Window Treatments Sticker Shock!

[Anonymous]

This whole thread is bringing me joy -- the inception of Eye Candy?!? For the record, we have custom window treatments (ducking) - got them for the first time in our new house about a year ago & they bring me great joy. Fabric, workmanship. They are beautiful!

Likely OP OGBYN is long done with this project but I hired a designer who specializes in window treatments & she has a shop that makes her curtains. Total pro & I really enjoyed her process/advice.

[Anonymous]

I know this is an old post but I too had sticker shock with the cost of shutters and custom drapes. It’s obsurd imo. Not so much the shutters at 12k because we needed quite a few but the custom drapes! I met the seamstress from the company at the design center to choose fabrics and holy guacamole the prices per yd with the cheapest at $75 to 100s. I wanted embroidered tape trim but at $100 a yd I said no thanks. Fyi all made in China and India! Which you know damn well they paid $5 a yard. She even tried selling me $250 finials! Ha. I tried finding a seamstress who worked out of her home to make my drapes using my own fabric but with 13’ curtain lengths I had no luck. So I bit the bullet with two rooms custom at 7k. But I did find 10’ silk drapes at Neiman Marcus & did custom hardware for dining rm which ran about 2k. Saved about 1k. My biggest score was taking a chance & ordering 12’ velvet drapes on amazon for 2 bedrooms with 3 week lead time delivered from abroad! Wow They are gorgeous. Heavy thick, soft, lined, pinch pleated with perfect stitching too. I added tassel trim with double sided fabric tape, tassel tie backs, found 8’ acrylic rods on Amazon, had my handyman hang them and absolutely gorgeous! About $1100 total for both rooms. Best part. When my custom drapery lady saw them she immediately thought I had another company do them and before she started attitude, I told her. She was shocked-to say the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is an old post but I too had sticker shock with the cost of shutters and custom drapes. It’s obsurd imo. Not so much the shutters at 12k because we needed quite a few but the custom drapes! I met the seamstress from the company at the design center to choose fabrics and holy guacamole the prices per yd with the cheapest at $75 to 100s. I wanted embroidered tape trim but at $100 a yd I said no thanks. Fyi all made in China and India! Which you know damn well they paid $5 a yard. She even tried selling me $250 finials! Ha. I tried finding a seamstress who worked out of her home to make my drapes using my own fabric but with 13’ curtain lengths I had no luck. So I bit the bullet with two rooms custom at 7k. But I did find 10’ silk drapes at Neiman Marcus & did custom hardware for dining rm which ran about 2k. Saved about 1k. My biggest score was taking a chance & ordering 12’ velvet drapes on amazon for 2 bedrooms with 3 week lead time delivered from abroad! Wow They are gorgeous. Heavy thick, soft, lined, pinch pleated with perfect stitching too. I added tassel trim with double sided fabric tape, tassel tie backs, found 8’ acrylic rods on Amazon, had my handyman hang them and absolutely gorgeous! About $1100 total for both rooms. Best part. When my custom drapery lady saw them she immediately thought I had another company do them and before she started attitude, I told her. She was shocked-to say the least.

Okay, but the workroom will use whatever fabric you want, it's not like you need a $75/yd fabric to make curtains. Will's Home Decorating in Hyattsville is great to work with and they sell a huge range of fabrics, many much less than $75/yard (some a lot more). Agree that the cost of the fabric is the biggest factor - it's hard to get around the labor. You can skip the retail markup on the fabric if you buy it online but you'd have to find a workroom willing to use it without a retailer and they might just markup the labor depending on what part of their business usually comes from the fabric markup. And for the vast majority of people, paying the fabric markup at a place like Will's is completely worth it because that's how you're paying for their expertise and management of the workroom and if you try to order them yourself, you'll probably make a mistake and have to buy more fabric anyway. It's true that a flat fee would be more fair since you pay "more" for an expensive fabric, but it's just like any other %-based thing.

There are just a lot of human hours involved especially if someone comes to your house to measure/install. Of course it's much cheaper for a store to buy 10,000 yards of the same fabric, make panels, and sell them off the rack. So if they have what you want, you should definitely buy those.

