What Happens During a Drapery Consultation?
A first consultation with the studio is private, on site, and entirely about the architecture. No swatches are opened. No quote is written. The work begins with the room.
Most homeowners expect a drapery consultation to begin with a swatch book. Ours does not. A first consultation with House of Drapery is a slow walk through the residence with Olga Rechdouni — listening to the architecture, the light, and how the rooms are actually lived in — before any conversation about fabric or hardware.
The structure of that visit, and what to expect from it, is below.
Before the Visit
We ask for the address, the architectural style of the residence, the rooms under consideration, and whether the project is new construction, a remodel, or a re-specification of existing drapery. That is the entire intake.
The studio does not ask for fabric preferences or budget ranges before the first visit. Both conversations come later, and both are easier after the architecture has been walked.
The Walk-Through
Olga arrives on site and walks the residence room by room. She reads the ceiling lines, the window architecture, the light at the time of the visit, and the relationship between the rooms and the rest of the home. She asks how each room is used — and at what time of day.
She does not measure on a first visit. Measurement is a separate appointment with a measurer. The first visit is about the architecture and the conversation.
The Conversation
After the walk-through, Olga sits with the homeowner and discusses what each room is asking for. The discussion is in plain architectural language — heading, mounting, fullness, layering — rather than in fabric vocabulary.
By the end of the conversation, the homeowner has a clear sense of the specification direction for each room and the studio has a clear sense of the project's scope. A swatch book may or may not be opened, depending on whether the conversation has reached fabric.
What Happens Next
A formal site survey and measurement appointment is scheduled. A written specification is drafted. A quote follows. Fabric selection is the last decision in the sequence — not the first.
Most projects move from first consultation to written specification in two to three weeks, and from specification to installation in another six to twelve.
From Olga's Studio
[Project example to add: Olga to describe a specific first consultation — what she noticed in the architecture during the walk-through, and how the eventual specification answered it.]
Questions homeowners ask us
- Is the first consultation free?
- The first private consultation with Olga is offered without obligation for residences within the studio's service area. Estate-scale and out-of-area projects are quoted individually.
- How long does a consultation take?
- Plan on ninety minutes to two hours for a typical residence. Estate-scale projects often take a half-day across two visits.
- Do I need to have fabric ideas ready?
- No. We prefer to discuss fabric after the specification direction is clear. Arriving with fabric ideas can be useful as reference, but is not necessary and is never the starting point.
- Can my interior designer attend?
- Yes, and we encourage it. A meaningful portion of the studio's work is specified alongside the interior designer of record.