Custom Fabric Decor in Attleboro, MA

Bays, Transoms and the Rooms Around Them

The older houses near downtown Attleboro and up on Oak Hill were built with windows that shape a whole room. A Victorian bay pushes the front parlour out toward the street in three or more angled panes, and a transom over a door or a window lets light into a hall. Neither is a shape you can buy a treatment for off the shelf, and both decide where the fabric in the room ends up. That is the starting point for custom fabric decor in Attleboro, MA: work out what the bay and the transom need, then let the pillows, the bed and the chairs follow.

Away from the centre, the split-levels off Route 123 and the ranches of South Attleboro give a different brief, with wide living room windows, half-flight stairs and simpler, more regular openings. Each kind of house has its own way of carrying fabric from the window into the room.

• Pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery planned with the window fabric
• Ideas for bays, window seats and the glass above doors
• A table of fabrics to try together at our Swansea showroom

Ways to Bring the Window Fabric into the Room

Window seat pillows

Many bays hold a seat. A row of pillows along it in the bay’s own fabric turns the window into the most inviting spot in the room.

Sofa cushions

A mix of print, plain and texture, drawn from the drapery cloth, for the sofa that faces the bay or the front window.

Bed covers

A duvet cover in a cloth chosen beside the bedroom curtains, so the two biggest pieces of fabric in the room agree.

Drapes for the bay

Shades fitted to each pane of the bay with drapes framing the whole curve, made to the bay’s own angles.

Custom drapes in Attleboro

Patterned cloth

A lively print at the window can feed several plainer fabrics around the room, each picking up one of its colours.

Some upholstery

We do some upholstery, always in cloth that relates to the windows. Let us hear about the piece before you plan around it.

Custom Fabric Decor in Attleboro, MA for Victorian Bays

The bay is where most custom fabric decor in Attleboro, MA begins in the older houses. A bay usually has a centre pane flanked by two angled side panes, sometimes more, and it may be deep enough for a built-in seat. It is the brightest part of the room, the place the eye goes first, and it carries more fabric than any other window in the house.

Treating the bay

There are a few common ways to dress a bay. One is a shade fitted inside each pane, with a pair of drapes framing the whole bay at the outer corners. Another is drapery that follows the angles of the bay on a shaped rod, drawn back to the sides in the day. A third, for bays with a seat, is shades only, so that nothing hangs over the cushions. You can read more about the options in our guide to bay and bow window treatments, and about the shade side of it on our Roman shades in Attleboro page.

Whichever route you take, the bay sets the room’s lead fabric. If the drapes carry a print, the sofa pillows and the seat cushions can use a plain weave in one of its colours. If the bay has plain shades only, the pillows on the seat become the main pattern in the room.

The window seat

A window seat in a Victorian bay is a gift for fabric decor. A row of pillows along it, in the bay’s drapery cloth or a companion print, ties the seat to the window above. A mix of sizes, a couple of larger squares at the back and smaller ones in front, makes it look comfortable rather than formal. Because the seat sits in the brightest light in the room, choose cloths that hold their colour in sun, and turn the pillows now and then so one side does not take all of it.

Transoms and the glass above doors

Transoms are the narrow panes set above doors and some windows in the older Attleboro houses, built to let light into halls and between rooms. Most are best left uncovered, or given a simple fitted shade where privacy calls for it. Their job is light, not fabric.

That matters for the fabric decor in two ways. First, a hall lit by a transom is often a narrow space with little window fabric of its own, so a cushion on a hall bench or seat in the parlour colour is a simple way to link the hall to the room beyond. Second, the light through a transom falls into the house all day, so fabrics on any furniture beneath it see more sun than you might expect. A cloth that fades gracefully is the safer choice there.

Parlours and dining rooms near downtown

The Victorians and colonials near downtown often keep a front parlour and a separate dining room, each with its own windows and trim. These rooms can take richer fabrics than a family room: a velvet, a damask-look weave or a deep plain colour, since they are used less roughly. A parlour sofa with two velvet pillows in the drapery colour and one in the drapery print feels finished without looking fussy.

In a dining room, the drapes are usually the main fabric. If the dining chairs have seats that are part of the upholstery work we can take on, their cloth can pick up the drapery colour. If not, a runner or a few pillows on a sideboard bench can do the same job.

Colonials up on Oak Hill

The colonials on Oak Hill tend to have more regular windows than the Victorians, set in a symmetrical front, with a centre hall and rooms on each side. That symmetry suits matching treatments, the same drape or shade on every front window, and it gives the fabric decor a calm base to build on. The living room on one side and the dining room on the other can share a lead fabric, each using it in its own way, which makes the house feel balanced when you stand in the hall and look both ways.

Bedrooms upstairs in these houses are usually square, with two windows. A duvet cover chosen alongside the bedroom drapes, in a print that relates to the colours downstairs, carries the plan up the stairs.

Split-Levels off Route 123

The split-levels off Route 123 bring a different set of rooms: a living room up half a flight with a wide front window, a family room below, and bedrooms above. The levels are in view of each other from the entry, so fabric choices on one show from the next.

The wide living room window is the natural home of the lead fabric here, usually as panels made to the full width of the glass. The sofa beneath picks up the cloth in its pillows. Down in the family room, where the windows are smaller and the room works harder, the same colours can return in a sturdier weave on the pillows. Upstairs, a duvet cover in one of those colours completes the link. Choosing a family of two or three colours at the start and using them across all three levels is the simplest way to make a split feel like one house.

