by pam kueber on December 23, 2008
Reader Brenny wants to know if anyone has good instructions on how to make pinch-pleat draperies. Drats, I do – somewhere. But I cannot find them! Help! Maybe while you’re tidying up for guests… you’ll uncover your instructions?
One tip I have immediately: You can spray paint your traverse rod to match your wall or wall covering. I did this (barkcloth pinch pleats in my dining room, above) and it turned out great.
Hello,
I wonder if it would be possible to pry some good pinch pleat drapery instructions from you. I have searched the net on how to make them, but all the instructions seem to be a bit vague. Do you have any that you could share? I have some barkcloth that is the atomic bomb and would love to get my sew on.
Thanks!
Brenny
by Pam Kueber on June 3, 2008
Over the past two weeks or so, I’ve been collecting examples of beautiful barkcloth designs from listings on ebay. Vintage barkcloth pinchpleats are nearly essential, in my book. A second choice is sheers, either alone or in combo with barkcloth. The pinch pleats are a must, though – the pleats really enhance the, well, “drape” of the fabric and lend a bit of formality or dress-up to your window.
Barkcloth was available in a wide, wide range of designs. So you really have a lot of flexibility. You can go flowery-girliegirl, flowery-tiki, flowery-sophisticate, geometric, toiles, asian, cowboy, ballerina, coffee pots – you name it!
Tip #1: I particularly like the designs that have a gold thread or imprint over the top of the basic color design. This adds a wonderful “little something” that gives the pinch-pleats even more to love.
Tip #2: Don’t think you just need a ‘modern geometric’. Flowers and toiles can really mix up your decor, I almost prefer them.
.
.
1: Unusual to see these colors:
2: Nice flowers, lovely colors, with that gold leaf I was talking about:
3: Great for a 40s kitchen or bedroom:
4: Detail of an awesome asian design:
5: More asian, also quite lovely:
6: Googie, with gold leaf:
7: 60s, be careful of hangover mornings:
8: Yippee YaY aye:
9: Very beautiful, the colors are wonderful. Portland Amy, I’m thinking this would look great on your window-wall:
10: I’m not sure how to classify this one, I’ll call it Roman-with-Flowers, note the gold thread:
11: Asian, awesome, very clean and crisp… would like fabulous with chartreuse walls:
by Pam Kueber on May 1, 2008
I feel as strongly about pinch-pleat draperies as I do about wallpaper — you need these in your mid-century house, trust me. But, custom-made pinch-pleats can be wicked expensive. To the rescue: California Kathy with some great sounding recommendations.
Hi Pam,
I love checking in every day or so to see what great things you have to show us! Thanks so much for all the time and effort you put into this.
I saw you lust for pinch pleat sheers and this seller on eBay often has them. Here’s the link for what he has today. In case it doesn’t work, his online ID is hotelliquidator-67.
Also, I recently bought some ivory pinch pleat drapes from
factorybargaindrapes.com. They have a “Hot Deals” page that has really good pricing. I love the ones I bought – seem to be very well made.
I took Kathy’s advice and checked the site out. I especially like some of the sheers – and what looks to be a wonderful ivory “Vegas Cream” opaque (above). I emailed Kathy — also asking for her retro renovation story — and she added:
Glad you like the sheers. If these particular ones don’t work for you I’d e-mail the guy as he has them often in several different sizes. The pinch pleats I got … are lined and are hand made. They came with the drapery hooks on them and on a hanger. I’m very happy with them. Especially since I found some I liked on their Hot Deal page and spent $100 for two windows! (The living room front window is a 5′ x 5′ picture window.)
I’m from northern California and live in a 1948 ranch. My favorites are the coved ceilings in the living room and a built in china cabinet in the kitchen. The kitchen also has scallop crown molding.
I’m not doing too much in the way of re-hab per se. I did just have a new formica counter put in the kitchen and I’m going to be installing a white subway tile backsplash soon. I’m going to add some 1″ glass tiles randomly as accents. The glass tilies are yellow, blue and red. Here’s the formica we used:
Thanks again for your blog! Kathy
Kathy – thank you!
by Pam Kueber on November 10, 2007
After much research, I bought Smith and Noble roller shades for our two bedrooms when we first moved into our 1951 colonial-ranch 6 six years ago. I’ve always been very happy with the choice.
I used the roller shades on all the windows (2 per bedroom) — then, importantly, added a decorative wooden curtain rod fit with pinch pleat draperies on wood rings, to finish the window. This ‘layering’ makes a huge difference – and if you look at the photo to the left, you can see how adding pinch pleats would really complete the window, it looks unnecessarily bare with only the shade. Layer! A couple of other details I recommend:
- I tend to favor a neutral colored roller shade, ala a creamy linen. Then, you can easily change the pinch pleat draperies. I have two sets of drapes for our master bedroom, for example, and it’s nice to switch them every once in a while. Note, I also like 2″ aluminum blinds for retro windows; this alternative is a ’softer’ way to go and preferable in particular, I think, for bedrooms where metal is too harsh, too cold, bad feng shui for the purpose of this room!
- I like the decorative Diana and Wave hems, these are the most traditional mid century styles. The petite ribbon loop or twisted loop trims add a nice decorative touch.
- You can order ‘blackout’ material if you want to keep the room totally dark including into the morning. We didn’t get this, though — we like the sun filtering through our shades, it’s a nice way to wake up slowly.
- Finally, it’s worth it to get the special lifting cassette. It makes it much easier to open and close the roller shades without them getting all off kilter.
SmithandNoble.com seems to have a good website for building your own shade. Measure carefully.
by Pam Kueber on November 6, 2007
I know that Pottery Barn and the like want you to buy those tabbed draperies, or the ones that simply slide onto decorative polls. But this is definitely not the right answer if you are in a mid century home! 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 are insulating against both cold and heat…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 Canadian (and when the CDN dollar wasn’t worth anything!) 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. In terms of fabric, see my post on barkcloth from melinamade. There are definitely many other sources out there, I’ll look into it…
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!
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 second photo – considering putting draperies along an entire wall. This creates a sense of greater space. You can also see how the softness of the light pink drapes creates a great counterpoint to the outrageousness of the wallpaper.
- In addition to layering cloth with sheers, you can put horizontal Venetians underneath — see my post on 2″ aluminum blinds — as in the first photo. Layer!
- 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, 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!
