I don't read enough orange in the first set to carry the wallcolor. Its there, but in the overall pattern it doesn't show up much. Its great fabric, but you might have to repaint, which would be the tail wagging the dog.

Option 2--doesn't work on a number of levels for me.

I love that room and love the orange paint! I know you haven't asked, but I think the ceiling would be awesome in either a very light goldish-tan or a silver gray.

I can't make out the pattern of your current curtains, but I like the dark color of them - it balances out and frames the dark wood furniture nicely.

Love the aminal print pillow too - maybe a similar type print would work for curtains?

Of course, I'm not able to see the current ones up close, but they appear to have a dark background which I like with your wall color. I see nothing wrong with what you have, except I'd probably put some woven wood shades underneath or blinds or ?? which I think you mentioned you are going to do....

The set you have currently isn't bad. I think it's the sheers and the contrast between them, the wall and the curtains that is throwing things off and then you hung them up too far too. Either do them at the top of the sill or if you are going to hang them high use a valance to cover that space where the wall shows thru.
You are going to need something large and dramatic on the other side of the room to balance it off.
The first set of curtains btw looks washed out, kind of dated and the second set doesn't have enough orange to it.

I really like what you currently have!

That was my first reaction. And, while the other ones you found might work, I don't know why you would bother. I think that carol is right- if anything is "off" it is the sheers and it's strictly the length of them.

I like option 1, sans the sheers you have presently and adding jute roman shades.

I also like the ones you have. I agree with the others that the dark color goes great with your new walls. Looks really pretty! I liked the bird curtain fabric until I saw the photo of them hanging. Really don't like the second one.

Dee

boop, I love the first set, but as said above, I don't think there is enough orange to work with your walls. I think your current drapes are great and go well with the dark furniture and woodwork. Just go with a more beige or ivory sheer. Hang it the same height as your drapes. If you can't take the sheers to the floor (is there a heat register there?) then at least extend the length of the sheers to below the window sill. The white is just too much of a contrast and too harsh compared to all the dark colors in the room.

ok, i am starting to feel better. :) I appreciate everyone's feedback.

This is a closeup of the drapes...

In my last thread about painting orange I think the opinion was the drapes wouldn't work. I was so disappointed! I just fell in love with them but figured I would try them in another room.

I am planning on hanging black and whites on the walls. Like this:

Please ignore the stuff on the sideboard.

Oh, and I totally agree about the ceiling! I have not won that battle with DH yet. :) OK, I am off to look for some sheers. The sheers that are there now came with the house.

What about sheers that fit inside the window? That is what I was thinking of. Either sheers or shades that are mounted inside the window.

Is the millwork (window trim and baseboards) stained wood?

I would try a couple of mock-ups:

Here is a backstory. I did an off-white on off-white apartment with some walnut furniture and some colored accents, but the walls, sheers, drapes, floor, rugs--were all various off-whites. The wall to wall metal window and sliders were architectural bronze with a sliver of wall in between and below some windows. I had the painter paint all the bits and pieces of window wall dark brown to match the window frames. It was a hard sell to the client since the rest of the apartment was white, but when it all matched the window or door frames it "disappeared" and didn't look choppy.

So...

I would try one mockup on thin cardboard with the baseboard heater painted a brown to match the baseboards:
1/the whole thing.

2/just the front panel to more closely correspond with the height of the woodwork.

Then I would try a mockup where straight down from each window was painted out to match the woodwork almost as if beneath the window was paneled. This will be bracketed by the floor length panels so the paint trick will be camouflaged.

Since you can't go all the way to the floor with the sheer I would consider one that sat inside the frame/sill on a cafe rod that revealed the woodwork. White seems stark so you may want to consider a color from the floral for the sheer. Normally I am not a colored sheer person, but the dining room is an evening room, so it may be ok.

I would get rid of the sheers completely. Do you need to have something in addition to the draperies (to block an ugly view or something)? If it is for privacy in the evening, I would just close the draperies.

I like the ones you have, but if I had to choose from your options, I would go with #1-I do think there is plenty of orange in those to go with your walls.

Pretty room!

I keep looking at the before and after pictures.

First question: Do you need the privacy?
If so, I think I would consider mounting the sheers higher than they are now which would rule out the inside mount. For some reason the strip of orange between the top of sheer and top of drape rod keeps pulling my eye.

