Window treatments

Problem: What is the best way to treat two windows that are quite different in size and shape, but located in the same boxlike room? One window is a sliding glass window-door that opens to the outdoors. The other is much smaller and narrower and does not come to the floor or the ceiling.

Pat Plaxico, a design consultant of High Point, N.C., worked out a solution that she believes brings unity and interest to the windows and to the plain room itself.

She chose to treat the windows as if they both extended to the floor, framing them in identical lambrequins, covered with the grasscloth that also is on the walls. She placed thin-slatted blinds in burnt orange behind the lambrequins. The blinds also reach to the floor and can be adjusted at will. Voila! The window disparity is camouflaged behind an innovative treatment.

The designer, in this case, had the lambrequins built, although she says clever do-it-yourselfers could manage the effect by drawing the pattern, having the frame cut from plywood panels at the lumber store, assembling it, and then covering with paint, fabric, or wall covering.

The room is styled in an Oriental mood that combines both traditional and contemporary elements.