Home & Design

All In The Details Of the 50,000 fabrics on the market today, each one may react differently when hung at a window—a fact noted with unruffled professionalism by Gretchen Everett, the Washington area’s couturier of draperies and shades and a go-to source for the region’s top designers. She and two associates recently lifted the curtain at Everett’s offices and workroom in Silver Spring, Maryland, for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create impeccable window treatments.

Everett singled out a fabric they had just handled. It combined a very loose weave between two panels of linen. “It is a gorgeous fabric,” she began. “But when you hold it up, the center part will be longer; it will drag on the ground while the other parts will be an inch off. That may be fine, but everyone needs to realize it.” To eliminate any guesswork, a sample was prepared to show how the finished drapery would look.

Designers rely on Everett for that level of expertise and care. “When there’s a unique situation and I’m wondering, ‘How do you do that?’, Gretchen is up to the challenge,” says veteran interior designer Kelley Proxmire.

Everett and her team have confronted many challenges during 18 years in business. They have fashioned draperies that hang as straight as plumb lines from three-story heights. They have angled curtains with soundproof linings to follow the slope of a basement ceiling, wrapping the space in silence for an at-home podcaster. Working with interior designer Jodi Macklin to revive historic Evermay in Georgetown, they fabricated all the window treatments, upholstery, and bedding for the 12-bedroom mansion. “Every drapery, every duvet cover—anything that went through that workroom was perfection,” Macklin says about Everett’s team effort, finished in seven months.

A visit to the light-filled back workroom reveals a calm, clean and orderly atmosphere; sewing machines are not, as expected, up front. Instead, four seamstresses stand at padded worktables, hand-sewing or carefully stapling fabric to a wood board that will hold a window shade. They each learned their craft in different countries—Cambodia, Ukraine, Honduras and South Korea. A fifth from El Salvador works part-time, hand-stitching pillows in custom sizes and fabrics. Off-site in Gaithersburg, an upholstery studio completes the company’s collaborative services.

The skilled seamstresses hand-stitch pleats and side and bottom hems on all curtains and draperies. Everett compares this refined detailing to “the hand-sewn tailoring of a fine men’s suit.” One recent project took that impeccable styling further: In several rooms of a home, white-linen Roman shades and draperies were hand-stitched in contrasting gray thread, then finished with embroidered crosshatching at the corners. “It came out so beautifully,” beams interior designer Erica Burns, recalling the results.

Everett’s team also eases the process by ordering custom hardware from different sources to fit existing windows and styles. Five years ago, she introduced her own distinctive line of hardware in chunky acrylic from Argentina and in English brass that’s polished or plated in nickel, rose-gold copper or custom finishes.  “I like pure, clean designs with some heft,” she explains, then slips together a curved bracket and weighty rod strung with elongated rings. “It’s like a piece of jewelry.” The streamlined designs are scaled up to create coffee tables made of clear acrylic slabs often cantilevered over a brass base. “Fabricating the parts from scratch makes it easy to adjust the size to fit specific jobs,” Everett adds.

Every part of her hardware and furniture is produced and finished to exacting standards in small American shops. This quality control was tested when the British design firm David Collins asked Everett to adopt her acrylic rod design in a striped pattern, alternating clear and black sections. She sent the first effort back to the local fabricator when glue marred its perfect connections. After the glue was dyed black to blend in, the elegant final product appeared in the London designer’s room at the 2016 Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York City. Tiffany & Co. also tapped Everett to make a curtain rod for its Prague shop, which, she says with a chuckle, “brings home the fact that it looks like jewelry.”

Sharla Keslar, vice president of the hardware line, leads the way to the back of the workroom to show how it all comes together. Keslar’s detailed preliminary drawings indicate the placement of double sets of rods and ring drops, so that “the drapery panels and sheers will hang at exactly the same height and the bottoms of the panels will line up,” she points out. Keeping jobs on track, senior project manager Tara Lowe takes measurements on site and double-checks dimensions of finished draperies and other details documented extensively in project notebooks.

Before any fabric is cut, each bolt is carefully inspected on a special light-box machine in the workroom. “Twice in the last two weeks, 80 yards of fabric for a huge living room was found to be full of flaws,” Everett notes. The job was stopped and the client picked another fabric.

Everett hails from a family of sewing experts in New Orleans. “Both my great-grandmothers had sewing shops during the Depression,” she relates. Her mother sewed the clothes for her five daughters, who all became excellent amateur seamstresses. All, that is, except Everett, who followed a different muse. Graduating from college with an international relations degree, she worked first in the fashion industry. Then she transitioned to a furniture company before apprenticing for two years with a drapery designer in Georgetown and starting out on her own.

