I have two large brochures of mid-century window treatment designs, published by Conso, the Consolidated Trimming Corporation. The booklets are not dated, but based on the furnishing and other hints, I put them early to mid-50s. Following up on the mega-post last week about fabrics for kitchen curtains, I scanned the brochures for design ideas. Above: Very classic… A picture window flanked by two double-hungs gets an austrian style cornice at the top, and pinch pleat cafe curtains below. The orange trim is terrific.

Above: I bet this is the exact same window. The cafe curtains here are called scalloped pinch pleats. The instructions are next:

Above: I will find out this week how to post this as a PDF so that you can get to these instructions enlarged.  If you need a sewing machine – they are super easy to find at estate sales.

Above: These look to be scalloped pinch pleats as well.  The functional idea with cafe curtains, is that you let light come in on top, but still have privacy via the cafes at the bottom.

Above: More cafes in this guest room / office combo. I’m calling it that, because that couch-like sitting area surely must be a mattress, with the idea that it can provide seating when it’s not being used by guests. Notice with these curtains that the fabric and trim are “reversed” top to bottom. Kind of clever.

Above: These cafe curtains were made out of Morgan Jones kitchen towels. Towels also were used to make pot holders and a toaster cover. Great idea. I think a toaster cover made from some leftover valence fabric might be in my future…

Above: These are great, too. Small cafe shades give the room a little softness. They are topped by a shade – repeated on the door.

Above: Here are instructions to make your own valence,. Plus – several designs to consider.

Above: “Tall” cafes installed under sheers. Honestly, I’m not sure how crazy I am about this look. This booklet is from a company pushing its products, so I think there are some experimental ideas going on.

Above: A nice drawing showing how a cornice / valence can be covered in the same fabric as used for a bedspread. A very nice design effect. Another classic designer trick: In a living room, cover at least one chair in the same fabric as your draperies.

Above: Lovely.

Above: Umm, not liking this too much… Short cafe above bench. Long cafes to the right and left. I think that this window would have looked better treated as one unit, like the very first image in this post.

Above: This window is actually quite interesting. There are glass shelves behind the curtains. Kind of cool.

Above: This is the third time (at least) that I’ve used this image on the blog. I love how they’ve used window treatments to unify the windows. This is GENIUS.

Above: Finally, here’s another “problem solving” page. The idea was to make the window treatment look good from the outside as well as the inside. Honestly, I don’t think it they were successful. That said, I like this image because it brings us full circle to illustrating that: Cafe curtains can provide lots of utility in controlling light – and adding some design flair at the same time.

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HAPPY SUMMER SUNDAY, everyone. Here’s a little reminder to take a moment today and celebrate the teeny tiniest little details in your home. These vintage plastic bellflower curtain pulls must have been pulled up and down a million times since they were first installed. You can see how the oils on the Mrs.’ fingertips have left their mark. I find them amazingly beautiful. Maybe it’s the small stuff that is the most important of all. Thanks to flickr friend fancymefoxy for seeing this detail, and capturing it to share. You can see her entire photostream by clicking directly on the photo.

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Stephanie asked for suggestions for window treatments for her 50s kitchen, so I dived into the world wide web for a few hours and came up with a shopping list of some new vendors never featured before. They offer fabrics and hardware for suitable cheery, nostalgic window treatments. Above: pom poms from Warm Bisquit Bedding…more of their products below.

Stephanie writes:

Pam — Your recent email newsletter reminded me to ask you for advice about kitchen curtains!  I have a large mcm kitchen with that (apparently) same gray tile others have in their bathrooms — I have it around my kitchen sink, along with little strips of red tile, and original white porcelain sinks.  (That’s why my “new” 1946 stove came with red knobs and handles).  I used the gray in the tile to help me decide on the wall and trim colors.  The wall is almost white, but has a tint of the gray in it.  The trim around the windows coordinates closely with the grey tile color.  Now….I thought I’d be able to find simple tier curtains or “French window” type curtains in a retro style, since I am pretty good at shopping on the web.  But no… I looked at one of the ebay seller’s stashes of barkcloth, but that fabric is mostly huge prints, and it’s just not very kitchenish.  Can you suggest any links for retro kitchen curtains?  Or fabric??  I will make my own, dang it!  Stephanie