Second question: Would a cafe length sheer work? Inside mount to just 1/2 or 2/3 of the window? Leaving some of the window visible? I don't think the strip of color across the top would draw the eye nearly as much with this type of WT. I found a web site /blog that shows a WT similar to what I was thinking. Not sure if I it would be ok to save and embed one of her pictures here, so will link to it. (not my site, just found it searching)

Here is a link that might be useful: Beyond the Screendoor Designs

I think either of those would work MaryLu. I guess I don't really need them, but I would like them. :) I probably won't close the drapes everynight and I hate the black holes.

Palimpsest you are right on as always. :)That apartment sounds wonderful. DH asked me if I wanted the baseboards painted and I said yes, dark brown. He said orange or they are staying the way they are. Oy! Not the battle I wanted to pick so close to the holidays. I will try to do that mock up though. I agree brown would probably be better.

The other issue is with the windows. It drives me nuts that the grates or whatever they are called are not painted! the windows are indeed stained brown, but they put cream colored grates in them. I have been trying for awhile now to load pics with the sheers down in to photobucket. Let's hope this works.

OK I give up. not sure if it is my network, my computer or photobucket! I will try again later.

MaryLu I love that picture you posted. Wow. That is just gorgeous!

I liked the new chrysanthemum drapes with the valence/border at the top. Are they candidates?

I love the wall color, and I like the current drapery, but it does feel tropical, and weighty in that room with the intense wall color and dark furniture.

I would go with the first panels you posted. They are softer, but if you look at the oranges in them with the wall color, I think it would work, and they would break up all the dark feeling.

I also think the lighter drapery will make your rug stand out as well.

However, if you are going with the lighter drapery, you need to lose the sheers. They donâÂÂt work with the warm drapery. Honestly, I also donâÂÂt like the length issue. If you really want to cover the windows at night to avoid the black hole feeling, I would get some kind of inside mount roman shades or blinds, perhaps in the aqua blue which would be stunning, or in the same neutral shade of the drapery background. The too-short white sheers just look like an afterthought, compared to the rest of the wonderful space you have created.

You could then bring in some of the aqua and turquoise tones for accents (I think there is already some in the rug), including shades on the chandy when it is lowered.

Lighter print fabric cushions on the seats would also lighten the dark feeling of the furniture. Perhaps something like this?

steak peachglow stripe

I donâÂÂt care for the second ones at all.

Boop, I love your current drapes in that wonderfully dramatic orange room! I like Pal's suggestion, and also like upa_lazy_river's idea for adding woven wood blinds. I don't think your current drapes are too "tropical" at all. They bring to your room a terrific vintage West Indies vibe, and woven wood blinds would provide even more of a natural, organic touch. Your sailing ship plates will be perfect. I'm envisioning a Hemingway-esque feel, or maybe even something that calls to mind the Victorian world traveler.

Love your current drapes and second the woven wooden blinds suggestion. You need to hang them even with the rod. This means that you will need enough projection for the blinds to roll up behind the rod unless you plan on leaving them down all the time.

I agree that the room has a West Indies vibe.

Photobucket has finally started to cooperate.

Here are two pics with the sheers taken off the windows:

You have a good memory jamies! I could move these to the DR, but I do really like them in the foyer. They bring some orange there. I am trying for the whole downstairs in shades of orange and blue with green accents and a dash of whimsy. That is my crazy vision anyway. We shall see if I can figure out how to pull it off!

Les - that is exactly why I thought the first drapes might work - I thought they would bring out the rug more.

I hate the chairs in this room. they are so uncomfortable and need a bunch of work. I agree that fabric on chairs would be a good idea to soften things up. I have had my eye on these (but I think they are too white):

and these from Ebay too (I LOVE these, but not sure they go with the room too well.)

thanks Aunt Jen - I am going to look up pics of West Indies rooms. Maybe that will help me figure out the finishing touches. :)

I have not thought of hanging the shades even with the rod. I always pictured them mounted inside. I have to keep looking at the room. For some reason the orange "stripe" between the window and the curtain rod doesn't seem to bother me.

I do like that first set of drapes I posted above. I am tempted to get them either way and put them in the LR. that is the last room left to do on the main floor. They are kind of expensive though. I was planning on a green in that room and I think that would work with them. That is another post though!

Boop, I think your vision is really starting to come together :)

Seriously - you have great taste any way you slice it!

Where do you find those great things on E-bay?