[Anonymous]

This thread makes me glad that I have a mid century modern home and don't need to pay for custom draperies.

Although, I made the controversial choice of buying blackout curtains that don't go to the floor for my kids' rooms from Pottery Barn Kids. I'm happy with the look because they are all in front of furniture and the shorter length makes them easier to open and close, plus I think they work in kids' rooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me glad that I have a mid century modern home and don't need to pay for custom draperies.

Although, I made the controversial choice of buying blackout curtains that don't go to the floor for my kids' rooms from Pottery Barn Kids. I'm happy with the look because they are all in front of furniture and the shorter length makes them easier to open and close, plus I think they work in kids' rooms.

Everyone is fine with it in kid rooms. I would even say that in a midcentury house where bedrooms often have high windows, they look better than full length drapes (for an adult bedroom I would probably just go with roller shades in that situation).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is an old post but I too had sticker shock with the cost of shutters and custom drapes. It’s obsurd imo. Not so much the shutters at 12k because we needed quite a few but the custom drapes! I met the seamstress from the company at the design center to choose fabrics and holy guacamole the prices per yd with the cheapest at $75 to 100s. I wanted embroidered tape trim but at $100 a yd I said no thanks. Fyi all made in China and India! Which you know damn well they paid $5 a yard. She even tried selling me $250 finials! Ha. I tried finding a seamstress who worked out of her home to make my drapes using my own fabric but with 13’ curtain lengths I had no luck. So I bit the bullet with two rooms custom at 7k. But I did find 10’ silk drapes at Neiman Marcus & did custom hardware for dining rm which ran about 2k. Saved about 1k. My biggest score was taking a chance & ordering 12’ velvet drapes on amazon for 2 bedrooms with 3 week lead time delivered from abroad! Wow They are gorgeous. Heavy thick, soft, lined, pinch pleated with perfect stitching too. I added tassel trim with double sided fabric tape, tassel tie backs, found 8’ acrylic rods on Amazon, had my handyman hang them and absolutely gorgeous! About $1100 total for both rooms. Best part. When my custom drapery lady saw them she immediately thought I had another company do them and before she started attitude, I told her. She was shocked-to say the least.

Please post the Amazon link!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is an old post but I too had sticker shock with the cost of shutters and custom drapes. It’s obsurd imo. Not so much the shutters at 12k because we needed quite a few but the custom drapes! I met the seamstress from the company at the design center to choose fabrics and holy guacamole the prices per yd with the cheapest at $75 to 100s. I wanted embroidered tape trim but at $100 a yd I said no thanks. Fyi all made in China and India! Which you know damn well they paid $5 a yard. She even tried selling me $250 finials! Ha. I tried finding a seamstress who worked out of her home to make my drapes using my own fabric but with 13’ curtain lengths I had no luck. So I bit the bullet with two rooms custom at 7k. But I did find 10’ silk drapes at Neiman Marcus & did custom hardware for dining rm which ran about 2k. Saved about 1k. My biggest score was taking a chance & ordering 12’ velvet drapes on amazon for 2 bedrooms with 3 week lead time delivered from abroad! Wow They are gorgeous. Heavy thick, soft, lined, pinch pleated with perfect stitching too. I added tassel trim with double sided fabric tape, tassel tie backs, found 8’ acrylic rods on Amazon, had my handyman hang them and absolutely gorgeous! About $1100 total for both rooms. Best part. When my custom drapery lady saw them she immediately thought I had another company do them and before she started attitude, I told her. She was shocked-to say the least.

Please post the Amazon link!

Not PP, but we used this seller for custom drapes.

https://www.amazon.com/MacoHome-Curtain-Textured-Blackout-Window/dp/B086GQWNNJ

[Anonymous]

Grommet top and rod-pocket drapes are cheaper no matter who makes them.

A lot of the expensive drapes people are talking about here are pinch pleated, requiring more work and materials.