First, some fabric possibilities, for those handy with a sewing machine:

This “Red Kitchen Floral” fabric from Warm Bisquit Bedding was my #1 favorite from my hunt, although it *might* be a bit too light for Stephanie’s kitchen… kind of ’20s ’30s flour-sack like. This is not a bad thing, per se, but it might not be forceful enough for the strong reds like we see in Stephanie’s dinette. All the colors in your kitchen ideally must “hold their own.”  That said, I do think the addition of some green and yellow into Stephanie’s red and white kitchen would be great. And I adore this fabric, it’s perfect for a kitchen… there’s a yellow, too.

Warm Bisquit can make up your window treatments for you. Here’s one design for a girl’s bedroom. The mid-century look would have had more pleats…You know I love that pom pom fringe. Remember these fabulous pom pom festooned woven shades?

Link: Warm Bisquit Bedding. Lots of great fabric, here.

Remember Bella Pamella of the cute aprons? They have their first fabric design for sale by the yard now, and it would also look great in a postwar 1940s or 1950s kitchen. Note, in the 40s and early 50s, I think that reds really were deeper and richer, like this… pastels and candy apple reds came later in the 50s.  Bella Pamella Cherries.

One final fabric choice for those who can sew: This discontinued Waverly pattern came from their Kitchen Kitsch line. It is too too bad they continued it, because they had some perfect patterns, I think they were just a little ahead of the retro renovation movement. I used two of their wallpapers in my bathrooms, they are perfect. I found this fabric on etsy – two yards available, enough to make some valences, I think. Etsy link.

Fabric shoppers: Since I’m trying to be super-comprehensive: Try to find out where the biggest fabric store in your area is. Go there – you will be surprised at the choices. In my area, there’s a place called Osgood’s in West Springfield, Mass., which is pretty amazing. I’ve nabbed lots of vintage-style fabrics there. There are big Waverly outlets in several cities. I also think it’s worthwhile to check out Calico Corners.

Now, for ready-made curtains:

Country Curtains has its home base just down the road from me in Stockbridge, Mass. They are a great place to check for classics. I liked their Molly cafe’s. Country Curtains cafe curtains.

Of course, the first place I looked was J.C. Penney. I liked these – and it looks like the fabric is kind of translucent in a wonderful way. JCPenney tiers.

If you need cafe rods, I like the look of these from Rejuvenation – I believe they can size the rods exactly to order. If your cafes are mounted on the exterior molding, you’ll be seeing the hardware every day, so make it nice stuff.

Don’t forget: You can always shop vintage — for fabric, ready made curtains and for hardware. I went onto ebay and found a decent selection, although not tons. Etsy sellers carry vintage soft goods like draperies and fabric. I usually see a fair amount of vintage drapery at estate sales (go for the linen closet and attic), at Goodwill, Salvation Army and vintage shops. And I’ve been known to buy window treatments right off the windows. I bought the expansive pinch pleats now hanging in my living room that way. $20, Canadian. I got up on the ladder and took ‘em down. If you are so inclined, you can wait it out and the retro decorating gods might send you something special.

Finally….See my page full of Window Treatment ideas here… I’ll add this post to it.

Good luck, Stephanie.

Gallery:

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WITH SO MUCH RESEARCH on resources for a retro renovation accumulating, I’ve started pulling together mega-posts. So following my recent window treatment blitz, here are my 11 main posts on vintage style curtains, drapes, pinch pleats, blinds and roller shades. (I’ll also transform this into a new Fast & Easy page.)

Window treatments are something that scare a lot of people… we always procrastinate on this… Me, too. They’re intimidating.  Yet, once you follow through with a plan, great window treatments can make a huge difference in pulling the room together — giving it that last little bit of design polish. I am very pro-window treatments, even for homes where big windows that bring in the outdoors are a big selling feature. They dress the window, can block out the heat or cold, and are great at night to block out the abyss. Keep that bogeyman away! Good feng shui!

