Custom Fabric Decor in Somerset, MA

Why Somerset Rooms Need Fabric Planned with the Windows

In Somerset the window decides how much fabric a room can carry, and that is the starting point for custom fabric decor in Somerset, MA. A Somerset Village colonial with its original narrow double-hung sash has room for very little cloth at the glass. A Taunton River house with a wide window wall added in a later renovation may take a long run of drapery from one corner to the other. The pillows and the bedding have to answer whichever one you live with.

Between those two sit the capes and ranches built through the middle of the last century around Brayton Point, Riverside and the streets off County Street. Their rooms are modest, their windows are a mix of sizes, and a single fabric repeated in two or three places is often what makes them feel planned.

• Pillows, bedding covers and a limited amount of upholstery
• Picked at the same sitting as the drapes, Roman shades or valances
• Bolts and swatches to handle in Swansea before anything is ordered

Pieces Made to Answer Your Windows

Sofa and chair pillows

Cut from the same bolt as the curtains, or from a second cloth that picks up one of its colours, so the seating and the glass look like one decision.

Duvet covers

A bed covers more ground than any window in the room. Choosing its cover at the same time as the shades settles the bedroom in one go.

A little upholstery

Some upholstery is part of the work, always in a cloth linked to the room’s windows. Show us a photo of the piece and we will be straight with you about whether it is a job for us.

Planning Custom Fabric Decor in Somerset, MA, House by House

Anyone looking into custom fabric decor in Somerset, MA usually has one room in mind and one fabric they love. The useful question is where that fabric will go. In a house with big windows, the drapes carry most of it and the pillows echo it. In a house with slim windows, the drapes may only be a pair of narrow side panels or a shade, and the cushions and bedding end up doing the heavy lifting. Somerset has both kinds of house within a short walk, so we start by looking at the windows and work outward.

Village colonials and their slim sash

The colonials in Somerset Village keep their original narrow double-hung sash, often framed by deep painted trim that is part of the room’s charm. Covering that trim with a heavy drape spoils it, so many of these rooms end up with a Roman shade fitted inside the frame or a pair of slim panels that sit just outside it. Either way, the amount of patterned fabric at the window is small.

That is where the rest of the room steps in. Two sofa pillows in the same print as the shade carry the pattern down to the seating, and a third in a plain cloth pulled from the print’s background keeps it from feeling busy. In a colonial dining room, the same idea can run from the window to the chair seats, if the chairs turn out to be upholstery we can take on.

Bedrooms in these houses are often tucked under a sloping ceiling or set at a corner with two small windows on different walls. With so little window fabric to see, a duvet cover becomes the main colour in the room. In these rooms we often suggest choosing the cover first and then matching the shades or panels to it, the reverse of the usual order.

Capes and ranches off County Street

The mid-century capes and ranches around Brayton Point and Riverside tend to put a broad window in the living room and smaller ones everywhere else. That broad front window is the natural home for the lead fabric. A pair of full drapes there, with pillows on the sofa facing it, sets the tone for the whole floor.

Ranches often run the living room into a dining area with no wall between. In a layout like that, a few pillows on a dining bench in the same cloth connect the two halves of the room even when their windows are dressed differently. In a cape, the dormer bedrooms upstairs are small and their windows sit deep in the roof. A valance or a short shade at the dormer and a cover on the bed in a companion fabric gives a little room a lot of character without crowding it.

The ground floor of a cape usually has a front room that faces the street and a kitchen at the back. Many people keep the street side quieter, with a plain lined drape for privacy, and let the pattern happen on the pillows inside, where it is seen from the sofa rather than from the pavement.

Taunton River lots and wide window walls

Many river houses gained wide window walls in later renovations, opening the main room to the water. Those walls are often left bare to keep the view, or dressed with drapery panels that stack back to the edges in the daytime. Either way, the fabric that faces you when you sit down is mostly on the sofa and the chairs, not the window.

That makes pillows and a throw the main decoration in the room. They also sit in strong reflected light from the water for much of the day, which matters when choosing them. Some colours keep their depth in bright sun far longer than others, and a cloth with a bit of texture tends to wear its years better than a flat one. If the wall has side panels, matching the pillows to them ties the long run of glass back into the rest of the room.

Mixing fabrics without matching everything

Not every piece needs to be in the same cloth. Let one fabric lead, usually the largest pattern, and let the others support it. A solid taken from one of the print’s colours, a small check or stripe, and a texture such as a woven or a velvet usually get along. Three fabrics is plenty for most rooms. More than that and the eye has nowhere to rest.

Scale matters too. A big print looks right on a full drape or across a bed, where there is room for the pattern to repeat. On a small pillow the same print may show only part of a flower or a stripe, which can look accidental. We hold the pieces up together so you can judge how a pattern sits at each size before any cutting starts.

How a Somerset Order Comes Together

You hear from us at every stage, right up to the point where everything is finished. Here is the usual run of an order for custom fabric decor in Somerset, MA.

