In honor of The One Room Challenge's fall round of makeovers, I'm reliving the least stressful moment from my ORC kitchen renovation -- courtesy of The Shade Store. We have used The Shade Store many times for clients in the past, and I can't say enough about how easy they make the process. Take this adorable nursery we designed for a funky 50s lakehouse with tricky shallow window casing and very little header space, plus a giant beam that buts up to the edge of the window on the other side. Not challenging at all.
Turns out babies don't sleep well in the blazing sun, so we had to get a blackout shade on that window and fast. Shade Store to the rescue, with a roller shade/valance combo that is functional, easy, and doesn't detract from the sweet decor. {PS, can't wait to share the rest of this huge project with you!}
When Shade Store signed on with The One Room Challenge I knew everything was going to be a ok. It might sound vaguely ridiculous, but I am 100% serious. I really needed something about that renovation to be easy, because gutting that room and rebuilding it in six weeks was like pulling teeth while walking uphill in the snow blindfolded with hands trussed behind my back.
Those beautiful ripplefold traverse drapes with a light filtering roller shade you see above? All I had to do was pick my fabric, hardware and style, and The Shade Store did the rest.
There are many designers out there who love the smell of custom drapery in the morning. The insanely tedious measuring, calculating, remeasuring and recalculating... and then some more measuring and calculating and -- don't forget -- managing of multiple subcontractors. I am not that person. I took trig, calculus and physics, and none of that equipped me to figure out how to specify the length and width of a panel with pinch pleats and rods and rings. Drapes that touch the floor in high traffic areas give me hives, but you can't highwater that bizness either. Precision, darlings. Shade Store gots it.
And you know what? The Shade Store will pinch pleat those drapes for you. And they will do ripplefold and traverse rods, which I am loving right now. And they will come and measure and send someone to install and you, dear reader, can manage it yourself with the click of a button. Click.
I love their handy online estimator, which is fairly accurate. You can also order 500000 fabric swatches online and then hold them up to your windows for days on end. Not that I would ever do that.
Busted.
Designers, did you know you can do COM with The Shade Store? For you civvies out there, that means customer's own material. And bonus check plus, The Shade Store now has locations inside many Kravet showrooms which is ultra convenient. Dear Shade Store, can you please add one to the San Francisco Kravet showroom??? Thanks.
Speaking of showrooms, I love the Austin location because they will give you a giant bottle of sparkling water to guzzle, and while the east coast is traipsing through drifts of saturated fall foliage sparkling with artfully placed lens flares, it is still freaking hot in Austin. Also, the sales team is lovely to work with and didn't chastise me one bit when I laid all my sheetrock dust encrusted samples out on their pristine work tables.
And there you have it. The Shade Store -- it's just like home. Except it's a store, with shades.
And drapes.