Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Your old house had formal living and dining rooms, each with a broad window treated with traverse draperies adorned with swags and cascades. You'd like to recycle these costly treatments in your new living room, which has narrower windows, one on each side of the fireplace, and three grouped together on another wall. Do you pitch everything and start over?

No way. Reed recommends slicing 12 inches off the outside of each of the four original panels to create four skinny panels -- one each for the windows at the fireplace, and two used inside the three-window cluster -- and four broad panels.

Use two of the four broad panels to make asymmetrical tieback panels to finish the effect at the fireplace windows. Reed suggests keeping the pinch pleats, but attaching them to boards to install on the wall for easy hanging.

The second pair of broad panels will work in similar fashion at the window trio. A recycled swag gracefully marries the two tieback panels at the top center. The old cascades can be resewn as tiebacks, or you can use new tassels and cording. Freshen the drapery edges with new fringe for an air of luxury.

1. When you're considering moving draperies from one space to another, look at window treatments in terms of yardage. Think: How many yards of fabric are available? Not: Are the dimensions of particular windows in sync? If you use this mind-set, Reed says, it's much easier to imagine cutting up fabric and restitching it into new configurations.
2. If you choose to refashion a treatment rather than replace it, use this opportunity to replace worn linings and interlinings, Reed says. The linings bear the brunt of sun abuse and are typically the first part of a window treatment to fail. By replacing these least expensive elements, you'll extend the life of the entire treatment.
3. Also, before you begin reworking your draperies, take the opportunity to dryclean them. No matter how scrupulous a housekeeper you are, draperies get very dusty.
4. If you don't have enough yardage to work with and your fabric has been discontinued, don't sweat it. Try integrating a new fabric into the mix, maybe even two. A second fabric often looks great as a complementary valance, swag, or wide, decorative hem. After all, top designers use this trick on new draperies. Choose your patterns wisely, though. Florals, stripes, checks, and solids often blend gracefully.
5. Check to see whether the scale, colors, weight, textures, and cleanability of the fabrics you intend to combine are harmonious. The goal is to make the revised window treatment look purposeful, not makeshift.