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Upholstered Cornice Video
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Make an upholstered cornice.
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- Make an Elegant Upholstered Cornice -

If you would rather finish the board with gimp or a decorative cord, you can use a fabric glue to hold it into place. An occasional light stapling will help to hold it in place until the glue dries. Gimp can be used along the front edge instead of the bottom as well. Tassels, or other decorative trim can be tacked through in an inconspicuous spot.

Here Judy staples the welt edge into the bottom edge of the cornice. She starts at one of the back corners. She opens a couple of inches of the welt cover and snips the welt cord back. This leaves a lead to tack into the inside of the side piece, so that the cord starts right at the outside corner. You'll see now that the profile is smoothed out completely and that the rough plywood that we started with looks as good as if it were sculpted.

Here, after snipping the welt cord back to finish even with the end, she folds the end back under the corner and tacks into the side away from the edges. This will be covered with the lining.

With the welt tacked securely all around the bottom, Judy overfolds the covering strip that she sewed on and tacks it away from the edge. This may need a bit of pleating around a curve like this and a bit of stretching around inside curves. It's not that fussy as long as the edge appears neat and you staple away from the edge.

Judy rough cuts and lays in the lining. She leaves enough extra around all of the edges so that she can fold the edges under to finish it. She uses a drapery lining and staples it around the square edges first. Then she trims around the outside, leaving an inch or so to tuck back under.

She snips along the profile to give an even appearance. She folds this under, leaving the lining a bit away from the edge and carefully staples the lining down to present a nice, even edge. Since this is inside the cornice, the staples are to keep the lining from showing. The white lining will tend to reflect any light, giving the window a brighter look. For a more subdued look, you might try a darker lining.

Here is the finished cornice. Judy will mount the finished board with L brackets screwed into the header (a horizontal member above windows or doors that transfers the load of the house around the window).

Judy usually mounts the L portion about 5-6" above the window and sits the top of the cornice down onto them. Again, this is something you'll have to experiment with. Have someone hold it into place and stand back. If you're doing several cornices, make sure that the height you like works for all of them. To finish, screw up through the L bracket (an awl will start the hole and will help not to twist the lining) into the underside of the cornice top.

Cutting Upholstering Welt Finish

Upholstered Cornice:
$29.95 VHS TAPE  
$34.95 DVD  
plus $4.00 S&H

Send comments and inquiries to: cornice@fabricworkshop.com
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