Custom Fabric Decor in Fall River, MA

Tall Windows, Deep Reveals and Changing Light

Fall River’s housing sets an unusual brief for custom fabric decor in Fall River, MA. Through the Highlands and Corky Row, the mill-era three-deckers and Victorians have tall, narrow double-hung windows set into deep interior reveals. A shade tucked inside one of those reveals shows only a slim column of cloth, so most of a room’s pattern and colour has to come from somewhere else: the sofa, the bed and the chairs.

Then there is the hill. On the sloping streets, one side of a house can look out at open sky while the other faces the next house a few steps away. The same fabric reads quite differently in each, which is worth knowing before you choose a cushion for the front parlour and the back bedroom from one bolt. Down by the water, the newer condominiums turn all of this around, with large modern glass and rooms built around the view.

• Pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery, chosen with the window cloth
• Colours checked against the light each room actually gets
• Fabrics laid out to compare at our Swansea store

What We Make for Fall River Rooms

Cushions with a purpose

In a parlour where the window shows only a sliver of fabric, a few well-chosen pillows bring the pattern to where you sit.

Bed covers for tall rooms

High ceilings make a bed look small. A cover with some weight of colour or pattern holds the room together under all that height.

Window drapery that leads

Where the reveal allows it, full drapes outside the frame give the room its lead fabric, and the decor follows on from them.

Custom drapes in Fall River

Shades in the reveal

Many tall sash windows take a shade or shutter inside the frame. The cloth or colour chosen there can carry through to a seat or a pillow nearby.

Light-aware colour

A soft gold that glows on the sunny side can turn flat on the shaded side. We match fabric to the room’s own light.

Upholstery, within limits

We take on some upholstery, linked to the window fabric. Tell us about the chair or seat and we will be clear about whether it is one for us.

Custom Fabric Decor in Fall River, MA, Flat by Flat

Most enquiries about custom fabric decor in Fall River, MA come from one of three kinds of home: a floor of a three-decker, a Victorian on one of the hill streets, or a condominium by the water. Each asks something different of the fabric, so here is how we approach them.

The three-decker floor plan

A three-decker flat is long and narrow. The front room gets the street windows, the kitchen gets the back windows, and the rooms in the middle often have one window apiece, sometimes onto a side yard only a few steps wide. That middle stretch can feel dim, and it is where fabric choices make the biggest difference.

In those middle bedrooms, a lighter duvet cover and pale pillows bounce what light there is around the room. Heavy, dark bedding in a room with one shaded window can make it feel smaller than it is. We often suggest keeping the deeper, richer colours for the front parlour, where the bay or the pair of street windows bring in more daylight, and letting the colour soften as you move toward the middle of the flat.

Privacy matters on close-set streets, too. A lined drape or a shade that closes fully at night may be a plain cloth, chosen for the job rather than the look. When the window treatment is plain, the pillows and the bed can carry the pattern instead, so the room still has some life in it.

Highlands Victorians and their tall sash

The Victorians through the Highlands have some of the tallest windows in the city, often with original trim and deep reveals worth keeping on show. A Roman shade or cellular shade fitted inside the reveal looks neat and keeps the trim visible, and you can read more about those options on our Roman shades in Fall River and cellular shades in Fall River pages.

With the window fabric reduced to a narrow column, the rest of the room has to work harder. High ceilings also change the scale. A small, busy print that looks lively on a pillow in a low-ceilinged ranch can disappear in a Victorian parlour. A larger pattern on the bed, or pillows in two or three fabrics of different scales, holds its own in a room that size. If the room has a fireplace or a picture rail, a colour taken from the tiles or the woodwork makes a good starting point for the fabrics.

Where the reveal is deep, there is sometimes room for a cushion along the sill itself, made in the same cloth as the shade above it, which turns a tall window into a small sitting spot.

How the hill changes the light

Fall River’s slopes mean houses on the same street can face very different skies. A room on the downhill side may get open light across the rooftops for most of the day, while the uphill side looks at a retaining wall or the side of the next house. That affects fabric in two ways.

The first is how a colour looks. Warm colours such as gold, rust and coral glow in direct light and can look muddy in shade. Cool colours such as blue, grey and green stay steady in shade but can look cold. If one fabric has to work on both sides of the house, a colour in between, such as a soft sage or a warm grey, usually travels best. Tell us which way each room faces when you visit the showroom, and we can steer you toward the colours that suit it.

The second is wear. Pillows on a sofa in a bright, open room sit in the sun every afternoon, and some cloths soften faster than others under that. Turning the pillows now and then helps. Choosing a fabric with a little texture, or a colour that fades gracefully, helps more.

Condominiums on the waterfront

The condominiums near the water are a different world from the hill streets: large panes of modern glass, open plans and a view that is the whole point of the room. Window treatments here are usually slim and quiet, such as sheer drapery or a shade that rolls away to nothing, so as not to compete with the harbour.

That leaves the soft furnishings to give the room its warmth. Pillows in solid colours with good texture, a throw, and a bed cover in a calm tone often suit these spaces better than strong pattern, because the view already provides plenty to look at. If you do want pattern, a single print repeated on a sofa and a chair is usually enough.