“I knew from day one that I didn’t want a commercial assembly line,” she says. “I had worked in high-end clothing and approached it the same way, with attention to details. That kind of care comes from hand-sewing, as in couture.” It’s also necessary, she says, when working on hand-printed and hand-blocked cottons and linens that can exceed $150 a yard.

She emphasizes the importance of trained artisans to maintain that level of quality. “The way they treat and handle fabric is a very Old World skill set. It’s a dying art. We have to value that; we have to value our craftsmen,” Everett asserts.

Reflecting on her years of top-tier production, she adds, “There’s not a day I walk through the door that I don’t think about how I love making something beautiful. It is cool to see what we are doing come to fruition.”

Writer Tina Coplan is based in Chevy Chase. Gretchen Everett's custom draperies and other products are available through the trade only. See gretcheneverett.com.

 

Expert Advice Garden Variety All good landscapes are the artful balance of soft and hardscape,” observes Chris Cahill, principal of Botanical Decorators in Olney, Maryland. In fact, a harmonious material palette is invaluable to any landscape. Gone are the days when hardscape meant a patio flush against the house; today, hardscapes offer so much interest and variety that carefully selecting thhttp://www.botdec.com/e right plantings to complement them is imperative.

Indeed, says Chad Talton, a landscape architect at Surrounds, Inc., in Sterling, Virginia, not only should soft and hardscapes complement one another, “they should enhance the beauty of the home and accentuate the architecture as well.” It’s a tall order. Below, designers shed light on how to create that all-important balance in your garden.

ROOM TO GROW  Botanical Decorators designed a lush, textural garden beside a wooded area in Alexandria, nestling an elliptical patio at its center. “It was constructed with full-range broken flagstone installed with soft edges as part of the experience,” says Chris Cahill. “The curvature of the landscape worked perfectly with the soft form of the patio.” Plantings are layered with the taller ones at the back so as not to crowd the hardscape; artful plant placement imparts a soft, natural feel. Strongly textured, deep-green Skip laurels contrast with supple, soft-textured Smoke bush in light lavender-gray. Other plantings include hydrangea, Sweetbay magnolia, American holly, Amsonia, mazus and Blushing Bride rose.

“Each space in a landscape should serve a specific function and be sized appropriately,” says Cahill, who advises taking traffic flow into account when deciding on the lawn, garden, and even outdoor-furniture placement. He also accents the importance of giving plants plenty of breathing room. “The biggest mistake people make is choosing plantings that will overgrow the space,” he says. “Hybrids that will maintain their proper proportions are worth the initial investment. Ground covers and perennials will fill the spaces in between, giving each plant space it will need to grow.”

SOFTENING THE LINES  Walnut Hill Landscape Company was asked to create a poolscape with an adjoining spa on an Annapolis property overlooking the Severn River. Landscape designer and principal Michael Prokopchak took cues from the home’s stone façade in his selections for the hardscape, which encompasses a pool surround, patio, retaining walls, steps, and an outdoor fireplace. “The hardscape should complement or match the architecture of the home,” he says. For this project, retaining walls of Carderock stone capped with Pennsylvania bluestone add polish, while rustic pavers—chosen because they’re cool underfoot—surround the pool.

Plants were selected to provide color and texture during the summer season when the pool is most in use. Coreopsis Moonbeam, Purple Wave petunia, purple coneflower and feather reed grass frame the hardscape—as well as the river view, which is visible through a stand of trees.

Prokopchak often relies on plantings to soften and complement the hard lines of construction. “We use evergreen ground covers to trail over walls, to break up their expanse,” he explains. He also suggests keeping your plant selection simple. “Use more quantity and less variety. This will keep your garden from being too busy,” he says. “Simple is better!”

CURB APPEAL  McHale Landscape Design of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, completely overhauled a McLean property, imparting much-needed curb appeal to its front yard and driveway. Designer Phil Kelly installed architectural pavers inlaid with Pennsylvania flagstone on the driveway and parking/arrival court, then selected Western Maryland stone for the entry piers, retaining walls, walkways, stairs and driveway inlay, curb, and gutter. “Do not use too many different hardscape materials,” Kelly advises.

For this project, trees and shrubs were chosen to contrast with the hardscape rather than to blend in. Plantings soften the stonework, with vines conveying a garden feel. Crape myrtle, Korean boxwood, Knockout roses and nepeta create structure. “The massing of plant varieties provides a stunning succession of seasonal color and foliage,” Kelly says. “The climbing hydrangea and climbing roses link the house to the garden.”

House, hardscape, and plantings should inspire one another. “The landscape is an extension of the home’s interior and exterior architecture,” Kelly explains. “It’s key that the plant material complements the architecture of the house and provides a link to the surrounding environment.”

