Design Diaries: The Vision...When a Room Is Ready for More

3 hours ago

4 min read

There are rooms in your home that are technically done.

They have furniture. The walls are painted. There’s a rug on the floor. Nothing is necessarily wrong.

And yet, every time you walk into the room, something whispers, We’re not finished here.

That was my family room.

For years, we lived with the room painted white. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad decision. Sometimes, as a designer, I know exactly where I want a space to go. Other times, I know enough not to force an answer before I have it.

So white became my placeholder.

A very long placeholder.

Eventually, what once felt clean and neutral began to feel a little…naked.

There. I said it.

The room needed personality. It needed warmth. And with its soaring 17-foot ceiling, it needed architectural details that could finally make the space feel intentional and complete.

Then came my collaboration with TWOPAGES.

And suddenly, the ball started rolling.

It Started With the Windows

When you have windows that stretch nearly two stories, window treatments aren’t simply something pretty you add at the end.

They become part of the architecture.

Scale matters. Fabric matters. Placement matters. Even the relationship between the drapery, windows, fireplace and ceiling has to be considered.

I knew immediately that I didn’t want anything overly trendy. These weren’t draperies I wanted to look at two years from now and think, Well…that was very 2026.

I wanted simple.

Elegant.

Classic.

Something that could stand the test of time.

That led me to a linen-blend fabric from TWOPAGES.

There’s something about the look of linen that can feel relaxed and elevated at the same time. It doesn’t have to scream for attention. And in a room this tall, the sheer scale of the drapery already gives it plenty to say.

My Designer Resource Shelf

Shop my TWOPAGES drapery selection → https://twopagescurtains.com/southerngirlinteriors

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I share products and resources that I use, specify or believe are worth considering for your home.

But You Know How Design Goes…

You decide to add drapery.

Then you look at the wall.

Then you look at the paint.

Then you look at the fireplace.

And suddenly the drapery has invited several other projects to the party.

If you’ve ever changed one thing in a room and somehow ended up reconsidering five others, welcome. You’re among friends.

Because once I could envision those long linen-blend panels framing the windows, I could also see more clearly what the rest of the room needed.

The white walls had served their purpose. Now I wanted depth and warmth.

The architecture needed more definition, too. The large back wall needed something substantial enough to hold its own against the height of the room while complementing not competing with the drapery.

And all of that needed to happen before nearly 17 feet of fabric was hanging at those windows.

So the window treatments essentially gave us our deadline.

The vision had officially become a renovation.

Designing for a 17-Foot Room Is a Different Conversation

One of the biggest lessons in a two-story room is that standard residential scale doesn’t always work.

Something that looks substantial in a showroom or even on a computer screen can practically disappear once you put it into a room with this much volume.

That’s why I don’t look at drapery in isolation.

I’m looking at the entire elevation: the height of the ceiling, the width and placement of the windows, the fireplace between them, the crown molding above, the furniture below and how your eye travels through the room.

The goal isn’t simply to cover a window.

The goal is to make the entire wall make sense.

And that principle applies whether your ceiling is 17 feet or eight.

Good window treatments should have a relationship with the architecture around them.

https://youtu.be/RiGAz6LHfo0

The Part Before the Pretty

This is the part of a design project people don’t always see.

Before the beautiful reveal, there are measurements.

Samples.

Paint decisions.

Research.

A lot of staring at walls.

More measurements.

And occasionally asking yourself whether changing one thing really needed to become all of this.

Spoiler alert: sometimes it does.

But that’s also what I love about design.

A room doesn’t become personal simply because we filled it with beautiful things. It becomes personal because the decisions work together to create the way we want that room to feel.

For this space, I wanted warmth without heaviness.

Elegance without formality.

Architectural interest without making the room feel over-designed.

And drapery that would soften all that height while allowing the windows and fireplace to read as one cohesive composition.

The linen was the beginning.

The rest of the room had to rise to meet it.

Click on the image for product link.

Want the Sources?

Throughout this Design Diaries series, I’ll share pieces I actually use, along with some designer-curated alternatives for creating a similar feeling in your own home.

Think of this as my Designer Resource Shelf; not a list of things you have to buy, but an easy place to find the products, materials and tools I’m talking about without having to hunt them down yourself.

THE DRAPERY https://twopagescurtains.com/southerngirlinteriors

THE ROOM EDIT https://shopmy.us/designchick1sgi/shelves

BEHIND THE SCENES https://amzn.to/4ATXWPQ

https://youtube.com/shorts/4IiCWudSlYA

And This Is Only the Vision…

Having a vision is one thing.

Making it happen?

That’s another story.

In Part Two of Design Diaries: The Renovation, we’re getting into what had to happen before those draperies could ever go up, the architectural details, the paint decisions and those inevitable moments when a project decides it has plans of its own.

Because apparently, we couldn’t just hang curtains.

And really…where would the fun be in that?

Watch Design Diaries: The Vision → https://youtu.be/RiGAz6LHfo0