If you are looking for a window treatment for your French doors, you have come to the right place.  Fabricworkroom.com offers many options to treat your French doors from fabric roman shades to  wood blinds to roller shades and bamboo woven shades.

Based on your budget and your personal style here is a quick guide to selecting the best custom window treatment for your French Door. Note: this is a general guide and all style pricing is based on price of fabric selected.

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When you are about to begin your decorating project and selecting your window treatments, just getting started can be an overwhelming experience. Where do you begin? I suggest you go to one of the large chain book stores. They carry most of the decorating publications and the owner won’t scold you for “reading” them in the store. You’ll have a few dozen to pick from. Flick through the ones that reflect your style and taste. Magazines can be very inspiring but don’t get too nervous. These are all staged for inspiration only. It’s not natural. You don’t see dog bowls, television remotes or kid’s dirty socks. Magazine shoots have a team of people who work on the scene staging. However, you can recreate what you see – at a fraction of the cost of hiring a decorator.

Understanding what you want to accomplish with your window treatments can help you narrow done the choices. Here are the questions you need to answer:

• Do I need privacy or decorative?
• Do I need light control?
• Do I want a layered look? (Multiple treatments on one window)
• What window treatment styles do I want? (formal, casual, contemporary, etc.)
• Do I want silk, faux silk, cotton, linen, or blended fabrics?

The room that you are decorating will help you answer many of these questions. If you are decorating a living or dining room, you might lean towards formal. If it’s your family room, you should be thinking more casual with light control for your media center. Your bedroom can be casual or formal, but privacy should be at the top of your list. If you have young children, room darkening should be important for afternoon naps.

Budget is also a strong factor in your decision. We have put together a simple chart as a guide. We are using a typical window that is 35″ wide by 58″ long. For pricing fabric products, we selected a popular cotton print that can work in just about any room setting. We haven’t added any of the different product upgrades and options such as trim to make this easier to present.

Here is the conclusion. You should create a window treatment budget for each room in the house. Generally speaking, the public rooms on the first floor are where you should invest the most. Your friends will see these rooms and when they are talking behind your back, it just might be positive. Upstairs you can focus on shade and blind options that give you privacy and light control at a great price. To add fabric to a shade or blind window treatment, we recommend adding a fabric rod mounted valance. They look great and there are many styles available for under $100. Remember this can all be done in stages. Set your priorities and stick to a plan.

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We had a call from a customer that asked if our headboards “smelled”. “Smelled” - like what? Although she didn’t want to admit, she had purchased and headboard from a large retailer whom shall remain nameless. She wants to get rid of it because it has a “musty” odor and can’t take it any more. She didn’t want to make the same mistake.

If we went to ancestry.com and looked up her headboard, we would probably find that it was born in some far away Asian country. It probably had 1,000 identical bothers and sisters. The materials were most likely stored in some hot humid warehouse. The “parents” probably worked in some sweat shop and it was made in 10 minutes. Then imagine your headboard and its siblings are stuffed into a sea container and travel the seven seas to arrive in the U.S. weeks later. Have you ever gone on a cruise and remember how nice your cabin was? That’s not what the inside of a sea container looks like. Think hot and sweaty - again. With enough heat and humidity, you can begin to create the odor from clothes left in the washer for a couple of days.

How are our fabric headboards born? First, there is no birth until you order one. The wood is stacked neatly in a fully climate controlled environment right here in the United States. When your order enters our system, the heavy duty frame is built by our craftsmen just for you according to your selected style. Then the frame moves to our upholstery department where it is covered with foam rubber wrapped in polyester fiber taken from our air conditioned storage. Next your headboard is upholstered with one of our 5,000 plus unique stocked designer fabrics all stocked in our air conditioned workroom. Your headboard may have a cousin or two, but not 1,000 identical siblings.

So here is your choice. Buy a smelly upholstered headboard using “questionable” labor from some far away place that is identical to 999 other headboards. Or get a beautiful odor free one-of-a-kind headboard made in the U.S.A. for approximately the same price.

