Why Custom Drapery Can Make or Break a Room | Leslie Excell Reveals the Secrets of Luxury Window Treatments

Send us Fan MailDrapery isn’t just fabric on a rod. It’s acoustics, light control, privacy, proportion, and that instant shift from “nice room” to “finished home.” We sit down with Leslie Excel, founder of Excel and Design Group, to unpack what’s really happening behind the scenes of custom window treatments and why the best designers treat their drapery team like true design partners.Leslie shares her path from working next door to a drapery workroom to building a nationally recognized fabrication studio celebrating 20 years. Along the way, we get practical about the details that make or break results: fabric content, blackout lining vs sheers, interlining for body, pattern matching, and the reality of railroading double-width fabric in homes with massive ceilings and wide spans. If you’ve ever fallen in love with a sample book photo and then panicked at how it will actually hang, this conversation is for you.We also dig into collaboration and planning, including why window treatments can’t be designed in isolation. Leslie explains how coordination with builders, architects, installers, and AV integrators prevents change orders and finger-pointing, especially with motorized shades, tracks, recessed pockets, and stack-back limitations. Plus, we talk hardware choices, why tracks with fascia can outperform rod-and-ring setups, and why “workroom” might be the wrong word for a craft this technical.If you care about interior design, craftsmanship, and building projects that feel cohesive, press play, then subscribe, share the episode with a designer or homeowner friend, and leave a review so more people can learn what’s really behind the drapes.Support the showLearn more at:https://twinteriors.com/podcast/https://scottwoolley.com