Take notice of how your dining room draperies appear from the street.
Make dining rooms cozy and comfortable or stately and grand depends on its furnishings, including draperies. Careful selection of fabrics, patterns, color and style all contribute to a well thought out dining room decor that sets the mood for family and guests to dine, entertain and converse.
Sheers
Dining room draperies that are made of sheer fabrics are a good choice to afford minimal privacy and lots of style. Allowing only shadows when drawn at night, they also filter sunshine during the day, helping to cool the room and conserve your furnishings from the harsh effects of the sun.
Sheer fabrics are available in both natural and man-made fibers. You can buy simple sheers that have no pattern at all for a simple, unpretentious look. You can also get sheers that have a tone-on-tone pattern, like damask, woven into them, or burnout fabrics where the pattern is removed from the weave, both of which give you a richer appearance and interest to your room. For a Victorian, romantic look, look to lace for your sheers, or on the opposite end of the spectrum use harem cloth, or scrim, a lightweight gauzy sheer material similar to cheesecloth, for a minimal modern look.
When making or purchasing sheer draperies, multiply the width of your windows by 5 for the proper, full look you need. Sheer draperies are simple panels that you clip to a rod with drapery clip-rings or you can have them pinch, or French pleated, for an elegant look that is drawn open or closed on a traverse rod.
French Pleats
For a formal, stately look hang French, or pinch-pleated, draperies in your dining room. Line them for added protection from the sun, warmth and appearance from the street. Look to silks and velvets for elegance, and cottons, linens and blends for a more casual, but still formal, look. Patterns are a matter of taste, but take care to coordinate them with your home's furnishings. Look to your existing artwork for suggestions in color.
When calculating the amount of fabric to include in French pleated draperies, multiply the width of your window by 2 1/2 to ensure enough fullness in the finished drapery. Hang your French pleated draperies on a traverse rod hung so that you can pull the drapery open off of the window, leaving only 1/4 of the width overlapping the glass, which gives your window and room a more open and airy appearance, making your room look larger at the same time.
Cornices
Wooden cornices, whether left bare or padded with fabric, add a finishing touch to dining room windows. If your room is not in need of privacy, you can decorate your windows with a cornice alone.
Crown molding decorates the tops of wooden cornices at the top of the box, with simpler molding at the bottom. Painting cornices to coordinate or match your room's d cor, or staining them in a color to match your furniture or floor, makes for a cohesive look. Paint them with a good quality, preferably oil-based, gloss paint in successive layers until you achieve the smooth, slick look you desire. Seal stained cornices with two layers of polyurethane for easy cleaning.
Padding and covering cornices with batting and fabric makes for a softer, coordinated look. Consider covering the cornice with the same fabric used on your dining room chairs.
Cornices come in an infinite array of shapes and sizes. You can select from simple rectangular cornices, those with scallops along the bottom or other shapes that are much more elaborate. Duplicate an arch or decorative molding on your dining room china cabinet for a custom look. Remember to scale the size and shape of your cornice to the mood and d cor of your room as well as to the rest of your home so that everything coordinates when you're finished.
Layering
When hanging draperies in your dining room, you can layer and remove draperies to suit your mood or seasons. Add more layers in winter when you want or need a cozier look, especially if you live in snowy states. Remove layers when summer hits for a cooler appearance.
While sheer draperies can hang alone on their own, you can add French pleated draperies over them with the addition of a double rod. Leave the heavier, silk, velvet or cotton draperies drawn open off the window during the summer months, drawing only the sheers in the evening when necessary. During the winter months, you can draw (or simply pull closed if on clip-rings) both the sheers and the French pleated draperies for warmth.
Adding a cornice over the top of your sheers and/or French pleated draperies completes a stately, elegant and formal look. Coordinate the padded cornice to coordinate or match the French pleated draperies. Plan your cornice size so that it does not interfere with the opening or closing of either draperies hanging on your dining room windows.
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