Bedrooms in these buildings often share the same big glass as the living room, and early light off the water can be strong. A blackout or lined treatment at the window handles that, and once the window is dealt with practically, the bed can be dressed for comfort: a soft cover in a calm colour, a few pillows in textures that feel good to lean on, and perhaps one accent fabric that picks up a colour from the view. Because these rooms are often finished in pale walls and floors, a single deeper colour on the pillows can stop the space feeling like a hotel.

From Your First Call to Finished Pieces

Here is how an order for pillows, covers or upholstery usually runs, with us in touch at each step until it is finished.

1. Get in touch by the call button or the form and arrange a free quote.
2. One of our specialists comes to measure the windows in your home, notes how the light falls on each side and looks at the furniture you want to keep.
3. You choose fabric, ideally in Swansea with the window cloth and the decor cloth side by side.
4. We confirm the list: window treatments, pillows, bed covers and any upholstery we have agreed to.
5. A quote arrives with each item set out.
6. Everything is made from the same choices, our team installs the window treatments and we check back until all is well.

Pattern, solid and texture together

Rooms look best when the fabrics are related but not identical. One approach that works in most Fall River homes is to pick a lead fabric, usually the one with the strongest pattern, then add a solid in one of its colours and a texture such as a woven, a bouclé or a velvet. The lead fabric goes where it will be seen most, often on the bed or the main sofa pillows. The solid and the texture fill in.

In a three-decker, where the rooms run in a line and you can see from the front room through to the kitchen, using related fabrics in each room makes the whole flat feel planned. A rust in the parlour pillows might reappear as a thin stripe on a kitchen chair cushion, if that cushion is work we can take on, and as a plain cover on a bedroom pillow.

Bedrooms and duvet covers

A duvet cover is the largest piece of fabric decor in most homes, so it sets the tone for a bedroom. In a Victorian with high ceilings, a cover in a stronger colour anchors the bed. In a narrow middle room of a three-decker, a lighter cover opens the room up. In a condominium, a calm solid lets the view lead.

You choose whether the cover matches the drapes exactly, picks up one of their colours, or contrasts with them. Tell us the bed size and how often the cover will be washed, and we will suggest cloths that suit regular laundering. Our guide to custom pillows and duvet covers goes into the choices in more detail.

One room now, the rest later

Few people dress a whole flat or house in one go, and there is no need to. A sensible order is to start with the room you use most, usually the front parlour or the main bedroom, and choose its lead fabric with the rest of the home in mind. Later rooms can then pick up a colour or a texture from it, so the place comes together over time rather than all at once. It helps to keep the name of the first fabric and a small offcut, so a pillow ordered later can be matched to it.

This also suits the three-decker layout well. Because the rooms open off one long hall, a guest bedroom finished second can borrow a single colour from the parlour and still feel part of the same home.

Keeping city fabrics fresh

Rooms close to a busy street gather more dust than rooms set back on a quiet lot, and fabric near an open window collects it first. Removable pillow covers that can be washed or cleaned, rather than covers sewn shut, make life easier in those front rooms. A cloth with a small pattern or a soft texture also hides everyday wear better than a flat pale solid. For a duvet cover, a fabric that copes with frequent washing matters more than in a guest room that is seldom used.

If you are not sure how a particular cloth should be looked after, ask us when you choose it and we will tell you what it needs. Choosing custom fabric decor in Fall River, MA with the care in mind from the start saves disappointment later.

A word on upholstery

We take on some upholstery, always tied to the fabric at the windows. Because chairs, benches and seats vary so much, the right first step is to describe the piece or bring a photo to the showroom. We will give you a straight answer on whether it is work we do.

A Family Store Fall River Has Known Since 1988

Window Works opened in Swansea in 1988, next door to Fall River, and the second generation runs it today. Over 37 years, the store has dressed windows in Fall River homes of every era, along with the rest of the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay.

• An experienced team of window treatment specialists
• Windows measured in your home, so the drapes and shades are made to fit
• Our own installers fit what goes at the windows
• We keep you posted until everything is complete
• Warranties offered on the products we sell

Picking fabrics in person

There is no substitute for handling the cloth. In the showroom you can feel how heavy a velvet is, see whether a woven is soft enough for a pillow and compare colours under daylight. If you have a piece from the room, such as a cushion or a throw, bring it along. All of our services for the city are listed on our Fall River window treatments page, and the full range of pillows, covers and upholstery is on the main custom fabric decor page.

Bolts and Swatches in Swansea

The showroom is a short drive from Fall River. You can spread fabrics out on the table, put a pillow cloth next to a drapery cloth and see how a colour shifts from the window side of the room to the back.

Our specialists can help you narrow a long list to two or three fabrics that suit the room, the light and the way you use it.

Visit the showroom

Book Your Free Quote

The simplest next step is a free quote for custom fabric decor in Fall River, MA. Use the call button to speak with the Swansea store about the rooms you have in mind, to arrange measuring in your home or to ask about installation, or send the form and we will reply. To see the fabrics first, visit the showroom just over the line in Swansea, with directions on the contact page. Window Works holds a 5.0 rating on Google.