From the Atelier

The Regent Silk — Curtains Worthy of the Room

European-Style Home · Formal Dining Room · Ocala, Florida

I didn't want basic curtains.

Before the room was finished, I laid the fabric across the dining table with the simple black curtains still hanging behind it. The difference told me everything. The black curtains performed a function, but they didn't contribute anything to the story of the room.

The Regent silk did.

Close view of the black botanical and filigree Regent silk pattern — **The material** Black filigree and botanicals on a warm silk ground.

Close detail of the Regent silk drapery, black trim and antique-brass-toned curtain hardware — **The detail** Cropped closely to the generous drape, trim and hardware.

Regent silk spread across the dining table before it was made into curtains — **Before the curtains** The Regent silk laid across the table while I considered how it would change the windows.

The fabric comes from the Royal Collection by Designers Guild. Its history made it particularly appropriate: Designers Guild says the Regent design was inspired by the elaborate inlaid ivory work of Indian furniture purchased by Queen Charlotte from the Governor of Madras in the 1780s.

That provenance mattered to me.

The sweeping black filigree and botanical pattern had the old-world quality I wanted, while the warm ground kept the room from becoming starkly black and white. I allowed the fabric to fall generously rather than treating the windows as something that simply needed to be covered.

Black lace sheers provide another layer behind it, while the antique-brass-toned hardware becomes part of the composition rather than disappearing.

“I didn't want basic curtains. If the architecture, furniture and objects in the room were going to tell a story, the windows needed to tell one too.”

The Regent silk doesn't merely dress the windows.

It belongs to the history the room is creating.