscloth wall covering. I love my Conrad natural grass shades in my sunroom because you can “see” through them when they are down but offer nighttime privacy to a great degree. HAPPILY, there are much much less expensive grass shades available now (try Graber).
Lori, I love your home. You will have fun figuring it all out!
Diane in CO says
p.s. I’m NOT talking about “woven woods.” Grass shades are different.
Lori D says
Treasure trove of pictures, thanks! I like the wide slats with the fabric tape. Good idea!
Tricia says
Hi there,
We have a 1965 MCM with floor to ceiling windows on the south and east sides of our great room. We inherited un-lined off-white pinch pleat drapes that reach the floor and I love them. They are on traverse rods and it makes them super easy to close in the summer when the sun heats up the house. We live in Rochester, NY and we actually like the sun to heat up the house in the winter so we keep them open in the winter. Keeping them closed in the summer makes a HUGE difference for keeping our house cool. So you may want to live in the house awhile to see how much you need them to be functional–operability may be a large consideration for you. Traverse rods are great for making curtains easy to open and close. Otherwise, I really like the clean look of some of the roller shades that I’ve seen at The Shade Store and Smith + Noble if more contemporary is your style. I have a blog and a house tour from when we purchased the house if you are interested in seeing our drapes. modchester.blogspot.com
Ada says
Ugghh. I understand the ‘drape dilemma’ as I have several of them myself. My problem is:
#1…needing to change out ALL of the drapes as they’re all the original pinch pleats to the house (early ’70s ranch) and I don’t think they were ever cleaned and may fall apart if I try!
#2…the drapes in the living room are also a weird length. Unfortunately, I know why and there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s a floor heater under the windows (5 tall rectangular ribbon windows) and to make them to the floor, which is what would look gorgeous, isn’t a possibility.
#3…most of them are the most WRONG colours imaginable for my furniture and look horrible while I’m in the ‘saving enough money to make new ones’ phase. I’d actually dye the living room drapes for now, but again I think they’d fall apart if they touched water!
I feel your pain Lori! You’re not alone, sister!!
Sarah @ Crafty Waffles says
Hi Ada,
I tried dying a set of vintage drapes that came with our house as a test -a sad pair of sun damaged pink and mint “silk” pinch pleats that were destined for the thrift store- The main fabric dyed “okay” but the nubby contrasting threads didn’t so they looked really wacky, so beware that all materials do not accept dye the same!!
I picked up a perfectly sized replacement vintage Sears set in a wooly dark teal colour at a local thrift store for $5. Ours carry long and short drapes there all the time – so give that a chance for a budget makeover- be it temporary until you save up for your dream drapes or permament.
Ada says
Thanks for the heads up! I had thought about that possibly being an issue with dying them. I defo won’t be dying them now!
I’ve been looking in the thrift stores around here for replacements, but so far I can never find them large enough…or in any colour other than brown or dingy cream. And even if I do, the thrift stores around here price ‘vintage’ things even higher than the antique stores do. I’m probably just going to have to live with them for a bit longer until I can find the right fabric to make my own. I’m hoping I can master those pinch pleats!
Sarah @ Crafty Waffles says
Lovely loking house 🙂
Living room: My suggestion would be to leave them as is, and to use the space underneath for a great piece of furniture (a narrow credenza, bookcase or window seat) which would then add to the statement factor of the wall (and add extra storage).
If you did want to extend the living room drapes and were not confident to do it yourself, then you could always take them and the extra fabric to a tailor/seamstress and have them do the work for you- but it is pretty easy to do if you have basic sewign machine skills.
Room with Fireplace:
I think that sill length is the only way to go here for curtains. If you had full length or almost dull-length one side would be bunched up at the bottom on the fireplace hearth (when open or closed) as the window extends past the hearth.
Tom says
I was thinking along the same lines – that the space under the windows seems ideal for a credenza or bookcase that spans the entire width of the window spaces. Since you just moved, maybe stack moving boxes in that area with their open ends facing the room (kind of like stackable storage crates) to get a feel for how it might work.
Jenny A. says
We have a house that’s similar in style to yours. We did end-up going with pinch pleats for our window wall and have been very happy with them, although our windows are floor to ceiling. I found them online and think they were around $200, but they are huge, so not a bad deal. You could easily go with a nice blind for a clean look, as well. I think the advice to just live with it for a while is good, though. That way you’ll really have a good idea of what’s going to work there.
Happy new house!!!
Shannon H. says
Vertical blinds were around in the mid-20th century and are a clean contemporary look that lets in light while still giving privacy. Just another option to consider.
Wendy M. says
I don’t have any new ideas, but I’ll share what I did when we replaced our pinch pleats with new pinch pleats. I bought through the JCPenney website when they were having a sale. We have 30 feet of continuous windows in our living room/dining room and was able to buy pinch pleats to cover all of that for just over $300 (including a spare pair in case anything ruined a portion of them). The reason I was able to get them at such a reasonable price was I bought the narrower panels that were extra long and sewed them together and hemmed them. If you opt for this, you’d be able to decide the length you want. It was quite a bit of work, but I just can’t imagine how much it would have been if we had gone the custom route!