- 20+ Years of Design Experience — Olga Rechdouni, ASID
- ASID Professional Member
- Custom Design · Fabrication · Installation
- Luxury Homes Throughout Los Angeles
Los Feliz Spanish Revival Living Room
This project is a conceptual design study created to explore custom window treatment solutions, fabric applications, motorization systems, and architectural integration. Images are illustrative renderings and do not represent a completed installation.
French Pleat Drapery in Belgian Linen — a design project in Los Feliz, CA. The studio's specification practice in design intent, fabric, hardware, fullness, and installation, written from Olga's perspective.
A 1928 Spanish Revival living room with original plaster, a carved limestone fireplace, and three 9-foot arched-top casement openings. The previous installation used short, rod-pocket panels that interrupted the arches and visually compressed an 11-foot ceiling.
I specified hand-tacked French pleat drapery, ceiling-mounted on hand-forged iron rods, with the panels stopping just at the floor. The brief was to let the architecture breathe — the arches were the original ornament, the drapery the quiet supporting frame.
Heavyweight Belgian linen in a warm oat tone, interlined with bump for fold weight and lined in ivory cotton sateen. Linen was the only correct answer: it ages with the limestone, holds a hand-tacked pleat for decades, and reads as period-correct against the original plaster.
Hand-forged iron rods in a dark bronze finish with hammered finials, ceiling-mounted on extended brackets to clear the original molding. Rings are ball-bearing for hand-draw smoothness.
Fullness specified at 2.75x with three-finger French pleats spaced 4 inches on center. Steam-trained at the workroom; folds dressed on site over a single morning. Returns mitered into the wall so the leading edge sits flat against the plaster.
The arches now read uninterrupted, the room measures 11 feet but reads closer to 13, and the drapery has the formality the residence was originally designed to carry. My recommendation to any owner of a Spanish Revival home: stop the drapery at the architecture, never at the window.
- Spanish Revival
- Hand-tacked French pleat
- Belgian linen
- Iron hardware
- Period restoration
Related from the Studio
The reasoning behind this work
The decisions behind this project — how the room was read, what the drapery was asked to do, and why each specification was chosen — follow the same written method the studio applies to every commission.
For the specification work behind this project, read Custom French Pleat Drapery in Los Feliz, Custom Linen Drapery in Los Feliz, and Custom Custom Drapery for Living Rooms in Los Feliz. For the broader practice in this neighborhood, see custom drapery in Los Feliz. Pricing for projects of this scope is set out in the 2026 Custom Drapery Pricing Guide.
The work on this project draws on the studio's reference library. For the heading style at the top of the panel, study French Pleat. For the fabric itself, see Linen, and Cotton. For the architectural condition resolved here, read Drapery for Casement Windows.