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Did you ever have one of those moments when you were in your bathroom minding your own business and then there is it - someone was looking in your window? Perhaps it was the lawn guy or Fed Ex delivery guy. You’re embarrassed, he’s embarrassed and you vow to never let that happen again.

So why did this happen? With the exception of flying visitors from Transylvania, most of us love sun light. We leave our windows uncovered so the light streams in. It’s much easier to get the motor running in the morning with beautiful natural sun light. Many studies have proven that people become more depressed in the winter due to lack of natural light. So completely blocking the sun light to get privacy is not a good idea. You need a window treatment that will give you both sun and privacy. Well guess what, there are solutions where you can have both.

Window shades and blinds are all about privacy and light control. You need to pick the best window treatment for each room and even make small adjustments within the room. There are so many styles and options that guarantee a perfect solution. With our guidance you’ll know all the options and make smart choices and eliminate the mistakes.

The trickiest room to get right is the bathroom. Privacy is important, but you have to consider some natural light for the ladies to apply their make up. Add an abundance of moisture and you’ve got the bathroom version of the perfect storm. Immediately strike wood blinds from the list. They will peal and crack over time. If you love the look of wood, then faux wood is the way to go. They are made of composite materials and moisture won’t cause any damage. However, when they are closed you can forget about any light. Thus, we would rule out faux wood blinds if you still want light when they are closed.

We strongly recommend that you focus your window treatment choice on top-down-bottom-shades. You can raise the shade from the bottom of the window up to any desired position. You end up with extraordinary privacy while letting in natural light in from the opening at the top. Neighbors and delivery people may get a peak at your curlers, but not much else. Shades and blinds with this feature include cellular honey comb shades, bamboo shades and fabric roman shades.

Fabric Roman Shades are beautiful and with thousands of fabrics available, these shades can become the center point of your bathroom style. The flat roman shade style comes in a top down option as well. Bamboo shades are very stylish and their natural look is very in vogue today. We love the function of cellular shades, but they can be a little plain looking on their own. We recommend you consider adding a fabric valance to add softness and color while concealing the shade when it is up. Finally, if you have windows that are hard to reach say behind a jetted tub, you might want to consider motorization. You can raise and lower the shades using a small remote. The shade motor is powered by battery, so you don’t need to worry about running wires.

Remember, making the right choices for your bathroom windows will give you great light, privacy and beauty.

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Let’s say you walk into the family room and your husband is sitting on the couch watching his favorite Sunday sports. You announce to him, “honey we need a new state-of-the-art flat screen television”. How fast do you think you’d be in the car on your way to Best Buy? Does a New York minute sound about right? Now let’s try another scenario same setting. “Honey, I think we need new drapes for the living room and while we are at it, we should get some accent pillows to match”. What do you think is response is going to be? Yep – dead silence. He’s thinking what’s in it for me? What’s this going to cost? The benefits of a new television are completely different than the benefits of new drapes. He’s thinking about how versatile and inexpensive sheets can be. What he doesn’t know is, it will cost less to buy the drapes than the flat screen, especially by shopping on the Internet, but he won’t get it. It’s not his passion. Don’t despair; you can get his support with the right approach.

We don’t like paying for stuff when we can’t figure out how the price was calculated. Everyone hates to overpay, but a man’s ego can be crushed if they get taken. Hiring a decorator can scare a guy more than the IRS. The decorating world has a tendency to be unaccountable. It’s difficult to compare pricing with private label fabrics and unknown labor rates and hourly fees. You don’t get to know the final price until the decorator has been in your home two or three times over a few weeks. They befriend you over the weeks, comment on your lovely children and become part of the “family”. When you get hit with the price, it can be a very uncomfortable situation with your new best friend – sorry I mean your decorator. As a husband, the last thing I want to hear is that “it seems expensive, but I really like her”.

You can go the retail route. I am sure your husband is dying to spend his weekends in home décor retail stores. Retail can mean a few visits to the store and visits by the retailer’s measuring people to your home. It can be very time consuming. You ever see those guys sitting on benches outside the stores? Yep, drape shopping.

