The Victorians employed a number of "over the top" treatments for their draperies. Most were fabric but if you had the means you might have a company build your drapery cornices to match your overmantle mirror, or if you were in a bedroom often furniture manufacturers like Herter offered cornices to match their high end Bedroom suites.
Today, if you could find one, drapery cornices are prohibitively expensive for the average person running thousands of dollars. The last Herter Cornice I saw sold for for over 5000.00.
'This is the Overmantle Mirror I built that will go over the mantle in our parlor'
As you may recall I built a custom Overmantle mirror to go over the stenciled and faux finished cast iron Mantle we plan on using in our parlor. It is only natural to built the drapery cornices with the same look.
"As you can see the drapery cornice I built esssentially replicates the top of the mantle"
This are loosely based on Aesthetic movement style cornices and overmantles. The one I built features three shelves. 
"A view of the center shelf which is elevated"
The center one of these is elevated slightly. These will be used for display. The cornice will provide a place to conceal the drapery rod for the sides drapes as well as the rod for the center swagged and fringed valance.
"The stencil designs are based on the Neo Grec stencilling in the parlor"
The cornice is ebonized and stencilled to match the overmantle and you might notice the stencil designs match the original Neo Grec stencilling originally found in the parlor. I will cover the installation in an upcoming weekly update. At this stage I now have to design , and sew the drapes.
So in addition to that I STILL have another Overmantle mirror , a Pier Mirror and 3 Window cornices to custom built that will match this. IT NEVER ENDS!!!
Victorian Window Valances Project: Design and Build
Reviewed by citra
Published :
Rating : 4.5
Published :
Rating : 4.5