Still intimidated? Another rule of my thumb: If it’s expensive, choose conservatively. If it’s less expensive, take a risk – try something bold or out of your comfort zone. For example: New 2″ aluminum blinds made to measure can be costly. So choose a color that’s neutral. But, it’s not too hard to find vintage barkcloth pinch pleats to fit or rework to fit over the horizontal blinds. So have some fun with that barkcloth. If it doesn’t work, you’re not out too much. (Guess what: The first valence I made for my kitchen was totally wrong. I only got the Melinamade atomic stuff on my second try!) On the other hand, if you are having someone make custom pinch pleats for a big room — that can cost thousands. I have to admit, I’d be pretty conservative on a purchase like that…

What are the other options for windows? I’ve gone through my archives and here are my classic posts, researched to help you to create authentic, midcentury-style window treatments:

• 2″ horizontal blinds… in aluminum… a classic window treatment for your midcentury home. There is just something about the scale of these 2″ blinds that suits the profile of our homes and their windows. I have horizontal blinds in my kitchen, and one bathroom… and could easily see them on other windows as well. I’m a big fan of Hunter-Douglas. Pricey — but I’ve always experienced great quality — and we open and close these guys every single day, so quality counts.
• Vintage valences… If you use horizontal blinds on a wide window, you might want to hide the assembly under a vintage pinch pleat valence like this. If you watch and wait, you can find these on ebay at great prices.
• Homemade valences… I made the valence in my kitchen myself with just one yard of expensive barkcloth by (1) piecing the fabric together including creating a few carefully positioned pleats to hide the seams and also give the piece some design flair (2) stapling the assembly to an 8-foot-long piece of 1″x2″ piece of wood from the hardware store and (3) then screwing the whole thing to the ceiling, attaching to studs. Ok, it will be hard to remove and clean but it’s not near the stove – so far so good 2+ years in.
• Pinch-pleat draperies… Embrace your inner traverse rod. I am a pinch pleat proselytizer. Pinch pleats can be found vintage – that’s how I got mine, really big ones, too. You can piece vintage panels together. Or, you can make your own from scratch.
• Spray paint your traverse rod… Tip: You can spray paint your traverse rod to blend with your wall color. Just extend the traverse rod to the proper length (including stackback) first to minimize scratching after the paint is on.
• Reproduction barkcloth… You know I love Full Swing textiles barkcloth, if you can swing the cost. This fabric would be great for pinch pleat draperies in virtually any room. If you’re looking for a repro barkcloth that’s lower in cost, readers have suggested several other sources in the Comment section.
• Vintage barkcloth… You can also watch for vintage barkcloth on ebay. Mind you, you need a lot to make full-length pinch pleat draperies – you might find enough online to make two pairs of sash-length drapes for a bedroom…
• Online fabricators… Reader California Kathy shared these sources for pinch pleats with us. The second site mentioned might work well for custom-sized sheers — which I love to see underneath printed or woven-fabric pinch pleats.
• Roller shades… Roller shades are also an authentic choice for any number of windows – I have them in two bedrooms. You can also put a cloth valence over these, if you like.
• How make your own fabric roller shades – It’s not too hard and readers have good suggestions, too.
• And woven wood shades…Woven wood shades can still be found new, or vintage. Pom poms – like the ones below in a fantastic time capsule home – optional, of course!

Other posts with design ideas and inspiration:

• A solution for when your windows are two different sizes
• 11 vintage barkcloth samples
• One of my favorite valences ever

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Do you have a dining area with one window smaller than the other? Perhaps this solution — from a 1959 Consolidated Trimming Company’s “1,001 tips” booklet — will help. And if you’re looking for good solid cafe rods, the line available from Rejuvenation look pretty nice.

Read on for a close-up of the booklet’s explanation…

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IT *LOOKS* PRETTY EASY to make your own fabric roller shade. Click through to the continuing page for instructions from my 1959 booklet by the Consolidated Trimming Corporation. And, I have a few tips of my own, based on my personal experience doing sewing and with these types of shades.  Regarding the window above: Isn’t it hilariously wonderful? Notice how they designers have tricked us into believing the window is taller than it really is, with the addition of the second rod of scalloped cafe curtains at the bottom. Looks impractical given the supposed eating going on, but an interesting idea nonetheless. 

The instructions for making your own fabric roller shades are in the page-scan below. (For your legibility, I inserted them as large as possible “bleeding” into the blog to some degree.)

