Oceanfront Condo, Boca Raton

Linen where it matters, and nothing showing

An older oceanfront condo in Boca Raton, renovated top to bottom with a general contractor - which is exactly when we like to be called. With the GC on site we recess the drapery track into the ceiling, so the Somfy Irismo 45 RTS tracks disappear and the fabric simply falls from the ceiling line. The living-room sheers are Villa Nova Geneva in Chalk, a 60% cotton, 40% linen plain: the owners wanted the natural look of linen - the softness and the slight irregularity that polyester never quite mimics.

In the master, 100% linen drapery in Kravet Basics 4843-1, a 118-inch wide-width woven in France and sewn in our own workroom, with Berlin Snow White blackout rollers running in side channels behind it. The second bedroom takes the same blackouts to complete dark, with its drapery in Alendel Toronto, Flax. Where a window shares a wall with a door, the two motorized shades cannot finish at the same height, so we fitted an H-profile between them to close the light gap. In the living spaces, Paris 3% solar screens in Blanc keep the beach in view and the glare out.

The hard part was the geometry. The windows sit where they sit and a stack has to clear them, so we cut the fullness back to the least that still reads as a wave and gained the glass. Floor and ceiling were not level either - on an old building they rarely are - so every panel was cut to the shortest measurement of its opening, then steamed in place to close the gap to the floor: linen that kisses the floor looks right, linen that touches it breaks and goes back to the workroom. And because a crooked window leaks light at every edge, we caulked the living room and both bedrooms before the blackouts went in - two to three hours to hang the shades, five or six on the caulking, and the difference at night is the whole point.

Every motor speaks Somfy RTS: Telis 16 and Situo 5 remotes in the rooms, and a TaHoma switch that ties the whole condo to Amazon Alexa, so the owners run it by voice or from anywhere. Design guidance, fabrication and installation were all ours, in house.