From House To Home

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Sheers are terrible flirts—and not just because there can be a carefree, giggling quality to them. There’s something delightful about diaphanous sheers sighing in the breeze as light dances across the floor on a Sunday morning. Used cunningly, they can make a room seem mercurial, like it’s forever deciding what to wear.

It seems many homeowners have succumbed of late to the seduction of sheers. Is it that gossamer confections are floating along runways in Milan and Paris? Beth McDonald of Elizabeth McDonald Interiors in West Simsbury, Connecticut,  says she thinks it’s the reverse.

“I feel like some materials for the home drive runway trends. You’ve got designers in Italy creating these wonderful fabrics then fashion designers taking them and making clothes.

“The creativity designers are bringing to these airy fabrics is really exciting. The Italian and German mills are the most adventuresome. I’ve seen sheer fabrics with polka dots, grass, bamboo, even toile. I can get white linens with purple embroidery and fabrics with metal thread running through them so they shimmer.

“Designers are making it easier to use them, too. Before, you couldn’t hide an unsightly seam in sheers. Now I can buy gorgeous striped linens that come in 126-inch width so there are no seams.”

McDonald attributes the popularity of these new sheers to their versatility. Sheers can add a splash of color to today’s more neutral palette, she says. They can also flatter baroque decor by adding just a whisper.

Sheers tend to be associated with window treatments. But, says McDonald, these aren’t the polyester panels you remember in Grandma’s house.

“If you look through magazines,” she says, “you’ll notice that most people are decorating with floor-to-ceiling panels mounted outside the window frame. In this case, you’re using sheers to frame the window. These are simple, pinch-pleated panels on rods. The sheers don’t actually face the glass. Eighty percent of my clients do not want window treatments that close. If they’re worried about the sun, they put in shades.”

If you want a window to be only semi-transparent, you do need to put something in front of it. If you want that something to involve sheers, you should choose a manmade fabric such as polyester, viscose, or at least a manmade-natural blend such as cotton and rayon. “No designer would put a natural fabric in front of a window. The sun will eat it,” says McDonald. “That said, blends with no more than 10 percent natural materials would be okay.

I’ve lined sheers for privacy at night, and found that the right color can really enhance their pattern.”

McDonald particularly recommends sheers in a room where the mood is quiet, where space is limited, and where you have antiques you don’t want to overpower. At once easygoing and substantial, they can complement an opulent environment.

Sheers can turn up in places other than the window, too. Because they lend the appeal of texture on texture and allow you to layer colors you might not mix otherwise, they work well in accessories such as pillows, throws, or an ottoman.

“I’ve just done some pillows in a cool fabric with a see-through pink-purplish sheer over it,” notes McDonald. “The effect was terrific.”