Custom Sheers in an Upper West Side Townhouse: Two Rooms, Two Moods
The elegance of textured sheers.
Not every project asks for the same answer in every room. This Upper West Side townhouse, designed by MKCA Architecture, called for custom sheers that would serve two very different spaces, a bright, open living room with floor-to-ceiling glazing, and an intimate curved walk-in closet that deserved something more personal. Our workroom fabricated both, and the contrast between them is exactly the point.
MKCA's vision for the townhouse was contemporary and considered: clean architecture, natural light, and interiors that feel curated rather than decorated. The drapery needed to follow that sensibility: nothing heavy, nothing that would pull focus from the spaces themselves. At the same time, the walk-in closet presented an opportunity for a softer, more feminine moment within the otherwise restrained palette.
Two rooms. Two distinct treatments.
The Living Room: White Textured Ripple Fold Sheers
The living room is anchored by a full-height window wall framed in black steel — a strong architectural gesture that called for an equally clean response. The specification was white textured sheers in a ripple fold pleat, installed floor to ceiling on a recessed track.
The fabric's subtle texture catches and diffuses the light filtering through the glass, giving the panels a quiet visual presence without competing with the view of the greenery beyond. Drawn closed, they soften the room and create privacy from the street while keeping the space luminous. The ripple fold's consistent S-fold pleat stacks back tightly when open, allowing the full window to read unobstructed — the right choice for a room where the architecture is the decoration.
In a living space this minimal, the sheers do their best work by being almost invisible.
The Walk-In Closet: Violet Sheers on a Custom Curved Rod
The walk-in closet presented a different challenge entirely — a curved wall that required hardware to match, and a space intimate enough to support something more expressive than the living room's restraint.
The solution was violet sheers hung from a custom curved brass rod with rings, fabricated in a modern pinch pleat. The color — a soft, dusky violet — introduces femininity and warmth into what could easily have been a purely functional room. The pinch pleat heading, with its structured but graceful fold, suits the formality of a dressing space in a way that a ripple fold would not.
The sheers follow the curve of the rod naturally, falling in soft vertical folds that soften the architecture and add a layer of privacy to the dressing area without closing it off. The painted ceiling above — ornate and richly detailed — frames the whole composition and makes the space feel more like a room than a closet.
This is drapery as interior design decision, not afterthought.