Let’s face it; you are never going to make him passionate about drapes. The ridicule approach is not going to get it done. Comments about not being fully evolved and knuckle dragger won’t inspire a love for fabric and drapes. Don’t tell him how your friend’s husband was very involved when she decorated her home. You know where that’s going. So if you can’t criticize or bagger him into submission, what do you do? Here are some suggestions based on being a guy who believes the screen isn’t big enough or flat enough!

1. Be up front and tell him that you are going to do the drapes in the living room. Let him know you are 100% committed to looking at alternative ways to do this project. Your goal is to have beautiful drapes made without eating into his weekends and overpaying. Tell him that thousands of people are successfully using the Internet to decorate their homes and you are going to do all the initial research. However, you want his help to pick the right drape style and the right fabric. Let him know that all the pricing on the Internet is known right up front without any sales pressure. No scary end of job hourly time bills and no comments on how lovely your children are.

2. Start your Internet research. Do a google search on “Custom Window Treatments” and check out the companies. Look at the drape styles. Narrow the choice down to two or three styles. Look at the fabrics you like and price out your drapes. Print out the detail with the prices and show them to your husband. Pick the right time. Don’t try to get his attention when the game is going into double overtime. Trust me, he will appreciate knowing the price up-front and in all likelihood start to embrace the process. Ask for his help in deciding on the drape style. Get his input on the fabrics you are considering.

3. There is a measuring component to the project. You should print out the measuring instructions. Get your husband’s help measuring. It is his chance to put on his tool belt and strut his handyman stuff. “Step aside Miss while I take care of this”. It’s okay to tell him that when it comes to measuring, he is second to none. Did I mention that we have huge egos and love to hear how great you think we are?

4. Look though the thousands of fabrics on-line. Narrow it down to your color, style and texture you prefer. Order free swatches. Don’t order too many, it just makes the process more confusing. Once the swatches arrive, immediately eliminate the ones that don’t work for you. Don’t show your husband any fabric you hate because that’s the one he’ll love. Work together to decide on the final choice. Don’t accept the “you make the choice” typical husband position. It’s better to get his opinion now rather than when the drapes arrive. Believe it or not, sometimes men can be a little insensitive. He could walk in the room when the drapes arrive and say something completely manly and insulting like “at least the measuring is right”. If you carefully engage your husband in this process, just for a second, imagine if he picks a fabric you love and you can say, “Wow, you have great taste, that’s the exact one I was leaning towards”. We are talking dinner date with that kind of talk.

So imagine, your husband being completely supportive and involved in the process. He didn’t have to deal with a decorator and the unknown. He didn’t have to spend his weekends in a retail home décor store. You both completed a great project together and you saved a lot of time and money in the process.

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Southport, CT: Travel, computers, books and now home decorating is part of the latest Internet buying trend as consumers tighten their belts to save money in a soft economy. In increasing numbers homeowners are looking to the Internet for products and advice for “do-it-yourself” home decorating on web sites such as www.fabricworkroom.com

According to Kyle Keehan Co-founder of FabricWorkroom.com, “We are basically hearing three reoccurring statements from our customers. One, they are grateful that they can save by shopping for window treatments and other custom products on-line. Two, they are selling their homes in a soft real estate market and staging them to be more competitive. And lastly, some customers have postponed selling and want their homes nicely decorated for more in-home entertaining with friends and family.”

Fabricworkroom.com sells to consumers by giving direct access to their vast amount of product styles and designer fabrics. All the products including window treatments, upholstered headboards, luxury bedding, shower curtains and pillows are custom made to the customer’s exact specifications. The process from order to completion is four weeks or less saving tremendous time and money over traditional retail decorating options. “A FabricWorkroom.com customer can literally visit our web site, custom design silk drapes to the exact size they need and have them hanging in their living room in four weeks. There just aren’t that many places where consumers can do this today”, said Keehan.

Customers get unlimited Design Team help when working on their home decorating projects. Fabricworkroom.com’s experts are there to make sure the customer is measuring correctly and picking the right fabrics and products. “We go above and beyond to give our customers a variety of tools to ensure their project goes smoothly. We have extensive product guides on the web site and we give them unlimited advice by phone, email or in a live chat session. We stock nearly 6,000 fabrics in our workroom ranging from solid cottons to embroidered silks and everything in between. Fabrics are purchased in large quantities ensuring the best prices from the mills. Our large in-house inventory speeds delivery time while nearly eliminating backorders, that plague the industry”, said Keehan.

