Why Window Treatment Costs Require The Heimlich Maneuver

Hey there! Donna Hoffman here, I run a luxury interior design company based in the Philadelphia region of the US that we fondly call Bucks County PA and every once in a while we like to stop what we’re doing in our design studio to come out here and talk to you about a behind-the-scenes look at something or what we’re working on or to answer a question and in this video, I’m something or what we’re working on or to answer a question and in this video, I’m going to be answering the question why do you feel like having a heart attack when you look at the cost of custom window treatments.

Demystifying Window Treatment Costs

Let’s demystify what goes into driving those costs. So let’s break down what goes into driving the costs of window treatments when they’re custom versus ready-made or off-the-rack costs of window treatments when they’re custom versus ready-made or off-the-rack well as a design consumer when you think about the fabric that goes on to a window treatment in today’s costing fabrics can start anywhere from $35 a yard up to about 450 dollars a yard quite a big spread so a good designer like our company for example we’re always conscientious about the budget so we know where do we want to control those yardage costs but it’s not just about the fabric that you see and as a design consumer you think that’s all that’s going in to the window treatment, not with custom, you have your face fabric that’s the fabric that you see and then behind that is something called an inter-lining and behind that something called aligning what is the purpose of three layers of fabric well first of all that’s how you get these really full rich folds and it’s also something that helps to preserve the integrity of the fabric, the integrity of the fabric, is a design term; insider term that means hey when this fabric passes in front of a windowpane I don’t want to see the fabric go from opaque at the wall and then translucent over the glass I want that fabric to look like one contiguous gorgeous swath or column of fabric. Unless of course, you’re dealing in a shear in which case you don’t need those linings but the difference between having something that has interlinings and linings versus something that is not having all that layered support is a window treatment that looks anemic on the window like a lot of ready-mades can versus something very full and lush. Speaking of fabrics the sky’s the limit with custom you can do absolutely any fabric that you want and you can even add wonderful luscious things like tapes and banded edges covered buttons the sky is the limit when you’re looking at custom.

Window Treatment Labor

Here’s the deal with custom labor, that’s probably where almost all of your cost is going to come from or a majority I should say better stated, so let’s talk about the labor in those custom window treatments there are a lot of hands and skilled hands and skilled American craftsmen that are trained and practiced so there are hands that are not only going to be, you know, ordering all of your fabrics your linings or interlinings or face fabrics, if you are doing panels you’re talking of course as well as about hardware and rods and finials and rings that’s more to manage more to do more to order a lot of shipping costs and all of that and now it all has to be received at a really excellent window workroom and I’m talking an excellent window workroom that knows how to handle 45 pounds of fabric that they’re lugging around and putting on these large cutting tables another pair of hands has to unroll the fabric to make sure there are no imperfections and so it gets returned if there are imperfections then it has to be patterned another pair of hands has to cut it another pair of hands has to pin it another pair of hands has to sew it and with custom treatments even though machines are used for a lot of things, machines will not work for all things, so there’s a lot of hand work even in stitching and sewing that has to happen on custom that never remotely happens on ready mades can’t land already made at the right price if you’re doing all of this intensive labor once your beautiful treatment is completed let’s stick with the example of panels then it has to be steamed or pressed and then it has to be fan folded fold it in a particular way so that it will store well so that then when another pair of hands, your installer, delivers it to your home climbs the ladder to install your rod your rings and your brackets and your hardware then this beautiful panel has to be steamed again in place and styled out so that it looks letter perfect plush and rich, and the last thing to know as well about custom treatments versus something that you can find in a ready-made you have your choice in what’s called headers and the header this is a little sampler the header shows this shows different types of headers and this is what attaches up at your at your rod so for example this is a grommet very little labor goes into a grommet top versus more labor goes into a top tac euro so a lot to consider with custom treatments, but oh my gosh the look in a room, there’s nothing like it because you can control the fabric the drape of that fabric the texture of the fabric you can do anything from a crushed velvet to a velvet to a cotton to a linen to an open weave to a really interesting embroidered shear the options are endless and with custom you will have be able to take the width of your panel and customize it not only to the width of your window or your door as well as you’ll be customizing it to the height double height or oversized height if you got 9-foot ceilings for 10-foot ceilings you would hang those those treatments high and if you’re not doing panels and you’re doing instead things like valances that look like romans the wider they get on a window the more difficult they are to build yes hammers and nails are involved and the more difficult they are to to transport and install so with custom treatments the look is like nothing you can get elsewhere will it cost the the design budget a hit? It will, but if you can what we like to do is we like to see how do we control the entire budget so that we can get the right custom treatments in, how do we control those costs maybe it’s controlling the fabric yardage costs maybe it’s trading down on some other item in a beautiful room that is being designed for you so that we can still get you the look and the amazing bang for the buck of custom treatments. I hope this video is helpful and feel free to leave a comment!