Fabricworkroom.com is proud to announce the launch of their new home décor site atHomeAccents.com; a site where you can find savvy pieces to accent your home. “The new site was designed to offer our customers a complete look to the rest of their home”, states co-founder Jackie S. Keehan. “We are so successful at helping thousands of customers over the years decorate online we felt a need to expand our offerings. Our new products are the icing on the cake and we are really excited about it!” FabricWorkroom.com (available online at http://www.fabricworkroom.com) works with high-quality fabrics to create a range of home furnishings like window treatments, drapes, upholstered headboards, fabric shower curtains, pillows and bedding. With the introduction of www.atHomeAccents.com, you can find decorative pieces such as mirrors, table lamps, chandeliers, clocks, baby blankets, hotel style bedding, linens, towel sets, throws and more to make certain no corner is left unfinished.

atHomeAccents.com will still offer the same superior level of customer service as FabricWorkroom.com with live design consultants Monday – Friday from 9AM to 6PM EST. The philosophy will remain the same, keeping prices within reach and much lower than the decorator and designer would charge. It is now easier than ever for people to decorate their homes stylishly yet inexpensively, marrying good taste with good economic sense.

When trying to figure out the correct size for your window treatments, it can get tricky.  This is why we have measuring guidelines and detailed information throughout our site.  Custom made drapes are the most popular product we offer.  We are well aware that correctly measuring can be a challenge. The reason you are doing custom drapes is to get a perfect fit and functionality.  So we have a few tips below to help clear any confusion.

The main thing to ask yourself is “do I want decorative side panels or do I want to be able to close them to cover my windows completely for privacy?”.  Once you have answered that question, it is much easier to focus on how to correctly measure for your custom drapes.   Here are some examples:

Decorative Drapery Panels (not for use in privacy or light control)

Example 1

The window is 45” wide from casing-to-casing and 80” long from the top of the casing to the floor.  The drape use is decorative.  

The general rule is to use one width of fabric for windows up to 70″.  One width of fabric is 54″ off the bolt.  When one bolt width is made into a finished drape with side hems and pleats, the finished with is approximately 23″ inches.  In this case, you would order 46″ finished width for your pair or 1 width for each panel.   Full Custom you will order by the inch to give you exactly what you want.  In Semi and Classic Custom, you order by the width. 

Generally we recommend that you mount the rod a minimum of 4″ above your casing.  So your finished order width and length is 48″ Wide X 84″ Long.  In a width department, you would order 1 Width X 84″ Long.

Example 2

The window is 88” wide from casing-to-casing and 85” long from the top of the casing to the floor.  The drape use is decorative.  

The general rule is to use one and a half widths of fabric.  One width of fabric is 54″ off the bolt.  When 1.5 bolt widths are made into a finished drape with side hems and pleats, the finished with is approximately 34″ inches.  In this case, you would order 68″ finished width for your pair or 1.5 widths for each panel.   Full Custom you will order by the inch to give you exactly what you want.  In Semi and Classic Custom, you order by the width. 

Generally we recommend that you mount the rod a minimum of 4″ above your casing.  So your finished order width and length is 68″ Wide X 89″ Long.  In a width department, you would order 1.5 Width X 89″ Long.

Privacy and Light Control Drapery Panels

You have a window that is 80” wide from casing to casing x 75” from the top of the casing to the floor.  You would like fabric drapes that will close and cover your entire window for privacy and light control.   For privacy panels, you have to give the exact measurement of your rod from bracket-to-bracket – not your window size.    You decide how far past the window you will mount your rod brackets.  If you have a lot of wall space, you can go out approx 15” on each side.  This is your rod size bracket-to-bracket.  The total width would be 80 + 15 +15 = 110”.  You would like to mount them 4” above the casing.   The final measurement is 110” x 79” long.  This is what you would order.

You can order drapes from our Semi and Classic Custom departments in widths and still accomplish privacy and light control.  You just have to make sure you order enough widths to cover your window.

Mounting your brackets out from the window is important if you want your drape to clear the glass when the drape is opened.  We have a chart on the site that will give you the amount you should go out on each side for a pair or on one side if you are ordering a single panel.  If you wall space is limited, go out as far as you can to give you the best glass clearing result.