Ranches in South Attleboro

The South Attleboro ranches keep everything on one floor, with a living room at the front, a kitchen and eating area at the back and bedrooms down a hall. Their windows are standard sizes, so the treatments are straightforward, and the fabric decor does more of the work of giving each room character.

In a ranch living room, a pair of drapes at the front window and pillows on the sofa facing it set the tone. Where the living room opens to the dining area, repeating the cloth on a few pillows in both spaces joins them. Ranch rooms tend to have lower ceilings than the Victorians in town, so medium-scale patterns and lighter colours usually suit them better than a big, dark print. Bedrooms take covers in soft colours with a patterned pillow or two, which keeps a compact room from feeling crowded. Kitchens at the back of a ranch often have a window over the sink and an eating area with a small window of its own, and a valance or cafe-height curtain there in a cloth related to the living room drapes carries the scheme to the back of the house.

How We Work with You

You hear from us throughout, up to the day everything is done. A typical order runs in this order.

1. Start with the call button or the form, describe the room, the bay or the window seat, and book your free quote.
2. A specialist comes out for measuring in your home, takes the bay’s angles and every pane, and notes what furniture and colours are staying.
3. At the showroom you narrow down the fabrics, setting the bay cloth beside the seat pillows and the bed cover.
4. Your quote sets out each piece, from shades and drapes to pillows, covers and any upholstery agreed.
5. With your go-ahead, everything is made from the cloths you picked.
6. Our team puts up the window treatments, and we stay in contact until you are satisfied.

Victorian bedrooms upstairs

Upstairs in the older houses near downtown, a bedroom may sit above the parlour bay and have a smaller bay of its own, or a pair of tall windows with the original trim. These rooms are often the most rewarding to plan, because the bed and the windows are close together and seen as one picture from the doorway. A duvet cover in a companion to the bay drapes, pillows that repeat the drapery print and a small cushion on any seat in the bay make the room feel complete.

If the bedroom bay faces the morning sun, the window fabric may need a blackout lining, which is chosen for the job rather than the look. In that case the bed can carry more of the colour and pattern, so the room stays warm and interesting while the window keeps the light out.

Lighter and heavier covers through the year

Pillow covers are an easy way to change a room with the seasons. A cotton or linen set in paler colours for summer and a wool-look or velvet set for winter can share the same inserts, so swapping them takes minutes. In a sunny bay, the summer set takes the strongest light of the year, which spares the richer winter cloths. Planning both sets at once, when you first choose custom fabric decor in Attleboro, MA, means both will sit happily with the drapes.

Choosing several fabrics for one room

Bays invite more fabric than most windows, which makes it easy to overdo. A steady approach is to give one cloth the lead, usually the drapery print, then add one plain colour from it and one texture. The print goes where it shows most, at the bay. The plain colour goes on the larger pillows and perhaps the bed. The texture, a woven, a chenille or a velvet, adds depth on a few smaller pillows. In a Victorian parlour with its high ceiling, the print can be generous. In a ranch, scale it down.

Matching cloth to use

A window seat in a sunny bay, a family room sofa in a split and a guest bed see very different wear. Seat pillows need fabric that stands up to sun. Family room pillows want a firm weave and covers that come off for cleaning. Duvet covers need to survive regular washing. The parlour drapes are handled least of all, so a finer cloth can go there. We will say which of your choices suit each place before anything is ordered.

Pillow and cover details

Every pillow is your call on cloth, size, shape and edge, and on how many sit on each seat, sofa or bed. Window seat pillows are sized to the seat so they line up neatly. Duvet covers can use the drapery fabric, a companion print or a plain colour from it. Tell us the bed size and how the cover will be laundered, and we will suggest suitable cloths.

As for upholstery, we take on some of it. Describe the piece or show a photo at the showroom, and you will know quickly whether it is something we can help with.

Attleboro’s Window Treatment Store Since 1988

Window Works began as a family store in Swansea in 1988 and the second generation now leads it. Over 37 years, its specialists have worked on homes in Attleboro and right across the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay.

• Specialists who handle bays, transoms and odd-shaped windows
• In-home measuring of each pane and opening
• Installation by our own crew
• Kept up to date by us until the job is finished
• Warranties offered on what we sell

Pages for Attleboro homes

Every service we offer in the city is listed on our Attleboro window treatments page. To see the full range of pillows, covers and upholstery, go to the custom fabric decor page.

Set the Fabrics Side by Side

Seeing the cloths together, at full size, is the surest way to choose. At the Swansea showroom you can lay a bay drapery fabric next to the seat pillow cloth and the bed cover, and judge the colours in daylight. A photo of the bay, or a cushion from the room, helps a great deal.

Our team will help you find the combination that suits your house and how each room is used.

Visit the showroom

Book a Free Quote

For custom fabric decor in Attleboro, MA, the place to start is a free quote. Tap the call button to speak with the Swansea store about your bay or your rooms, book measuring in your home or ask about installation. The form is there too, if you would rather we got in touch. To begin with the fabrics, come and see the showroom, with the way there on the contact page. Window Works is rated 5.0 on Google.