Custom Fabric Decor in Rehoboth, MA

Small Windows, Wide Sills and Open Fields

The antique colonials and farmhouses along Winthrop Street and Route 44 were built with small windows set deep into thick walls, and that one fact shapes custom fabric decor in Rehoboth, MA more than anything else. A small, deep-set window lets in a modest amount of light and leaves only a little room for cloth. What it does offer is a wide sill, and a room where most of the colour has to come from the furniture rather than the glass.

Many of these houses also stand on large lots in farm country, with fields rather than neighbours outside. With nobody close by to screen from, the window fabric can be chosen for warmth and looks rather than privacy, and the pillows, bed covers and chairs become the main way a room expresses itself. Off Bay State Road, the newer colonial subdivisions work differently again, with regular windows and more of them.

• Pillows, duvet covers and some upholstery, chosen with the window fabric
• Ideas for low, beamed rooms and small deep-set windows
• Woven, plaid and plain cloths to compare in the Swansea showroom

Fabric Pieces for Rehoboth Houses

Sill cushions and pillows

A wide antique sill can hold a cushion and a pillow or two, made in the cloth of the curtain beside it, so the window becomes a small seat.

Covers for farmhouse beds

Bedrooms under the eaves have small windows and plenty of bed. A duvet cover is where the room’s colour lives.

Pillows for the keeping room

A reading chair by the hearth with a bolster or a single pillow in the window cloth ties the old room together.

Plaids and wovens

Checks, plaids and textured weaves sit naturally in an antique house and wear well on pieces that get used daily.

Curtains for deep-set windows

A short panel or a single side curtain often suits a small window best, and its fabric can lead the room.

Custom drapes in Rehoboth

Some upholstery

We take on a measure of upholstery, in cloth that relates to the windows. Talk to us about the piece before anything is promised.

Custom Fabric Decor in Rehoboth, MA for Antique Houses

Most of the questions we hear about custom fabric decor in Rehoboth, MA come from owners of the older houses, and for good reason. An antique farmhouse has a character that is easy to spoil with the wrong fabric and easy to bring out with the right one. The rooms are often lower than in a modern house, the walls thicker, the floors wide boards and the windows small. Those features all point toward the same approach: modest fabric at the glass, and the colour and pattern carried by the soft furnishings.

Working with small, deep-set windows

Thick walls mean deep window openings, and many of the antique houses have small sash or casement windows set well back from the room. A full pair of drapes can swallow a window like that, hiding the trim and cutting what little light comes in. Often the better choice is a single panel to one side, a short curtain that stops at the sill, a valance across the top or a Roman shade fitted inside the opening. The Roman shades in Rehoboth page covers that option for the window itself.

With the window carrying so little cloth, the fabric decor has to work harder. Two pillows on the settle by the fire, a cover on the bed upstairs and a cushion on the deep sill, all in the same print as the curtain or in colours drawn from it, spread the pattern around the room so it reads as planned rather than sparse.

The wide sill as a seat

One of the pleasures of an antique house is the wide sill that comes with a thick wall. Some are deep enough to sit on, and many are deep enough for a cushion and a couple of pillows to make a small window seat or a place for a cat to watch the fields. A cushion made to the sill’s own size, in the curtain fabric or a plain cloth with patterned pillows, turns a shelf into a feature.

Because these sills sit right in the window’s light, the fabric on them gets more sun than anything else in the room. A colour that fades gently, a cloth with a little texture, and covers that can come off for cleaning all help. If the window faces south, we may suggest a lighter cloth for the sill pieces than for the bed or the sofa.

Low ceilings, beams and the scale of a print

Antique rooms are often low, sometimes with exposed beams. A very large print can feel heavy in a room like that, especially on a big piece such as a duvet cover. Smaller patterns, checks, ticking stripes and plaids tend to sit more comfortably, as do plain wovens with a bit of slub or texture. A small floral on the curtains with a matching check on the pillows is a classic farmhouse pairing for a reason.

That said, a single bold piece can work beautifully against plain plaster and old wood. A strong colour on one chair, if it turns out to be upholstery we can take on, or a pair of bright pillows on a plain sofa, gives a quiet old room a point of focus. The trick is to choose one bold thing and let the rest stay calm.

Rooms lit by lamps and fire

Small windows mean that many antique rooms spend a good part of the day, and all of the evening, under lamplight or firelight. Colours behave differently in that light than in daylight. Warm reds, ochres and rusts glow under a lamp. Cool blues and greys can look darker and flatter. When you are choosing fabric for a keeping room or a den in one of these houses, it is worth looking at the swatches under warm light as well as by the showroom window, and we are happy to help you do that.

Living alongside old pieces

Antique houses tend to collect old things: a painted chest, a hooked rug, a quilt handed down, a wing chair that came with the house. New fabric has to sit with them rather than compete. A good way in is to take one colour from the oldest piece in the room, a faded red from a rug, say, or the indigo in an old quilt, and build the curtains and pillows around it. New cloth in an aged colour looks at home far sooner than a bright modern shade.

It also helps to avoid fabric that looks too perfect. A slightly irregular linen, a woven with visible texture or a cotton with a soft, washed finish suits worn floorboards and hand-planed trim. That is something to look out for when you handle the cloths in Swansea, and it is one of the quieter ways custom fabric decor in Rehoboth, MA can respect a house’s age.