The Internet has changed many industries in the last 10 years. Most travelers use the Internet to research and plan their business and vacation trips. All the schedules and rates are widely available on many trusted web sites. Consumers are getting the best itinerary at the best price. As a result of the new frugality that has set in with consumers, in greater numbers they are embracing the Internet for home decorating and realizing significant savings.

About FabricWorkroom.com

FabricWorkroom.com is every consumer’s resource for custom home decorating. The company stocks thousands of imported and domestic fabrics for manufacture of custom window treatments, upholstered headboards, luxury bedding, pillows and more for the consumer market. With nearly 1,000 people working behind the scenes, FabricWorkroom.com ensures the highest level of selection, style and superior workmanship. For more information, please visit http://www.fabricworkroom.com.

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In this economy we can’t help to think about our assets and what would happen if? Let’s face it; our number one asset is our home. Your home should be “ready to sell” at any given time if something were to happen. Keeping your house camera ready is easy. Decorate!

We see sales trends in the home improvement industry everyday. Not only seasonal, but when the housing market is hot, our sales go up. When the housing market is slow people are more cautious. One of the interesting things we are seeing today is that decorating your home in “moderation” stays constant. People are not doing it all at once like they use to but are making smart decisions. They are taking their time, doing more of the work themselves and turning to the Internet.

It is not a news flash that turning to the Internet not only saves time but saves money. But it is more than that when it comes to home decorating. Shopping online for window treatments and home decor products allows you to make decisions without pressure. It allows you to decide how much you have in your wallet and how much you willing to spend to improve the value of your home. There are enough things to stress about today so why have a pushy sales person adding to the stress! Just add a couple colorful pillows in the fabric of your choice to brighten up that room. Take the curtains down and update your family room with some modern silk panels! You will be surprised how much better the room will look and when it’s time to sell…..you will be ready to list!

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The most inexpensive decorating project is paint. You only need about three to four gallons of paint for the average bedroom. Paint runs about $25 per gallon, so you are talking about $100 to make a big difference in the room. If you really want to save money, paint it yourself. As much as people hate painting, it is one of the easiest projects you’ll ever do in your home. I won’t go into great detail here, but take the time to fill the holes and cracks and prep the walls for paint. There are hundreds of web sites out there that can provide you with the right instructions.

If you consider yourself somewhat adventurous, think about adding some decorative molding to your master bedroom. I’ve seen rooms be completely transformed with this simple technique. Add a chair rail all the way around the room. This allows you to divide the wall space and use two different paint colors. We are not suggesting red on the top and green on the bottom. We are talking about subtle shade differences between the top and the bottom.

To further enhance your chair rail, consider adding “picture frames” below the rail. Picture frames are easy to make using decorative molding available at Home Depot. The molding comes in 12 to 16 foot lengths and you will cut them done to the exact size you need using a chop saw to miter the corners just like a picture frame. Next you measure out each wall on graph paper and plan your picture frames to evenly fit the wall. Say for example you have a 12 foot wall. I would cut two picture frames 30″ wide by 24″ high. I would then cut three frames 18″ wide by 24″ high. Then start 5″ in from the left side wall and put your first 18″ frame, then add 5″ and put you first 30″ frame, then another 18″ frame and so on. You will end up with a very stylish arrangement of small and large frames to fit your 12 foot wall. The frames are attached to the wall using a combination of paneling glue and nails. If your walls are nice and flat, you can get away with just using glue to hold the frames in place.

Crown molding is also a great addition. I’ll warn you, it’s tough to get the corners just right. There are instructions all over Internet to help you, but it’s still a challenge, especially since you are working overhead. The finished look is well worth the effort. So you’ve installed your decorative moldings and picked your general paint color, now it’s time to focus on the decorating options.