Someone early in the thread said that if you don’t like the look, it’s a waste to spend the money. I personally think the pleated drapes are pretty and don’t really like the other styles...so I pay a local person instead of buying something g made abroad. Obviously, there’s also the question as to whether the person in the factory in another country is in a safe environment and being paid properly...

[Anonymous]

It’s a waste of money. And that custom look is out of fashion now anyway. The heavy drape look was tied to the leaky windows of yesterday. Today’s insulated glass gave way to more simple drapes.
Buying from a main stream store will give you a better feel for what’s in right now and future. Doing all custom is likely to looked dated tomorrow. You are being scammed.

[Anonymous]

My sister buys those silk restoration hardware ones on eBay for less than 10%. You really need silk? Fragile and easily duplicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a waste of money. And that custom look is out of fashion now anyway. The heavy drape look was tied to the leaky windows of yesterday. Today’s insulated glass gave way to more simple drapes.
Buying from a main stream store will give you a better feel for what’s in right now and future. Doing all custom is likely to looked dated tomorrow. You are being scammed.

Ok this is funny. As with everything people should get what they like and can afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a waste of money. And that custom look is out of fashion now anyway. The heavy drape look was tied to the leaky windows of yesterday. Today’s insulated glass gave way to more simple drapes.
Buying from a main stream store will give you a better feel for what’s in right now and future. Doing all custom is likely to looked dated tomorrow. You are being scammed.

Ok this is funny. As with everything people should get what they like and can afford.

+1. It doesn’t even make sense. One of the main reasons for custom drapes is so that the drapes (or shades) fit the specific size of the window. PP is basically saying that incorrectly sized window treatments are more fashionable.

Sorry, PP but anyone who has the money to decorate their home well knows that Schumacher is worth the money.

Store bought window treatments are typically cheap fabrics, won’t be sized to your window and are also very plain or boring since they need to appeal to a mass market. Go and look at the Schumacher IG page and then tell me that the Home Depot 19.99 polyester drapes and tension rods really look better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is an old post but I too had sticker shock with the cost of shutters and custom drapes. It’s obsurd imo. Not so much the shutters at 12k because we needed quite a few but the custom drapes! I met the seamstress from the company at the design center to choose fabrics and holy guacamole the prices per yd with the cheapest at $75 to 100s. I wanted embroidered tape trim but at $100 a yd I said no thanks. Fyi all made in China and India! Which you know damn well they paid $5 a yard. She even tried selling me $250 finials! Ha. I tried finding a seamstress who worked out of her home to make my drapes using my own fabric but with 13’ curtain lengths I had no luck. So I bit the bullet with two rooms custom at 7k. But I did find 10’ silk drapes at Neiman Marcus & did custom hardware for dining rm which ran about 2k. Saved about 1k. My biggest score was taking a chance & ordering 12’ velvet drapes on amazon for 2 bedrooms with 3 week lead time delivered from abroad! Wow They are gorgeous. Heavy thick, soft, lined, pinch pleated with perfect stitching too. I added tassel trim with double sided fabric tape, tassel tie backs, found 8’ acrylic rods on Amazon, had my handyman hang them and absolutely gorgeous! About $1100 total for both rooms. Best part. When my custom drapery lady saw them she immediately thought I had another company do them and before she started attitude, I told her. She was shocked-to say the least.

Please post the Amazon link!

Not PP, but we used this seller for custom drapes.

https://www.amazon.com/MacoHome-Curtain-Textured-Blackout-Window/dp/B086GQWNNJ

These look cheap. Why? They are a plain color. They are for people who buy 8 x 10 rugs and have a grey or beige potterybarn couch. Not everyone cares about having a nice looking home and that’s ok. But to claim the drapes you posted are nice, is just wrong.

[Anonymous]

People who buy 8x10 rugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who buy 8x10 rugs?

Yes. 8 x 10 rugs are rarely the correct size. They are typically cheap fabrics and print. They are for people who don’t know any better. They aren’t nice. People who decorate their homes well have Schumacher drapes or Roman shades and custom rugs from a company like fiberworks or stark.