Cornice boards and Lambrequins save on heating costs

Several years ago our Public Service company sent out a flyer attached to their bill showing a picture of a cornice board with a dust cover.  They said the dust cover (the top board on the cornice) prevented air circulation behind the drapes and thus prevented drafts around your windows.  A further reduction in airflow could be achieved with the use of a Lambrequin which has side pieces that can extend to the bottom of your window sill or even to the floor.

Covering the lip of a rope welt

  

   After we have hot glued rope welt to the edge of the cornice we need to cover the exposed lip of the cord.  The easiest no-sew way to do this is to make a sharp crease in the fabric by pressing it together with our fingers using 3/4″ Millennium tape.

Matching those pesky stripes

   Every once in a while someone will give me a workroom tip that saves a lot of frustration and results in a much nicer finished product.  This suggestion came from Catherine who managed one of the Calico Corners stores and her suggestion involves matching horizontal stripes on a cornice board .  Even with a walking foot sewing machine it is sometimes difficult to match all the horizontal stripes without tearing the seam apart over and over again.  The matching is not so critical on soft treatments like valances and drapes because of the folds in the fabric.  But on a cornice board the fabric is stretched tight and shows every imperfect match.

   We begin by pressing down about an inch and a half of the edge of the fabric to a place where the matching would give the most pleasing appearance.   Today’s fabric is a little difficult because of the bulky threads that make up the stripes.  So after pressing we lay a piece of masking tape to within a quarter inch of where we will sew.  Next we match the two pieces of fabric and begin sewing as close to the edge as possible (perhaps less than 1/16th inch).  As we work our way down the seam we can make very small adjustments at each stripe to make sure they match.   Pull off the masking tape before applying the fabric over the batting on the cornice board.

Let’s make a mock roman shade cornice board

    To make a mock roman shade cornice board with matching pattern we first staple batting to the plywood box and cover the batting with muslin.  On this board which is 8 1/4″ high we want three folds so mark the muslin with lines 2 3/4″ apart.  Now let’s lay out the fabric loosely to see which part of the  pattern we want centered and begin by laying out the center fold.  Now we will lay out the top and bottom folds to match the pattern of the center fold and start cutting the fabric.   After the pieces are cut we try Millennium tape to see if it will stick and it won’t (probably a teflon coating on this fabric) so we use fringe adhesive to glue the folded fabric together.  This will keep the fold perfectly straight when it is applied to the cornice board. 

    We first apply the piece of fabric that will wrap around the bottom edge and then  the three folds making sure they are each 2 3/4″  and the pattern of each fold matches above and below.   The folds are wrapped around the inside of the returns and a lining fabric is attached using cardboard tack strip and staples.  Now stand it up on its bottom edge to make sure the folds hang evenly and we are finished.

Edge joining plywood to make a long cornice board strong

   When interior designers ask us to build upholstered cornice boards that are over 110″ long we need a way to make them strong so they won’t break while being transported to the customer’s home.  Plywood comes in 96″ long sheets so if we have an order for a cornice board 185″ long and 12″ high we could just edge join two boards-one 96″x12″ board to another board 89″x12″  with a joint roughly in the center.  But that would be the weakest point of the board if two people each lifted an end.  A much stronger solution is to cut five boards 2@96″x6″, 2@ 44.5″x6″ and one at 89″x6″.  The two 44.5″ pieces would be attached at each end of a 96″ piece producing a board 185″x6″ and this would be used for the bottom half of the face.  The other 96″ piece would be joined to the 89″ piece producing another 185″x6″ piece which would be used for the top half of the face.  Then the two 6″ sections would be joined together to make a 185″x12″ board.   Most cornice boards have a dust cap or top board that lays on L-brackets for when the cornice is installed.  The joint(s) in the dust cap boards would be located at least a foot away from the joints in the top face board.   By alternating our joints this way we can build cornice boards up to 20 feet long with very little loss of strength. 