Finally, he advises, uses proven plantings—whatever thrive in your environment. And avoid species that will overtake or mask the hardscape.

DESIGN INTENT  Clients in Purcellville, Virginia, hired Surrounds, Inc., of Sterling to design and install a hardscape, landscape, pool, and gazebo. Landscape architect Chad Talton selected Tennessee flagstone for the staircases, wall caps and pool coping because of its tan hue, and combined it with Appian random concrete pavers on the pool deck in a complementary tan/brown pattern. Boulders quarried in Tennessee match the flagstone.

“I use plantings not only to provide aesthetic quality,” Talton says, “but also for design intent. For instance, plantings can be used to direct the eye down to a sightline, to provide a barrier, to frame a sculpture or for the shade over a patio.” In this case, a deer-resistant plant palette was selected with a minimal need for watering. It features miscanthus, Pennisetum, perovskia, amsonia, liriope, Sweetbay magnolia, boxwood, and sedum. Varieties of spruce provide privacy from the street and neighbors.

Before embarking on a landscape project, Talton recommends developing a rough idea of what you want to achieve with a space and a checklist of the elements you’re looking for. “Think about a grand scheme even if you are not doing it all now,” he suggests. “It makes sense to plan for the future even if that future is 10 years away.”

OUTDOOR ROOM  Scott Brinitzer Design Associates was asked to transform an empty lawn in McLean into a series of outdoor “rooms,” providing space for kids to play while adults can enjoy the garden. Selecting Western Maryland fieldstone with flagstone details, Brinitzer enclosed the sitting area (pictured) within a fireplace wall and retaining walls. Monochromatic True Blue flagstone was used for the patio floor.

“The crux of the design is an iron pergola that frames the seating area,” Brinitzer says. Adorned with Chinese and Amethyst Falls wisteria, it was designed by Brinitzer’s firm and fabricated onsite; it also extends to an adjacent kitchen and dining area.

The planting palette is intentionally limited “to allow the architecture of the built landscape to be the focal point,” Brinitzer explains, adding that “using larger-growing plants near your hardscape will create edges that will define an outdoor room. Plantings should be site-specific.”

In this case, they were selected to define the garden “rooms” and unify the built and planted garden spaces. Reliably green in the growing season, anonymous provides a dense backdrop and a sense of enclosure. Boston ivy softens the monolithic fireplace wall—and seasonal color comes from containers that the owners enjoy planting each year.

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED LANDSCAPE QUESTIONS: 

Explain the importance of outdoor lighting in a successful landscape.  Lighting can be one of the most important aspects of a landscape. As many people are putting in long hours at work, they often do not see their homes until after dark. During evening hours, soft landscape lighting is nothing short of magical. It provides a warm and inviting ambiance that calls us outdoors, creates a mood and adds interest and intrigue to any setting. —Don Gwiz, Lewis Aquatech

How do you select trees and shrubs to screen a fence? A beautifully screened fence includes a variety of evergreen and deciduous elements with both vertical and mounding habits. Trees, shrubs and flowers with a range of colors and textures provide multi-season appeal and work together to stop the eye before the fence. We take into account the clients’ taste, goals, site conditions and budget to prepare the perfect solution. —Steven Talcott, Great American Landscapes 

How do you blend varied hardscape materials?  First, we study the architecture of the home to decide which colors to tie in to the hardscape. We like to work with natural materials, installing them in various fashions, to make the exterior space more interesting. In this case, we sourced travertine directly from Turkey and ensured that all elements, including the water bowls, were cut out of the same blocks of stone for a perfect match. —Joseph Colao, Colao & Peter Outdoor Environments 

What are the keys to creating a healthy pond?  Creating a healthy pond begins with proper planning. A pond with both fish and plant material will require a more intricate filtration system. Two other considerations are the choice of the pond liner and the location on the site. An experienced professional will understand the impact that the above items will have on the cost and longevity of a healthy pond. —Peter White, Zen Associates, Inc. 

What criteria are most important in choosing pool coping?  In choosing pool coping and decking, I first look at architectural features of the home. The pool coping in the project pictured is 14-inch-wide limestone with consistent, two-inch thickness and a chiseled-rock edge. The coping and decking matched the existing sunroom floor and the sill on the house. Other coping materials include commonly used bluestone and variably colored travertine. —Bernie Mihm, Fine Earth Landscape, Inc. 

