Spotlight

Fine Designs from the Heartland

Melinda Conley, Allied ASID, Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd., London, OH.

 

Operating a top-notch interior decorating business in a small town in south-central Ohio might be a challenge to some business owners, but not to Melinda Conley. Combining her sizable creative talents and astute business sense, Conley is entering her eighth year running Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd., London, OH, offering window coverings, wall coverings, tile, upholstery and some furnishings and accessories. Conley graduated from Berry College near Rome, GA, with a degree in consumer and family services with a concentration in interior design. While there she met Lynne Griffin, owner of Room Service, who Conley says taught her everything she knows about making window treatments. Conley brought that knowledge home to Ohio and in 1992 at the age of 22 started her own storefront business following a suggestion by her father. With a storefront and her own custom workroom Conley has plenty of overhead to consider for her business to be successful. She has analyzed her costs and bases her prices on what she needs to make, not on what the market will bear. Conley sells her service based on her original, unique designs created to fit clients' needs and lifestyles. She also likes to present clients with design options preparing a scale drawing of their windows and offering three or four different treatments with several fabric suggestions. Conley is known to accept small and large jobs and has traveled across Ohio and into Kentucky for clients. She recently submitted three window treatment designs as examples of her work.

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TOUGHEST CHALLENGE Conley has faced challenges in her career, but perhaps the most difficult was this dining room. Not only did she design the room, she faux-painted the walls, designed, fabricated and installed the window treatment and was able to satisfy her most difficult client. This project was no easy task. The client wanted plaids, a floral fabric to match the wallpaper border and a blue fabric that had to be a perfect match for the faux-painted walls (which were created using three different shades of blue). She also wanted every drapery technique known including double-banded jabots and interlined drapery panels. Privacy also was needed because the window faced the front yard. On top of all that, the client requested everything be childproof because of her two boys ages three and five years. After hours and months of sketches, at home and during vacations, Conley finally came up with a design that involved everything she envisioned and the client wanted for the window. She decided on Silhouette window shadings with three-inch vane spacing for privacy and swags that could involve several techniques at once. The non-working drapery panels were interlined for durability and softness and included puffy banding in plaid fabric. The jabots also have double banding, and the space above the arch window top provided just enough room for a pelmet mounted on a half-circle wood board to keep all the corners soft. To complete the treatment, the topper highlights an original design finished with soft chenille fringe. The finished design created a focal point not only for the dining room, but for the view from the kitchen. All the fun fabrics and designs went together beautifully. After all the hours of work Conley can say this window treatment is one the client will never tire of—and Conley should know, she was her own client.

Designer: Melinda Conley, Allied Affiliate ASID Assistant designers: Aletha Darding, Lynne Griffin, Room Service, Rome, GA Workroom: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Installation: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Fabrics: Kasmir Fabrics—Doyle Williamsburg Stout Fabrics: Bolinger 7 Wisteria Artmark Fabrics: Jogger 2029035 Cinnabar Forsythe Fabrics: Fifth Avenue Designs Hardware: Graber Woodware 3-621-77 and 3-603-7 Trims: Conso-Chelsea Collection 24005-K33 Tassels: Room Service Window shadings: Hunter Douglas Window Fashions—Silhouettes three-inch vanes; A2-125 Radiant White Wallpaper border: F. Schumacher Photography: Brian Killian, Peters Photography, London, OH

AHOY MATES! A child's dream room is one every designer would love to create. For this room the clients wanted a nautical theme for their eldest son, Chase, who is three-years-old, but they wanted a whimsical theme they could keep as he grew older. The window itself has a low arch and provides a nice view to a beautiful front yard. Once the colors were chosen the hunt was on for the perfect fabric. A trip to the fall 1998 furniture market decided the fabric. Now, the decision was what to make with it. The client was very open to styles. A simple banner valance was designed with the idea of a ship's flags attached using grommets and roping over a wood pole. Non-working drapery panels were added to cozy up the room. But something was missing. The idea came to Conley to use a striped fabric in a fun and unusual way—horizontally on the panels. The valances came next, naturally. The two almost appear as a checkerboard. Silhouette shadings were used for privacy at night, which this client really prefers to have up during the day. As a treat for Chase, and a perfect way to end a child's day, a night sky was painted above the treatment.

Designer: Melinda Conley, Allied Affiliate ASID Workroom: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Installation: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Fabrics: Eastern Accents Window shadings: Hunter Douglas Window Fashions—Silhouettes Hardware: Graber Cording: Lowes Photography: Brian Killian, Peters Photography, London, OH

A FRENCH COUNTRY MORNING Each day this home owner looked out a bare window in her kitchen's morning room and felt it needed something. She was working with a French Country style and the colors she had chosen in her kitchen were terra cotta, green and beige. She wanted a treatment for the window that would give her privacy at times, yet allow her to open the windows to get fresh air and to see the birds. A decision was made to incorporate a fruit motif fabric with a complementary traditional plaid, which pleased the home owner. The window was treated with a series of drop swags over a pole with black wire finials formed into a fleur-de-lis design. The jabots were lined in the plaid fabric and shaped banners were draped over them and again at the center of the swags with tassels at each of their points. Part-time privacy was taken care of with Silhouette window shadings. After the client saw the drawing of this original design she was convinced the treatment was the perfect choice for her needs. Engineering this treatment presented some technical problems because the swags had to have side pieces on which to mount the jabot boards. The jabots and banners had to mount to the same board, be the same width and not look bulky. The mount board was notched to allow for the trim around the window. The center banner was flipped over the top rod at the intersection point of the swags, which had to be perfect. There weren't a lot of places to mount all this fabric, but a way was found to execute this treatment.

Designers: Melinda Conley, Allied Affiliate ASID Aletha Darding Workroom: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Installation: Fine Designs & Interiors, Ltd. Fabrics: Kasmir—Halstead-Khaki Greef—Inverness/Spice 3027043 Hardware: Graber-2-823 Fleur-de-lis finials Tassels: Conso—Elizabethan Range 9498; color 1306 Copper Window shadings: Hunter Douglas Window Fashions—Silhouettes Photography: Brian Killian, Peters Photography, London, OH