Interior designer Barbra Yaffe has design in her DNA. Her parents, Fran and Harry Markus, were both designers.

Yaffe's earliest recollection of design infiltrating her life was her mother's innovative interior design of Yaffe's bedroom.

She remembers her mom painting one wall entirely black and then tracing the outlines of Disney characters like Peter Pan and Cinderella in white.

"It was a daring design for the time," Yaffe said. "And it inspired me. I loved to sing when I was young and I would look at the wall and sing all the Disney songs."

Yaffe grew up, studied art and design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the early 1960s, got married and continued the family design tradition by painting murals on both her children's walls.

"In my son (Richard's) room I painted a picture of a little boy standing in front of a big lion," she said. "It was a safari-themed room. I installed a hammock and filled it with stuffed toys.

"In my daughter (Robin's) room I painted a picture of her sitting in a tree. The whole room had sort of a garden theme, very floral. I hand-painted her pillows and sheets."

The children are all grown up now and for the last 15 years Yaffe has been working as an interior designer with a specialty in residential and commercial lobbies and entrances.

"When I see richly textured fabric, it can be the trigger that sets the whole mood for the design of a room," Yaffe said.

OK, so when Yaffe designs those long flowing things that hang on windows, does she call them curtains or drapes?

"Curtains are made with fabrics that are usually lighter weight than drapes," she said. "They can be installed from ceiling to floor, but they can also be made to frame a window, halfway to the floor, unlike a drape.

"Curtains are often installed on French doors and glass cabinetry. They do not need to be lined.

"Drapes, on the other hand, are sewn to be opened and closed, fully, on a window or to be used as side panels, hanging ceiling to floor. The fabric used for drapes is usually heavier and meant to be lined."

Here is a breakdown of Yaffe's Do's and Don't's when it comes to selecting curtains or drapes.

DO

- Take proper measurements.

Today's designers recommend hanging drapes from ceiling to floor because it gives the illusion of greater height in the room and it makes the drapes look more luxurious. Measure with that in mind.

To calculate how much fabric you need widthwise, measure the width of your window and then multiply by two, or even 2.5. You need that much fabric to give the drape the recommended fullness.

"If you have the proper fullness, it doesn't really matter how expensive the fabric is that you use," Yaffe said. "The curtain will look rich."

If you want the drape to "puddle" (be long enough to bunch up on the floor) add 20.3 centimetres to the length measurement for a discreet puddle and up to .6 metres for a glamorous puddle (but then be prepared to do the extra work required to keep the drapes clean.)

Keep in mind that drapes should never block a heat source and that puddled drapes will interrupt the air flow in a room to a certain degree when the drapes are closed.

- If you plan to sew the curtains yourself, or get them custom made, buy a fabric that has been pre-shrunk, or at least have an ample hem sewn in case the panel needs to be re-adjusted after washing.

- If privacy or blocking out the sun is a priority, make sure the curtain is lined with a blackout liner (an opaque, rubbery-feeling liner). Otherwise, a cotton, or polyester or cotton-polyester-blend lining will do. The most common colour for lining is white or off-white.

If you are going the custom-made route and want the curtain to have the ultimate luxurious silhouette, ask for interlining as well. Yaffe inserts 45.7 cm of flannel interlining at the top of the curtain, between the fabric and the lining, but interlining can also line the entire panel. It adds fullness to the drape and keeps cold out in the winter and the heat out in the summer. It also protects very delicate fabrics such as silk and velvet from sun damage.

Small weights sewn into the hem also help the drape hang beautifully.

DON'T

- It's a matter of taste, but Yaffe avoids embellishing the fabric with too much passementerie (the word used for trim, tassels, fringe — fabric baubles of all sorts).

"I like simplicity," Yaffe said. "Too much embellishment distracts. The curtains or drapes are meant to enhance, not be the focal point. It's about having balance in a room."

- Don't install drapes that are too short.

"It's like wearing a pair of pants that are too short," Yaffe said. "It looks goofy."

The bottom of a drape should be no more than one inch from the floor.

- Don't choose expensive silk — not the most durable of fabrics — for the kitchen, where food can spatter and cooking fumes rule, for a room where the drapes get handled a lot or where there are rambunctious activities going on.

Yaffe likes to use a cotton-polyester blend for her drapes, or a silk-polyester blend, which gives the luxurious look of silk, but is more durable than pure silk.

To contact Barbra Yaffe, www.byinteriors.com, info byinteriors.com.

Montreal Gazette

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Sidebar: Drape decisions depend on taste; The options are many

By Kathryn Greenaway

Postmedia News

Designers call them window treatments.

Civilians call them shades, shutters, blinds, sheers, curtains or drapes.

Today, we're talking about drapes.

We begin with a bit of history.

Once upon a time, before there were interior designers and home-decor stores and the ubiquitous, ready-made $39.95 curtain panel, merchants, called drapers, would wander from village to kingdom selling fabrics, which the curtain makers would then transform into coverings for windows or doors.

These coverings were used to keep out drafts or intense heat, for privacy, or purely for decorative pleasure.

The reasons we cover our windows remain the same to this day, but the means by which we procure our window treatments and the choices available to us have proliferated.

You can browse the affordable, ready-made drapery panels at stores like the Linen Chest, Bouclair, Ikea, Pier 1, Sears, The Bay or Zellers.

Or you can order them online at websites including www.shopathome. linenchest.com, www.pier1.com, www.ikea.ca and www.sears.ca.

A more luxurious online option is Restoration Hardware (www.restorationhardware.com), where prices range from $60 to $849 per panel, depending on the measurements, the fabric, the pleat and the lining. The prices are in U.S. dollars.

And, of course, there is your local sewing service to consider. Almost every neighbourhood has one.

How much do custom drapes cost? Quoting a ballpark figure for how much it would cost to get drapes sewn by a local sewing service or through a designer is difficult because there are so many variables to consider.

What fabric did you choose? Will the drape be lined and if so, with what?

A simple cotton lining adds fullness and helps block light and protect the fabric, to a degree.

Blackout lining (a rubbery-feeling material) is used to completely block out light and to protect delicate fabrics from sun damage.

You might want to use interlining (often made from flannel material) which is inserted between the lining and the fabric to give the drape more body. It helps keep the drafts out in the winter, the heat at bay during the summer and it protects such extra delicate fabrics as silk and velvet from sun damage.

Cost is also determined by how full you want the drapes, the drape's length and what pleat you choose.

Ah, yes. There is more than one way to pinch a pleat. Each pleat has a name and a price attached.

The most expensive pleat to have custom sewn, or to buy ready-made, is called the goblet pleat (it really does look like a tiny goblet).

The popular French pleat is also a more costly option for ready-made panels. The least expensive finishes are the familiar rod-pocket, the tab, the back tab and the grommet.

(You can check out photos of the different pleats, including the trendy and sleek "ripple fold," at either www.theshadestore.com or www.fabricville.com.)

One option to keep costs to a minimum is to give a ready-made panel a custom look. Interior designer Elizabeth Hasse suggests adding a fabric band to the bottom, the top, or up one side of a ready-made panel. Adding a fabric band to the top or the bottom, or both, not only gives the panel a custom look, it adds the extra length many store-bought panels need to drape from ceiling to floor, as is recommended by designers.

Designers recommend hanging drapes ceiling to floor because it gives the illusion of greater height in the room, and the drape looks more luxurious.

kgreenaway@montrealgazette.com