What are your favorite low-maintenance ground covers and why?  Mazus reptans is a mat-forming ground cover that reaches two inches in height and blooms profusely with delicate flowers in the early spring. It is perfect for stepping stones, thanks to its ability to handle light foot traffic. For a more formal look, I enjoy Dwarf Mondo grass. This variety grows to be four inches tall and is excellent for borders or defining small spaces. —Josh Kane, Kane Landscapes 

What should a homeowner consider when selecting pavers?  The first thing to consider is the exterior finish and architecture of your home. You want to select a paver that complements the existing features on the property and does not clash with the prevailing theme and/or color tones. For walkways and small patios, you’ll want to stick with a smaller-sized paver, while for driveways, pool decks and large entertaining areas, you’ll want to go with larger pavers. —Jeff Crandell, CLP, Scapes, Inc.

What qualities make a man-made stream look natural?  First, place the stream in an area that makes physical sense, perhaps starting at a high point and sloping down. Source stone that’s native to the region of your project and places it to mimic the way it would look in a real stream. It’s important to incorporate plant material that complements the feature and use the proper pumps and filters to keep the water clean and healthy. —Marta Carlson, Professional Grounds 

NAUTICAL VIBE  The classic tub chair design gets a makeover with Serena & Lily’s Outdoor Riviera Chair. Made of weatherproof woven plastic covering a powder-coated aluminum frame, it sports a nautical blue-and-white striped motif and comes with a coordinating seat cushion in all-weather Sunbrella fabric. Pictured here with the Crosby Teak Round Dining Table. serenaandlily.com

WOVEN WONDER  Sifas’s new Kalife Collection of outdoor seating includes a loveseat (pictured), two settees, an armchair and an ottoman. The pieces are distinguished by an unusual woven-polyester shell coated with a layer of quick-drying, water-repellent PVC. The lacquered-aluminum frames are finished to match while durable seat cushions and throw pillows come in a range of colorful Sunbrella fabrics. sifas.com

LIGHTING THE NIGHT  Boho-chic moves outdoors with Kichler’s Palisades 1 Light Outdoor Pendant, a stylish yet casual addition to your al fresco space. The all-weather wicker shade comes in regular, bell, globe and teardrop shapes, in Olde Bronze or Natural Wicker. Takes an incandescent bulb. kichler.com

PARTY TIME  Keep the party rolling with the Cucina bar cart on wheels from Country Casual Teak. It’s made of solid teak with watertight silicone joints and marine-grade, stainless-steel hardware. Three shelves and two pullout trays offer storage and serving solutions; a stainless-steel rim on the bottom shelf keeps items stable while in motion. countrycasualteak.com

BATHING BEAUTY  The Classic Collection of hot tubs from Bradford Products conveys clean-lined, timeless style. Available in eight shapes and sizes, the surface is clad in a combination of buffed stainless steel and ceramic tile. Benches along the sides boast 16 hydrotherapy jets, so bathers have plenty of options for seating. Carried exclusively in the DC area by Wheat’s Landscape. bradfordproducts.com; wheats.com

CHIC TEAK  Conceived by British design firm Barber & Osgerby for Dedon, the handmade TIBBO outdoor furniture collection marks the company’s first foray into teak. The dining chairs incorporate a woven-fiber seat and a curved seat back, while the table comes in lengths ranging from four to 11 feet. The collection also features a lounge chair, benches, and coffee and side tables. dedon.de

COOKING WITH GAS  The new Genesis II line of gas grills from Weber includes eight models in a range of price points and sizes. The grills offer “flavorizer” bars that reduce flare-ups, improve heat distribution and enhance taste; a Grease-management system for easy cleanup; and a docking station for the iGrill 3 grilling thermometer—a Bluetooth-enabled device that delivers alerts to smartphones. weber.com

WATER FEATURE  The perfect garden focal point, Stone Forest’s decorative Ribbed Sphere Fountain channels water in wave-like rivulets over an irregular, banded surface. Made of solid black-and-white granite, it comes in diameters of 20 or 24 inches. stoneforest.com

OUTDOOR  COLLECTION  Swiss fabric company Création Baumann has introduced its 2017 Outdoor Collection, featuring eight new fabrics that include classic checks, stripes, strikes, dots, florals and three-dimensional jacquards. A palette of neutrals is offset by bright accent colors such as mint and coral and dark tones such as midnight blue. Acrylic fabrics are durable, water-repellent and light- and UV-fast to prevent fading. creationbaumann.com

IN THE MOOD  An atmospheric addition to any al fresco evening, the Ambient Cocoon was conceived by Danish designer Henrik Pedersen for Gloster. The buffed-teak handle is combined with a polypropylene shade that glows when illuminated. Controlled by an infrared remote that provides three levels of rechargeable LED light. gloster.com

HOME&DESIGN, published bi-monthly by Homestyles Media Inc., is the premier magazine of architecture and fine interiors for the Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia region.

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