We are your specialists for making Roman shades, buying Roman shade hardware and learning how to make Roman shades, whether Classic flat shades or top down bottom up shades.

		These three pieced Roman shades cover one large window in a master bedroom. The job was commissioned in the spring, when the crabapple trees were in full bloom. Now, the homeowners have color year-round.
			Size: 129" wide and 64" long (total for all three shades)
			Materials: 100% cotton fabrics, backed with ThermalSuede lining
			Technique: PhotoView straight-line piecing
			Location: Master Bedroom; Denver, Colorado
			Mounting Type: outside mount, on 1 (spliced) board
			Lifting Type: flat pulleys, cord cleats, 3 separate sets of lift cords, one for each shade

The Windows in the Room There was one large window in the room. It was composed of a center pane of glass and two side windows. The two side windows were casement-type, which each opened with a crank located at the bottom of the window. In addition to the large window, there was a French Door that led to a balcony. The door was covered with a mini-blind. The owners wanted to keep the mini-blind, but wanted to dress it up with a valance that would coordinate with the new shade. Installation Issues The home owners wanted the shade made in three sections: one large center panel and two smaller side panels. This way they could have privacy by having the center panel down and still get air into the room by pulling up one or both of the side panels. The left-hand shade pulls from the left, while the center and the right-hand shades pull to the right. I put two sets of pulleys on the board, which was mounted projected, so that the cords did not interfere with each other. The valance board had to be deep enough to cover the existing mini-blind. The Design Concept This project was done in conjunction with an interior designer, who was remodeling and decorating a home room-by-room. The master bedroom suite just needed to be updated with new carpet, bedding and window treatments. I was called in at the beginning of the bedroom remodel, so I got to pretty much determine the color scheme! The clients were not afraid of color and wanted to reproduce trees outside window. The shade would be a focal point from the bed. I took photographs of the trees outside of their balcony, but ended up using photographs from my own neighborhood. I strolled up and down the block and took shots of crabapple trees, pine trees and rocks. I used Photoshop to isolate several trees and then imported the images into CorelDraw. I moved the trees around until I came up with a pleasing composition. I drew in the path to draw you into the scene. I always color in my drawings. Not only is that required to get approval from a client, but it makes choosing fabrics and construction of the shade so much easier. I also draw the shade when it is pulled all of the way up. I want to know what it will look like. In this case, I added a "cloud" in the upper left-hand corner because without it there was too much plain sky. The design for the valance was the top of a pine tree, since it was located at the top of the French Door. Executing the Design Since this shade was large, I broke up the pattern into multiple images to accommodate the 36-inches wide blueprint paper and taped together the pieces together. I also used every pink batik fabric I could find. Challenges and Afterthoughts Matching up the design at the intersections of the shade was a mess. Perhaps I should have incorporated a window trim "frame" around the shade which mimicked the actual window. Then a slight misalignment wouldn't have been noticeable. There is a slight gap between the right-hand shade and the center shade when they are all of the way down. The clients were warned that this would happen. What I can't believe is that there is no gap on the left-hand side!

You can access all of the Galleries by clicking on the links in the left hand column.

Contact Information:
Terrell Designs, owned by Terrell Sundermann 
5325 Sanford Cir. E. Englewood, Colorado 80113
Phone: (303) 758-0188  Email:

Home     Shopping      Meet The Artist     Galleries     How To Make Roman Shades
FAQs     Roman Shade Hardware     What's New      Contact      Hardware Calculator
Links     Site Map