When it comes to upholstered headboards, customers want advice on how high to order their headboard.  Our standard upholstered headboard is a total of 44″.  The leg is 18″ and the fabric headboard is 26″.  On the tall end, the leg is 18″ and the board is 40″ for a total of 58″.  So with such a range of choices, the best advice we can give is to consider the scale and symmetry of your room and bed size.

Let’s start with the twin upholstered headboard.  The scale of a twin bed is on the small side.  The headboard has to work with the bed(s) and its surroundings.  We believe that the standard height works well here.  Chances are that you will have two headboards in the room and you don’t want them to completely overpower the room.  You should consider adding a few inches if you plan to add a nice selection of pillows.

You should notch up the height on a full size upholstered headboard.  The width of the mattress warrants a taller board to balance the scale of the headboard.   You should consider the range of 44″ to 48″.  Think about the pillows you will add and the height of the ceiling.

For a queen size upholstered headboard, you should be looking at 50″ or more.  The bed is a bit more substantial, you will have pillow shams and more decorative pillows.  You want balance with all the other elements of the room.

King size upholstered headboards should go to the limit at 58″ whenever possible.  It is the latest fabric headboard design trend for good reason – it looks great!  Tall king size fabric headboards are in nearly all the high end boutique hotels.  Regarding scale, if you were able to fit a king bed in your master bedroom, chances you can easily accommodate a tall headboard.   If you love lots of pillow shams and oversized decorative pillows, you can really go crazy and not hide your beautiful new upholstered headboard.

To really get the height right, we recommend using blue painters tape on the wall where you will have the headboard.  Take the tape and outline the size of the headboard.  Step back and take look.  Move the tape to a couple of different heights.  You’ll know when it right.

Just like with clothing, shoes or anything else, one size does not fit all.

Are you having a hard time finding a shower curtain that fits your shower or bathtub?

If you have high ceilings or a custom shower stall you may face this common problem. We can make your extra long shower curtain from the standard 72” long all the way up to 100” long.  Our custom made extra long shower curtains are a #1 seller and you won’t have to sacrifice style for your space!

Some older homes have original claw foot tubs. While these tubs can be a beautiful focal point in your bathroom room, they are often extra wide and standard shower curtains just won’t fit. If you also have high ceilings, you are in luck. We can make your custom shower curtain extra wide AND extra long to solve your shower and tub problems.

We have now added extra long, extra wide and extra long & extra wide liners cut and sewn to your exact size to protect your new custom shower curtain. It’s that easy! Our shower curtain liners come in several colors. They are made of 3 gauge vinyl, have reinforced grommets, a magnetic hem and are mildew resistant.  You can transform your bathroom with our custom shower curtains and now protect your curtain with one of our custom liners.

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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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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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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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Roman shades offer a clean red hot look to your room no matter what style you select. Romans shades are stylish and highly functional meaning they are an excellent choice for every day use. Our best seller is the Flat Roman Shade because of its clean lines and versatility to work in any room. The other shades that fit this category as well are the Cuff, Front and Reverse Fold, Hobbled, Relaxed and Waterfall. They all offer excellent privacy and light control and the most choices with our product options. They work very well in all settings, but excel in bedrooms and bathrooms or any other room requiring daily use. We believe our new top-down-bottom-up option pushes the operational flexibility to the limit. Imagine getting dressed in the morning in complete privacy while still flooding your bedroom and bathroom with natural light. Use the bottom-up configuration and raise the shade from the bottom of the window halfway up. The top half of the window lets in all the natural light and you’ll never leave the house with a brown and black sock again.

The London, Slouch, Shirred Balloon and the Pleated Balloon Roman Shades fall into our more dramatic style category. They are a bit more formal and work very well in your living and dining room. They are fully functional shades, but require a bit more “dressing” (fabric adjusting) when they are raised and lowered. Thus we do not recommend them for every day use in a bedroom or bathroom.

Our new product options including crown molding, banding, cleat upgrades, blackout lining, motorized lifting and more will get anyone’s heart racing. We encourage you to call us if you are planning to add any of these options to your shades. We can help you make the perfect fabric choices that will even impress your mother-in-law. Hey, we don’t mind if you tell her that you worked with FabricWorkroom.com and saved a ton of money or that your personal and very expensive interior decorator did the work…

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