1. Tell us about the room by phone or through the form, and we set up your free quote.
2. A specialist visits for measuring in your home, looks at the windows and the furniture you are keeping, and talks through the look you want.
3. Fabrics are chosen, best of all side by side in Swansea, so the window cloth and the decor cloth are judged in the same light.
4. The quote lists each item: what goes at the windows, the pillows, the cover for the bed and any upholstery agreed between us.
5. Everything is made from that one set of choices.
6. Our installers hang the window pieces, and we keep in contact until the last item is settled.

Fabrics that suit how each room is used

Looks are only half the choice. A sofa in a busy family room takes more wear than one in a front parlour, and a pillow leaned on every evening needs a sturdier weave than one on a guest bed. Bed covers go through the wash often, so their fabric needs to cope with that. We will say plainly which of your favourites suit each job, and which belong at the window, where cloth is handled far less.

Light is the other factor. River-facing rooms get bright reflected light, and cushions near a big window sit in it all afternoon. Darker, richer colours can soften over time in that spot, so we may suggest a lighter companion cloth for the pieces nearest the glass and keep the deeper shade for the drapes, which can be lined.

Bedrooms around town

Somerset’s bedrooms vary as much as its living rooms. A ranch bedroom is usually a simple box with one or two windows at a comfortable height, which suits a matched pair of drapes and a cover on the bed in a companion print. A colonial bedroom may have tall, slim sash and a fireplace wall, which leaves little space for a long drape but plenty for a rich bed cover and a pile of pillows against the headboard. A cape’s upstairs room, under the roof, has the least window and the most slope, so lighter colours on the bed keep it from feeling closed in.

Guest rooms are a good place to try a bolder fabric. They are used less, so a strong print on the pillows or the bed can be enjoyed without living with it every day. A child’s room is another, though there it pays to pick a cloth that washes well and a pattern they will not outgrow in a year or two, with the brighter colour kept to the pillows, which are easy to change later as tastes move on.

Starting from what you already own

Few rooms start from nothing. Most have a sofa that is staying, a rug that took months to choose or a painted wall nobody wants to redo. Those fixed pieces narrow the fabric choice in a helpful way. A rug with a rust thread in it, for instance, gives a colour for the pillows, and the drapes can then sit between the two. Tell us what is staying when we come out, and if a small piece can travel, such as a cushion or a lampshade, bring it to the showroom so the new cloth can be judged beside it.

In the older village houses, a painted trim colour or an old wood floor is often the fixed point. In the river houses, it tends to be the view itself: the greens and greys outside the window wall are part of the room’s colour, and fabric that sits comfortably with them looks settled all year.

Changing pillow covers with the seasons

Some households like a lighter look in summer and a warmer one in winter. Pillow covers make that easy. A linen or cotton cover in a pale shade for the warm months and a heavier woven or velvet for the cold ones can share the same inserts, so the change takes a few minutes. In a river room that sits in bright light all summer, the pale set also spares the winter colours from the strongest sun of the year, which keeps them looking fresh for longer. A duvet cover can follow the same idea, with a lighter cotton for the warm months and a heavier weave for the cold ones. The drapes stay as they are, and the covers in both sets are chosen to work with them.

Pillows, covers and the finishing touches

Pillows are where most fabric decor starts, because they are the simplest way to repeat the window fabric. You choose the cloth, the shape and how the edges are finished, and how many each sofa, chair or bed should have. Bed covers can be made in the drapery fabric, in a companion print, or in a plain cloth with pillows carrying the pattern. Give us the bed size and how often the cover will be washed, and we can suggest a fabric to suit.

On upholstery, the honest answer is that we take on some of it. Every piece of furniture differs, so describe yours or bring a photo to the showroom first, and you will get a clear yes or no.

Why Somerset Calls on Window Works

A family business since 1988, now in its second generation, Window Works has spent over 37 years in houses on both banks of the Taunton River, Somerset included, and across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay.

• People who know window treatments and plan each room’s fabric with you
• Windows measured where they are, inside your house
• Our own team does the installing
• Regular updates from start to finish
• Warranties available on the products we sell

Seeing it all together

Decisions are easier with the fabrics in front of you. At the showroom you can hold a cushion cloth against a drapery cloth, check a bed colour beside a shade and feel the weight of each one. You can read more about the window side of the job on our custom drapes in Somerset and Roman shades in Somerset pages, and every service for the town is gathered on our Somerset window treatments page. The full range of pillows, covers and upholstery is on the main custom fabric decor page.

Fabrics to Handle Before You Choose

Colour on a screen is never quite right, and a pattern can look larger or smaller than you pictured once it is in your hands. In Swansea the bolts and swatches are there to touch, so you can see how a cream reads next to a soft pink, or how a plaid sits beside a plain weave.

Our specialists will help you narrow the choice to two or three cloths that work for the room and for how it is lived in.

Visit the showroom

Your Next Step

Planning custom fabric decor in Somerset, MA starts with a free quote. Ring the Swansea store with the call button to talk about the room, set up measuring in your home or ask about installation, or fill in the form and expect to hear back from us. If you would like to begin with the fabrics, the showroom is a short drive over the river, and the contact page has directions. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.