   The five boards are laid out on a table to make sure we have made the bottom three  6″ boards the same length as the top two 6″ boards.  Next we measure to make sure they add up to 185″.  There is a good old saying “measure twice and cut once”.  When we are sure the five boards will make one board 185″x12″ we lay a long straightedge on top of the boards at the long edge to make sure the joined boards will be nice and straight (we can’t just assume we made  perfect 90 degree cuts so the straightedge shows us where we have to adjust the lineup).  We will first staple all the boards together on one side, then flip the whole thing over and staple them together on the other side.  Then we hammer in aluminum edge joiners (dog ears) every two to three feet along the horizontal middle joint and spaced every two to three inches along the vertical joints since these joints will have the most stress.

Ceramic Medallions on the face of a cornice board

   Today we are building an upholstered cornice board that would be placed in the Elaborate Treatments of the Quality Cornices Website because we will be bolting ceramic medallions on the face of the board to support swags.  After our board is built and the location of the medallions is marked we drill holes through the plywood and insert bolts through the back side of the board that will screw into the back side of the medallions.  The bolts have nuts and washers on the front side of the cornice board to hold them securely in place. Batting is stapled to the board and finally the batting is covered with muslin because the finish fabric is a shiny polyester that would show the irregularities of the batting if we didn’t first cover in muslin.  Now we apply the finish fabric and cut slits for the bolts to poke through.  Since I don’t know how much swag fabric must be placed behind the medallions I’m going to use what I call ‘bolt extenders’.  They are female/female threaded couplers that will have one end screwed onto the protruding bolt.  Another bolt will have its head cut off so it can be screwed into both the medallion and the other end of the bolt extender.  This fabric is ideal for using Millennium Tape to make the welt and to fasten the welt to the bottom edge of the cornice board because the tape sticks tightly and won’t show any goofs that might show  if we used hot glue or fringe adhesive. If you put your cursor over a photo you will see an explanation pop up.

Finishing the upholstered headboard

   Now that we have built the frame, glued on the 2″ foam, covered the foam with batting and upholstered the headboard with muslin we can apply the finish fabric.  The fabric is first pinned in place and stretched tight so we can take a look to see if it is positioned properly before we begin stapling to the back side.  After the fabric is stapled in place we cover the legs with pieces that match the pattern.  Then with the face completely finished we flip the headboard over and apply lining fabric to the back.  I like to use an ultrasuede lining because you can’t see any of the knots in the plywood through it.  We start at the bottom of the back side and use a cardboard tack strip to hold the lining in place.  Then we pull the lining toward the top of the headboard, use pins to stretch it tight and then fasten it in place with staples every two inches or so.  The shape of the top is marked on the lining fabric by running a finger along the edge while holding a pen or pencil to make a mark about 3/4″ in from the shaped edge.  After the excess has been cut off we staple the top shaped edge of the lining fabric in place and then glue a piece of scroll gimp over the raw edge.  I like to use ‘Fringe Adhesive’ from R.W. Rowley because it has a nice, thick consistency and holds the gimp in place very well.  So that’s it.  Our headboard is done and someone can enjoy a good night’s sleep in a beautiful bed.

Building the frame for an upholstered headboard

  We have a work order to build an upholstered headboard that is 70″ high and 62″ wide.  Normally we will ask the customer to give us the height of the top of the box spring off the floor (the bottom of the headboard will be an inch higher than the top of the box spring) and the height of the top of the mattress off the floor ( so we can center the pattern between the top of the headboard and the top of the box spring).  First we go to the lumber yard and find a nice, straight sheet of 5/8″ cdx plywood for the face and cut it to a dimension of 48″x62″.  Then we make four pieces of 15/32″ cdx plywood that are  8″x70″ for the legs.  We will fasten two of these pieces together for each leg which will be stronger than using a piece of 1″x8″ pine board.  The legs are now screwed to back of the 5/8″ face board.  Between the two legs at the top of the board we will attach another two pieces of 15/32″ plywood that are fastened together like the legs.  If the top of the headboard was straight we would make this top board about 4″ high but since we will be cutting an arch that is 12″ high this top board needs to be about 16″ high.  In an attempt to keep the weight of the finished frame as low as possible we will cut off all but 4″ of the upper part of the arch.  Since the top of the box spring is 14″ off the floor the bottom of the face board needs to be 15″ off the floor which requires a face board 55″ high and 62″ wide.  The 5/8″ sheet we used for the face is only 48″ wide so we have to edge join another piece 7″ wide to the bottom of the face board.  When we made the original 62″ cut in the 5/8″ plywood it left us with a piece 48″x34″.  From this we now cut a piece 48″x7″ and two pieces 8″ wide to be used as filler (not for strength) on the face of the legs.  After the 48″x7″ piece is edge joined to the bottom of the face board we fit another doubled piece of 15/32″ about 4″ wide between the legs at the bottom back side of the face board.  Now we have a face board 62″ wide and 55″ high with legs 15″ long.  At this point we draw the shape of the top and cut through all three pieces of plywood at once (the 5/8″ face board and the doubled 15/32″ boards.  We do the cutting with a long blade in a jig saw.  After the shape is cut we use 3M Super 77 spray adhesive to attach a 2″ thick piece of foam to the face of the frame.  Then using an electric carving knife we can cut the foam to the shape of the top of the frame and trim off any excess foam on the sides.   A piece of lightweight batting is laid over the foam then the headboard is covered with muslin before we apply the finish fabric.  The muslin is an extra step but produces a better surface for the final covering.