You can look a decorating a room much like an upside-down funnel process. You need to start with the product that has the least amount of style and color options. Normally, that’s the carpet or area rug. Here your restrictions will be size and color options. Don’t forget that you can take any wall to wall carpeting and have it cut to an exact size for an area rug. You can bind the edges with a range of materials, including leather, to make it very custom looking. As you are deciding on your carpet, reference your paint group and make sure it works.

Moving through the funnel, the next area that gives you more options than carpet are fabric colors and patterns. There are so many options here, that you could literally spend months and suffer from paralysis. Don’t let that happen. Spend time looking through the magazines to see what you like. The products featured in the magazines are typically the most expensive options. You don’t need to go down that path. If you see beautiful silk drapes in a room setting you love, there are faux silks out there that are so good no one except you will know.

Decide on your pattern stripe, floral, solid patterns and then the material, cotton, silk, linen, etc. Narrowing your search will make the task much easier. Get the swatches down to ten or less and bring them into your room. Match them up with your carpet and paint family. Once you make a fabric decision, you can now tie the whole color palette together. You’ve got the carpet and fabric, now at the widest part of the funnel is the paint color. Pick a paint color that works with the carpet and fabric you’ve selected. The choices are vast. You’ll need a trim color and a wall color and a ceiling color. The wall color is your primary color in the room and the one you coordinated with your carpet and fabric. If you installed the chair rail, then this color is painted above the rail. We like flat or eggshell finish on the walls. The trim color should be a slight contrast from the wall color and have a semi-gloss finish. Don’t make the trim the focal point of the room. It should be a subtle transition. If you installed crown molding, the ceiling can be white. Without crown molding, we like to take the wall color and cut the color intensity by 50% to 75%. They will do this for you at the paint store. What you get is the same wall color, just a lighter version for the ceiling. It really looks great and where the walls and ceiling meet, you don’t see obvious painting mistakes.

Finally, the focus is on the finishing decorating touches. You need to decide what you are going to put on the windows. Fabric Roman Shades are beautiful and provide privacy and light control. If you like traditional drapes, then a combination of fabric and window blinds works well too. You can also use a valance or cornice top treatment with a shade or blind concealed beneath. You want to draw a balance between fashion and function and not just have one or the other.

Now let’s talk about the bed. It’s a third of your life, right? We once had a wrought iron headboard. It looked good (fashion), but try to prop a pillow for reading or watching television - forget it (function). We switched to an upholstered headboard and what a big difference. Not only does it look great, I don’t get my head stuck between the bars anymore. We also tied-in the fabric on the headboard to our Roman Shades with a banding option. These little touches make a big difference in the finished room design.

There are a lot of bedding options to consider. This is where you can bring in a nice contrast fabric to make the bed the center point of the room (fashion). You can make a custom comforter, bedspread or duvet cover. You need to decide which works best for you based on your lifestyle (function). I once had a comforter that was so heavy, I couldn’t breathe. If you are going to use your bed cover as a decorative element vs. functional, then you need to take this into consideration. Include some beautiful pillow shams and accent pillows with a coordinating dust ruffle and you’ve created the look that’s all over the magazines.

Shopping on-line for all the decorative elements in your master bedroom can save you thousands over retail or hiring a decorator. Sites like FabricWorkroom.com give you all the measuring guides and live support you’ll need to get the specifications and design just right. The turn around time is four weeks from your order. The day you place your order is a good time to start your molding and painting work. In four short weeks, you’ll have a space that will look like you hired a decorator at a fraction of the price.

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Not so long ago, homes were sold while the realtors sign was being planted in the front yard. Those days are long gone as we ride the rollercoaster between the credit crisis and the high cost of energy.

The media has a knack for presenting the information to us that can be considered “sensational”. We’ve all heard phrases like “Not since the Great Depression” recently. We agree that the economic situation could be better, but ready for some good news? In the last 12 months an average of 5 million homes were sold each month in the United States according to the National Association of Realtors. Sure the numbers are down from the blistering pace of the last few years, but 5 million is huge, isn’t it?

