Home & Garden Any recommendations for stores to buy drapes?

BigPurseSue

BigPurseSue

O.G.
Sep 13, 2007
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#1
I'm considering replacing the draperies in my living room. I don't want curtains. Am looking for the old-fashioned pinch-pleat drapes. Could anyone recommend a store or two to shop for drapes?

I could sew them myself but fabric is insanely pricey, it's become cheaper to buy. I'm not adverse to JC Penny's, having furnished our last house almost entirely with Penny's drapes, but that was 20 years ago. I've been browsing Penny's store and web site for years and haven't spotted anything I remotely like. And it would be nice to find something more high-end than what they sell these days.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
#2
I hate Penney's, but drapes are good there!
I'll think about it. The places I can recommend may not have pinch pleat.
Have you tried Pottery barn?
 
#3
Swanky Mama Of Three said:
I hate Penney's, but drapes are good there!
I'll think about it. The places I can recommend may not have pinch pleat.
Have you tried Pottery barn?
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The Pottery Barn in our town is very small and doesn't have drapes, alas. I'm reluctant to order something like draperies from the web without looking at the quality and fabric first--been there, done that. :P My mom claims the Burlington Coat factory near her house has gorgeous draperies, even nicer than Penny's. But the one near my house stocks only curtains.

P.S., I did check Pottery Barn's web site and though they do have drapes they didn't have any pinch-pleat.
 
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#4
I've had custom panels made through DrapeStyle.com and have been very happy with them (I used them for two rooms and will most likely use them in the future for room renos.) I just requested swatches prior to my order. In the past, I've also ordered from Pottery Barn, Horchow/Neiman Marcus and Soft Surroundings.
 
#7
Swanky Mama Of Three said:
Oh ok.... I order online for curtains a lot.
Do you have a Calico Corners?
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I looked for one but the closest is several hours away. The fabrics on their web site are gorgeous though. Very tempting to order some swatches, although they won't take drape orders online. It would have to be a DIY project.

gillianna said:
I have had luck on Ebay with some beautiful drapes for my house.
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You know I looked on ebay and I was very surprised at all the lovely drapes I found! Thing is I need a lot of them. I have one 150" window, plus a patio door and a side window. A lot of the drapes I found on ebay looked like catalog outlet store finds being resold. Not that that's a bad thing, just couldn't find enough of any one style or fabric. And most of the sellers are adamantly opposed to returns.

I think I'm going to go the JC Penney's route after all. There's a store five minutes from my house, and they have their big annual sale coming up next month. So it will be a snap to cart home some swatches and mull things over before then.

If I post some pics of my livingroom will you guys tell me what you think would look good (or not)?? ;)
 
#8
Here's an update on my drapery hunt. I went to JC Penney's and found some drapes I loved. The ladies in the drapery dept. were super, super helpful in helping me figure out what exactly I needed to replace the ragged old custom-made drapes on my non-standard-sized windows. Which rods I'll need to lower, which windows will need new rods, how I can make low-cost pre-made drapes work on large very oddly-shaped windows. It was great. I was so excited. I took home fabric and drapery samples. I mulled and compared. I made a list of all the stuff I'd need. I assembled my coupons. The final price was more than reasonable. With great anticipation I went to order and...

Penney's didn't have all the drapery panels I'd need in their warehouse. Curiously they weren't backordered and no one could tell me whether Penney's has any plans to reorder. The drapery dept. sales ladies couldn't find anything out. I couldn't get any information out of their 800 customer service number. The drapes weren't on sale or clearance, and they're a basic style and color. Yet no one could tell me anything about whether they'd ever be in stock again. Oh well.

Back to hunting.
 
#9
I was just going to suggest Penney's....but I guess that monkey is dead.

Well, at least you know NOW what style you want...I would hunt around online. I've had lots of great luck buying stuff from overstock.com. I would also check out BB & B as well for drapes.
 
#10
BigPurseSue said:
Here's an update on my drapery hunt. I went to JC Penney's and found some drapes I loved. The ladies in the drapery dept. were super, super helpful in helping me figure out what exactly I needed to replace the ragged old custom-made drapes on my non-standard-sized windows. Which rods I'll need to lower, which windows will need new rods, how I can make low-cost pre-made drapes work on large very oddly-shaped windows. It was great. I was so excited. I took home fabric and drapery samples. I mulled and compared. I made a list of all the stuff I'd need. I assembled my coupons. The final price was more than reasonable. With great anticipation I went to order and...

Penney's didn't have all the drapery panels I'd need in their warehouse. Curiously they weren't backordered and no one could tell me whether Penney's has any plans to reorder. The drapery dept. sales ladies couldn't find anything out. I couldn't get any information out of their 800 customer service number. The drapes weren't on sale or clearance, and they're a basic style and color. Yet no one could tell me anything about whether they'd ever be in stock again. Oh well.

Back to hunting.
Click to expand...
That's unfortunate.
Were they JC Penney's own brand of drapes? If not, would you be able to get the manufacturer's information and hunt them down yourself? I'm assuming that their store computers are linked to every other store in the US? How odd that none of the (insert # of nation-wide stores here) wouldn't have any in-stock on the shelves so to speak.

On another note, would you be willing to get into this whole colour-blocking trend? Any chance that you could purchase the same panels in another complimentary or contrasting colour?
 
#11
V0N1B2 said:
That's unfortunate.
Were they JC Penney's own brand of drapes? If not, would you be able to get the manufacturer's information and hunt them down yourself? I'm assuming that their store computers are linked to every other store in the US? How odd that none of the (insert # of nation-wide stores here) wouldn't have any in-stock on the shelves so to speak.
Click to expand...

They were JC Penney's own brand. Strangely their stores' inventory systems are not linked. I was told that there is no way employees at my local store can find out what is in stock at other stores, or what the central warehouse stock holds. They can't simply order merchandise from other stores around the country like SA's at other major retailers like Nordstrom's, Macy's and Saks can. In fact they place orders through the Penney's web site just like customers do, and the web site gives them no indication of inventory or dates of availability of out-of-stock items.

Very backward for a major retailer. Penney's was the first major retailer with online sales and an online catalog, a-way back over 20 years go. (Remember the online service Prodigy?) Now it kinda seems like their IT dept. never got out of the '90s, having failed to do something as basic as linking their stores' inventories and giving their SA's better ordering ability than Web site customers.
 
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