I'm always a fan of some type of woven or wooden shade layered underneath curtains. I wonder though what shade of wood would look best w/ the orange as well as not making the room look too dark. Know what I mean?

Boop, I like the current drapes. To me, they visually work with the heaviness of your furniture. That said, when you rehang pictures, don't make the sideboard wall so heavy this time. One large picture over the sideboard. Put one or two with smaller frames between the windows. Take the other four on the sideboard wall and whatever is leftover (shown on the left wall in your before) to create a gallery. Since you just painted, it may be a good idea to cut brown paper to size and arrange with painter's tape to get your arrangement right w/o making too many holes in the wall.

As far as the space of wall between the top of window and drapery hardware - that's a personal preference thing. People are either bothered by the space or not. If it doesn't bother you, it's fine.

If would maybe do a slightly tinted sheer w/o a design. Or paint out the white parts of the window so it all blends together. Love Pals idea to paint the front of baseboard heater so it mimics the baseboard. Also love the idea of painting the ceiling a color. We had a moss green ceiling in our last DR with dark walls and it was gorgeous day and night.

I like option 1 with your rug.

Assuming I keep the drapes, Anyone have an opinion on the plaid chairs? They are a buy it now or best offer. I am going to show DH tonight and see what he thinks. They are currently listed at $199 each. The backs have different crests on them....

I do think the white ones are too white. Maybe I should keep looking. Once I get going on a room though I like to finish it.

My dad says I should have cushions made and attached to my current chairs but I would think that would be expensive. I really like plaid too, but maybe these are too dark?

I think Palimpsest is right and there is not enough orange in the drapes for this room. I do still love them, and I am thinking of them for the living room, but we shall see. I found them today on the cote de texas blog and if you look at them the colors are all muted and don't really stand out. I don't want to post one of her pictures here so I will link it below.

I think I will stick with the drapes for now. I will probably change the rings to the ones that match the rods and the rings I have in the rest of the house.

Thank you ttodd and Punamytsike! I have the same concern ttodd. What color shades? I am going to look for some tomorrow on line. I just didn't get to it today.

I love ebay. I think you can find the most interesting things there. The problem is you can find both expensive and inexpensive things. You should see my watch list.

I hear ya Allison. :) I do like the way that wall came out, but the pictures on the left wall are not very heavy. I wonder if they will look better against the orange. I will probably try it as is and then go from there unless i can get my dad back over! I am terrible at figuring out how to put the pictures on the wall. They said they would come back and help with the upstairs hallway and the little laundry room hallway. I will have to see what I can do to get them over before tax season really starts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eleria linen curtains

I think getting cushions for your chairs will be lot less than $ 199.00 per chair. Also, you can get them done with fabric that will compliment the wall color and what ever curtains you end up with. Although I love the crests on the back of the chairs, I think they will really fight with the curtains and the rest of the room. They will just take up too much of attention.
This is my 2c on this topic LOL

I would start thinking about bringing in some cooler colors and a great place to start would be with the window treatments. The room feels too hot with the orange and woods. I find the chairs with the crests a bit themey. I think the money would be better spent on art work and lighting.

Boop, I love the dining room and the drapes you have.

I like the idea of woven blinds, as well.

Love the chairs, I found a similar one last year at an antique store in Brenham--haven't even had it recovered yet.

Your room looks great, and I agree as well about a soft gray or soft gold ceiling.

I love what you've done so far. The drapes you have up now are great. But if you get the first set of drapes and don't like them in this room you can use them in your living room, since that is what you are thinking of. I think the second set of chairs look uncomfortable.

I think you are right about the window muntin/grids being white and providing unnecessary high contrast. Are they snapped in, or inside the two layers of glass/ If they are snapped in, the manufacturer may offer a stain grade alternative.
P. S. The room looks like it's on its way towards being something really special.

Omigod -- I LOVE the new wall color! That room is so inviting, so yummy -- what a glorious job you did! Wow.

Many others have already chimed in my thought, which was the sheers being the distracting element. The drapes (the ones you have plus the two you showed as options) are all lovely -- but I don't think the drapes are what's catching your eye. I think it's the white of the sheers. Someone above (sorry to have forgotten) mentioned a wood / jute / rattan blind. Yeah, something like that, or a wood shutter (to my eye, at least).

Oh I am just so in love with that dining room! It's too fabulous!

Congratulations and Happy New Year! xo