But what about the glut of for sales signs we all see driving around town? The data reveals that inventory numbers are up. Inventory is realtor speak for homes that are for sale. The average monthly inventory figures for this year are running around 4.3 million. So what does this mean? It’s easy. About 10 million homes are for sale a month. A little more than half of them sell while a little less that half don’t. Back in 2005, a pretty good year for real estate, of the 10 million homes for sale each month 7 million sold while 3 million did not. There you have it, same number of homes for sale, just fewer of them are selling right now.

So what does this mean to you? If you are buying, it’s a great time to score a deal. What if you are selling? Here is the way I like to look at home selling. People like to use the word competition when they are talking about their business or sports. How often do you hear that word when selling a home? Rarely. The whole concept of selling a home is on a completely different tangent. You “list” a property. You “show” a property. All very lofty stuff. When I speak to a neighbor who is selling a home about another neighbor who just “listed” they say, “it’s a good thing - it will bring more buyers”. Baloney! You just opened a hamburger stand and learned that McDonalds is opening in three months across the street. Your neighbor is your competitor or at least his house is. If you get one buyer on your street, you want him to buy your house. Correct?

So like business and sport, how to you become a ruthless competitor and win? Analyze the competition. Do you ever check out your competitor’s store or web site? Then you had better take a look in his house. Get your realtor to take you on a tour, they have the access. Analyze all the information available on the Internet. Know how the other properties compare to your property. Are they perfect, are they tired or on a busy street. You are in a battle and you have big money at stake.

Once you have all this information, what’s next? Simple, you need a perfect house. With the high inventory, buyers have a lot of choice. Do you think buyers are shopping for fixer uppers right now? Not on your life! In this market, buyers can take their time and pick the best move in condition home. More good news, you don’t need to spend a fortune getting your house in top condition. Your focus is to make it cosmetically attractive. Start with the outside. Keep the grass cut. Trim the bushes. Fix pealing paint. It’s all very basic stuff, but during your competitive analysis, you’ll see how many of your competitors completely miss this fact. Now let’s move to the inside.

The first thing a buyer notices is the smell. Do you have a dog or a dozen cats? You may not be bothered by the litter box odor in your kitchen, but your buyer is already in the car. Eliminate or mask strong odors. Next thing they look for is abuse. Scuff marks, dents and dings on the walls are signs of neglect and a ton of work for the buyer. Fix this stuff. Paint the walls – neutral please! Paint is just a few hundred dollars and a couple of weekends of work. Remember, we are talking about thousands of dollars here. Clean up the clutter in closets, basements and garages. It’s time to get the dumpster. Whatever you can’t part with, fill a moving container and store it off-site. It’s not expensive. People want to imagine themselves in your home. They are not the least bit interested in your hunting trophies. Depersonalize.

Now let’s talk home décor. Kitchens and bathrooms must look good. We are not suggesting that you go nuts remodeling to sell, but do whatever it takes to be competitive. Buyers can accept imperfections here and can rationalize a remodel down the road, so get it looking clean and neat so they can live with it for a while. Furniture placement and condition is important. We all do things in our homes to fit our life style. “I know it’s weird, but I don’t care what other people think”. We put our couches not in the best location, but where we can see our giant TV. I went into an open house once where the owner loved house plants. He loved them so much that he had hundreds of them covering nearly every square inch of floor space. Do you think he had trouble selling? Remember the competition and trade your unique habits for a sale.

I remember the first time I thrust into the home decorating world. My wife wanted to do custom window treatments, bedding, pillows, etc. I thought it was expensive, but rationalized that I had to finally face adulthood and move beyond my dorm room past. What I didn’t understand at the time was the investment angle. When we decorated each room of our first home, we always did something interesting with paint, furniture and window treatments without spending a fortune. We were creating a personalized lifestyle while secretly creating a ton of investment value. When we decided to sell, we were at contract in seven days setting a record in our neighborhood for price per square foot. As a condition of the sale, all the window treatments had to stay. Do you think we had competition at the time? Of course we did, but our buyers had seen all the competition and put our house first on their list. We did everything a seller must do in a good or bad market. You see we just don’t preach this stuff, we live it! Right now, you need to be doing everything in your power to be in the half of the market that is selling so put your selling plan into action crush the competition.

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