Additional thoughts from my own experience:

• I have also read somewhere about the desirability of “stiffening” the fabric. I think you can do this using regular spray starch – you’ll probably want to experiment with a swatch of your fabric first to get the right solution, pun intended. I did some quick online searching (not comprehensive by any means) and found another fabric stiffener apparently used by crafters here
• You can get your basic supplies for the rod assembly, simple pull-down style, from most hardware stores. In these different online instructions, you can see the parts needed – and there are some additional tips on using glue at certain points in the process.
• Regarding the sewing itself: You are only going to use one piece of fabric – no piecing two pieces vertically, it will bunch up.
• And regarding the edges – while these instructions say that you can make a hem, I am skeptical. I think it will bunch up on the roller, at the edges, too much. Better to try and see whether you can avoid making hems in the sides by using the starch to “seal” the edges so that they will not fray. Hmmm, this may be tricky. Experiment.

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ARE YOU LOOKING FOR an authentic midcentury window treatment that is  “simpler” and/or less expensive than pinch-pleat draperies or horizontal blinds — especially when it comes to a smaller window? Roller shades are a great alternative to add to your stable of choices.

Here are three ways to recreate the style:

1. Simple, “pull-down” shades are available at many local hardware stores, and the big-box hardware stores have them, too. In both places, they cut them to your size, on site. When you go in, be sure to know whether you want to install them inside the window frame, or outside, and be ready with your measurements for both height and width. Roller shades from the hardware store are generally very inexpensive, but the options can be quite limited – white or almond-colored vinyl only, with kind of cheesy trim (as I recall). You might also find these at estate sales — used or unused — and if you can be patient, you can find them for a song.
2. Another alternative is a fabric shade custom made to your specs from companies like Smith & Noble. I have these in my bedrooms, with a scalloped edge and tassel-y trim (called “gimp”). I also paid for the cassete upgrade – which allows me to lower and raise them with a pulley system.  Fabric roller shades are available from a wide number of manufacturers. And, they can be ordered in all kinds of fabrics. In the main image above — from 1952 — you can see “oatmeal” and “shantung” fabrics — these kinds of fabrics are still very commonly available today… they’re what I used.
3. If you are really handy – you can sew your own shade from fabric, or glue fabric straight onto an inexpensive shade cut to size from the hardware store or an estate sale. Watch tomorrow for a post on how to make your own fabric shades based on vintage 1959 instructions.

Notes:

• I ordered my bedroom shades, I labored over whether to buy the “black-out” design that totally blocks light, or the more translucent design. I decided on the translucent because we thought it would be nice to be awakened each day by the light slowing permeating the room. I think this choice is very personal… but it’s one more issue you will want to think about before making a final choice.
• And in my bedrooms, I ultimately added pinch pleats over the roller shades. This layered effect is wonderful. And, if you are new to your home…and need immediate privacy…but want to wait to find the perfect set of draperies…you can install the roller shades right away and then take the time you need to find draperies (thrifted, new or home-made.)

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When I went to order window treatments for my kitchen, Colleen from my local hardware store took one look and recommended 2″ aluminum blinds. “It’s what we rip out of every other 50s home,” she reassured.

We chose from the Hunter Douglas “Macro” line. These horizontal blinds are PERFECT, and from my reading of scores of midcentury magazines, I know that “venetians,” as they called these then, are totally authentic. About two years ago – when I originally ran this post — I even saw that Hunter Douglas has come out with a new color palette with circa 50s colors. I chose a soft neutral metallic, as my window is quite large and I didn’t want the shade to overpower the room.

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Oooooh. This is one of a pair of vintage Vera valences now on ebay. They are 14″ x 53″ — and gorgeous. The BIN for each is $20, well worth it if the color and size are right for your…retro kitchen…bathroom…office…or retro bedroom? Very flexible design.

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Several readers have pointed out that Melinamade’s website seems to have gone away… But just in time, I recently heard from Suzanne at Full Swing Textiles about their product line. The company has been making barkcloth for some time, she says, but it was only offered to “the trades” – professional designers. In October, the company launched online, retail sales. They have an absolutely wonderful selection of barkcloth and lighter weight “birchbark” designs.  The material is not inexpensive…so I asked Suzanne to explain their process and their story. Here it is….

