Drapery Dilemmas!

Draperies and curtains can add style and drama to your home, but there are some questions and obstacles that can come up.

1. When you're deciding how to hang your draperies, look at your windows, if you want your windows to appear taller, hang your drapery rod at least four inches above the top of your window frame. If you'd like it to appear wider, hang the hardware outside of the window casings rather than mounting it on it.

2. Tiebacks can be frustrating to get even because the casings make it difficult to measure across the window. For an easy fix, raise your window blinds or shades to the height that you want the tieback and use the bottom of the blind as your level line to measure placement.

3. If you have a lot of outside noise at your home, heavy draperies can really go a long way to blocking out the noise and they can help to insulate the windows from excess heat or cold.

4. Hanging blinds or sheers behind your drapery panels will serve double duty. First, it gives you privacy and light control, but it also protects the panels from the direct sunlight, which can weaken the fabric

5. If your panels aren't hanging quite right try slipping old keys, coins or even metal washers into the hem to help them hang straight.

6. Finally, if you need to use drapery hooks and they keep snagging the fabric, carefully run them through your hair before trying to slide them on to the fabric. The static in your hair helps the hooks slip easily into place!