Newer Colonials off Bay State Road

The newer colonial subdivisions off Bay State Road give a very different starting point. The windows are regular and plentiful, the ceilings higher, the rooms laid out in the familiar pattern: a formal living room and dining room at the front, a family room open to the kitchen at the back, bedrooms upstairs. Here the windows can take full drapes or shades, and the window fabric usually leads.

In the front rooms, a formal drapery fabric at the windows, with pillows on the sofa in the same cloth or a companion, gives a finished look. The dining room is a good place to repeat the window fabric on the chair seats, if they prove to be upholstery work we can do. At the back, the family room tends to take a more relaxed fabric and sturdier pillows for everyday use.

Upstairs, the main bedroom is often big enough for a fuller drape and a duvet cover in a matching or companion print. Children’s rooms and guest rooms can use the same family of colours in simpler cloths, which keeps the upstairs hall tidy when all the doors are open. Where the house has a bonus room or a playroom, that is a good place for a sturdier, more playful fabric, with pillows that can stand up to being used as a fort and covers that wash well.

Bringing a newer house a little warmth

Newer colonials can feel crisp and plain at first, with painted walls in one shade and builder trim. Fabric decor is one of the quickest ways to give a house like that some warmth. A patterned cloth at the main windows, picked up in the pillows and on the bed, and one texture such as a woven or a velvet in each room, takes the edge off without any building work. Some owners in the subdivisions like to borrow a little of the farmhouse look from the older houses nearby, with checks, plaids and natural linens, and that suits these houses well.

Rooms with Fields Instead of Neighbours

Rehoboth’s agricultural setting changes the job of the window. In a town where many houses have no near neighbours, privacy at the glass is less pressing, and some rooms do not need a treatment that closes at all. A light, unlined curtain or a simple panel can be chosen purely for how it looks and how it softens the light.

That freedom carries through to the fabric decor. Without a heavy lined drape at every window, the room’s weight of colour comes from the pillows, the bed and the chairs. It also means the view itself, fields and woods and stone walls, becomes part of the colour scheme. Greens, straw tones, soft browns and greys taken from the land outside tend to make a room feel settled all year, while a single accent colour in the pillows keeps it from looking dull.

Nights are another matter. Dark fields can make a bare window feel cold after sunset, and a lined curtain that draws across in the evening adds warmth to a room even when privacy is not the reason. The pillows and covers can pick up that curtain’s colour, so the room changes character from day to night without changing its scheme.

How a Rehoboth Order Comes Together

We stay in contact with you from the first conversation to the finish. Here is the usual shape of an order.

1. You ring the store with the call button or send the form, and we book a free quote.
2. We arrange measuring in your home: every window, deep reveals and wide sills included, along with the furniture that is staying.
3. You visit the showroom to pick the cloths, laying the window fabric beside the pillow, sill and cover fabrics.
4. Each piece is written into the quote: curtains or shades, pillows, sill cushions, bed covers and any upholstery agreed.
5. The window treatments and decor are made from those same choices.
6. Our installers fit the window treatments, and we keep checking in until you are content with the room.

Choosing cloth for country use

Farmhouse rooms are lived in hard. Mudrooms and kitchens see boots and dogs, and a keeping room sofa is where everyone ends up. For pillows in those rooms, a close, sturdy weave in a forgiving colour and covers that come off for washing make good sense. The bed upstairs needs a cover that stands up to regular laundering. The window fabric, which is touched far less, is where a more delicate cloth can go. We will tell you honestly which of the fabrics you like belong in each place.

Pillows, covers and some upholstery

You choose each pillow’s cloth, size and shape, how its edges are finished and how many go on each chair, bench, sill or bed. A duvet cover can be made in the curtain fabric itself, in a companion print or in a plain weave with the pattern on the pillows. Tell us the bed size and how the room is used, and we will suggest fabric that suits.

Upholstery is something we do in part. Old houses come with old furniture, and every piece is different, so please describe yours or bring a photo to the showroom before we commit, and you will get a clear answer.

A Swansea Family Store, Since 1988

Window Works started in Swansea in 1988 and is now run by the next generation of the same family. It has spent over 37 years working in houses across Rehoboth, the SouthCoast and the Rhode Island East Bay, antique and new alike.

• Window treatment specialists used to old openings that are seldom square
• Each window measured at your house, never guessed
• Fitting done by our own team
• In touch with you at every stage, until the work is finished
• Warranties offered on what we sell

Finding your way around the services

Every service for the town is on our Rehoboth window treatments page, and the whole range of pillows, covers and upholstery is set out on the main custom fabric decor page.

Handle the Cloth in Swansea

Fabric is a thing to touch. In the showroom you can feel the weight of a wool plaid, compare a linen with a cotton check and see how a colour holds up beside an old wood tone. If you have a piece from the house, such as a rug corner, a cushion or a paint chip from the trim, bring it in.

Our specialists can help you narrow the choice to a small set of cloths that suit the house and how each room is used.

Visit the showroom

Book a Free Quote

The way to start custom fabric decor in Rehoboth, MA is a free quote. Use the call button to talk with the Swansea store about the rooms you have in mind, to set up measuring in your home or to ask about installation, or send the form and we will reply. If you would like to start with the fabrics, come to the showroom, and look on the contact page for directions. Window Works is rated 5.0 on Google.