Bendable materials for an arched top cornice board

When a shaped dust cover is required for a cornice board there are several alternatives.  We could use bendable plywood (wiggle board) which is about 1/4″ thick and not suitable for today’s application.  Another choice might be FirmaFlex, a bendable fibre board which can be ordered in six foot lengths and edge joined for longer pieces.  If you are building your own cornice and cost of materials is not a big issue this could be a good choice but for the average workroom it would be a little too pricy.  Next you could buy dimensional lumber such as a 1″ x 4″ board and cut hundreds of slots (kerfs) across the width of the board until it can be bent to the shape you want.  Once again for the average workroom time is money so the time involved would rule this out.  My choice of material for today is Homasote, a recycled newspaper material.   They put the old newspapers in a huge vat, add water or other liquids and stir until the mixture becomes a mess of sludge.   Then the sludge has most of the liquid removed, it is poured onto a flat surface and highly compressed to get the remaining liquids out.  The finished product is cut into 4′ x 8′ sheets that are 1/2″ thick and similar to plywood although the cost is about twice as much.  Homasote is easy to cut with a circular saw but very, very dusty so it is best to use a dust mask while cutting.  For our arched top cornice we need 3 1/2″ returns so we cut strips of homasote 3″ wide.  Since the cornice board will have a finished width of 111″ and the homasote comes in 96″ long sheets we will need to cut two strips and join them end to end with aluminum or steel edge joiners (sometimes called ‘dog ears’ because of their shape).  Once the ends are joined we cut the strip about six inches longer than needed, stand it up on one edge, and lay the cutout plywood on top of the other edge.  Then we start the process of stapling and bending, stapling and bending with the staples about three inches apart all along the top edge of the cornice.  With a little extra beyond each end we can now cut down through the homasote at an angle to match where the curved top meets the straight top of the returns.  You can either staple through the top board (homasote) into the top of the return board or staple through the top of the return board into the edge of the top board.  The first way seems to be the most simple.

No sew welt cord part two

 

   On most fabrics a better solution than glue for making welt cord is Millennium Tape from Sacks Industries.  They claim that the bond gets stronger over time but you must test the tape on your fabrics first to make sure the initial bond is a good one.  It won’t work on chenile, faux suede, rubberized upholstery fabric backing, and teflon coated fabrics to name a few.  In the photos I show two rows of  3/8″ Millennium tape, one at the edge and the second about an inch and a quarter below the edge for  1/4″ cord.  Now I find that a single piece of  1/2″ tape placed an inch and a quarter to an inch an a half below the edge is quite sufficient.  In this application pin the ends of your fabric to stretch it somewhat taut.   Apply the tape but leave the paper coating on.  Pin your cord taut and just above the tape.  Since I am right handed it is easier for me to start at the right end of the fabric where I pull off a foot or two of the backing paper and wrap the fabric over the cord.  Then just keep working your way toward the left- pull off more backing paper, wrap more fabric, pull off more backing paper, wrap more fabric until you have reached the other end.  Then go over the whole strip a couple more times pressing the fabric down on to the tape to make sure everything is smooth and bonded well.  With the  lighter weight fabrics such as silk and most polished cottons you can attach the finished cord to the edge of the cornice board with the same Millennium tape and feel confident it will hold forever.