Posted on January 30, 2009 by brevell
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.
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Posted on March 27, 2008 by brevell


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.
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Posted on March 6, 2008 by brevell



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.
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Posted on March 5, 2008 by brevell
Posted on February 22, 2008 by brevell



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.
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Posted on February 22, 2008 by brevell
Posted on February 18, 2008 by brevell
Posted on February 18, 2008 by brevell
Posted on February 7, 2008 by brevell


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.
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Posted on January 19, 2008 by brevell


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.
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