She writes:

Here’s the Full Swing barkcloth story in a nutshell:  In 1989, the founder of Full Swing, Michele Mancini, had hundreds of different barkcloth samples in her antique fabric collection. 

Wanting to reproduce the best barkcloth she could, she took her absolute favorite and sent it to the Cotton Inc. for analysis and their recommendations for how to reproduce it.  They mapped out the structure and gave her a listing of all the weavers in the US for her to contact. Unfortunately, there were no more looms in existence capable of handling the “double twisted” thick yarns used to make this weave.  Undeterred, Michele went to every weaver on the list asking them if they could find a way to recreate this fabric for her.  After over 20 weavers refused her, she found one that said he could retrofit a modern loom that could handle the size and type of yarns required to do this.  After much work and test runs, Full Swing barkcloth was born and this same custom weaver here in the USA still weaves Full Swing barkcloth today.  After this, the next challenge was finding finishers and  printers whose machines could handle the weight of the barkcloth and again came many rejections . We have been working with the same printing mill for 20 years and are very proud that our product is made from start to finish on American soil.  But the process is not without losses almost every time we print and we reject all second quality yardage which as a result eats up our precious barkcloth.  Bearing in mind, there are no short cuts anywhere in the process.  Every step of the process is a challenge because of the thickness of the yarns:  purchasing the highest quality long staple cottons to spin the double twisted yarns, weaving on a retrofitted loom, finishing, printing, etc.  We must pay more for every step of the manufacturing process because of the uniqueness of our fabric.
 
In the beginning and for most of Full Swing’s life (1989 – Oct. 1, 2008)  it has been a line only available to the design trade. Available only in design centers around the country and in Canada. So now our new retail customers are getting a very high end product chosen by the pickiest designers who would only offer their discerning clients a product of the highest quality. You’re not getting your average retail fabric store product.  One great customer testimonial that I love to share is when one of our restaurant clients in Honolulu tried to save money by buying one of the less expensive barkcloths for their lounge and it ended up falling apart within a year. They came back to Full Swing and on average, only have to recover their chairs every seven years. That’s every seven years with Full Swing barkcloth, versus falling apart in one with the cheaper fabric.  So if we charge 2-3 times as much as the competition, they are still saving money. I also forgot to mention that because our fabric is printed using the best attainable vat dyes you can throw it in your washing machine and it actually gets even better, softening and opening up the weave, kind of like your favorite jeans. Because the fabric is vat dyed as opposed to pigment dyed, which just sits on top and isn’t as durable, the colors stay true even with the occasional laundering. Our return customers are our best advertising. For example, The Chateau Marmont in Beverly Hills just ordered our Full Swing Stripe again for their Garden Cottages, I think they’ve been using that for at least 15 years. Swept Away in Jamaica has been using our barkcloth throughout their lobby and accommodations for about 20 years now.
   
 So, our Barkcloth costs more because…
- is WOVEN, FINISHED and PRINTED in the U.S.A.  We can’t manufacture our barkcloth off-shore because of our small lots and the need for us to work closely with our weavers, finishers, and printers.
- it  is thick and durable enough to cover first class airline seats for Jamaica’s Avianca Airlines yet…
- it is soft enough to be chosen for the bedding in the luxury suites at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas
- since it is printed using the best attainable vat dyes, it is machine washable
- it improves with use because the long staple cotton yarns soften and open up with age
- the thicker yarns make it more challenging to print on but produce a much better end product
- we reject all of our seconds and do not sell them in any secondary marketplace (our name is on the salvage and don’t want it out there)
- all seconds from the printing process consume our raw barkcloth and raise the price yet again of all first quality goods
- we are a small boutique line we are able to give our customers very personalized service when needed and excellent customer service in general to all of our customers.
 
In one final note, we feel it also important to say that we lowered most of our prices when we changed our business from wholesale “to the design trade only” to the current retail model. When we pulled our fabrics from all of the design center showrooms around the country, we no longer had to pay designer showroom commissions.  So we dropped a lot of our prices by as much as $20.00 per yard because we wanted to pass the savings along to our new retail customers. We love our customers and have formed lifelong friendships with many of them.

Many thanks, Suzanne! Your products are indeed gorgeous!

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