At Your Service

How many times have you been shopping online, found an interesting product, and hit the 'contact' button to ask the sales staff a question about some aspect such as size, delivery, etc?

And how often have you had to wait ages for a response, if you even get one? As a consumer, I am constantly frustrated at the lengthy or non-existent response rate from so many firms. (Are you hearing me, --- Door Company, --- Fabrics and --- Appliances? I went elsewhere, thanks for not returning my email...)

With that frustration in mind, I insisted that Cooper's Cottage Lace have the finest customer service in the lace curtain industry (and we do, just read our testimonials). Just this Monday alone, we received three unsolicited emails thanking us for responding so quickly and informatively.

This post is not intended to be self-congratulatory; it's the way business is supposed to be conducted.

So here's my promise; we will always get back to you as quickly as we can, usually within an hour or two, but always within a day...evenings, weekends and holidays included. If you wish, call 413-549-1063 or toll-free 888-433-7801 whenever you have a question. Chances are, I'll answer it personally in the off-hours.

Yours,
Dan Cooper, President
Cooper's Cottage Lace, LLC
dan@cottagelace.com

Old House Writing

On any given day, my professional life veers between Cottage Lace, Historic Carpet and writing articles and books. I post my articles and seldom think about them again. Recently, I saw a reference to one of them, a piece on Old House Online's (Old House Interior and Old House Journal's) Facebook page that was promoting my article on Tiling on A Budget. I clicked on the link, and discovered that they had posted a bunch of my pieces; you can see them here.

Washing Up

On The Care and Cleaning of Madras Lace Curtains...

Many people are under the impression that they need to launder their lace curtains frequently, when in fact the opposite is true. Unless you reside in a very dusty locale, you only need to clean your curtains once or perhaps twice a year. Often, simply shaking or vacuuming any dust off of them is a sufficient interim procedure.

While our mill recommends dry-cleaning Madras lace curtains, we at Cooper’s Cottage Lace have found that washing them either by hand or in cold water with a mild detergent on the delicate cycle works quite well. We have a high-efficiency, front loading washer, and this leaves the curtains barely damp upon finishing the load.

Drying your lace panels is the most important consideration; never put these 100% cotton lace curtains in a tumble dryer! We’ve found that the best method is to simply hang them back up on the rod, while they’re just slightly damp, or hang them over a shower rod. Don’t hang them on a line, as the curved deflection of the sagging line may distort the shape of the lace panel. Once dry, if you find that they are wrinkled, simply touch them up with an iron. Another method is to lightly sprtiz them with water while they are hanging, and to gently tug the wrinkles out; this is what we do at trade shows, rather than iron 20-plus lace curtain samples!

Because they are cotton, Madras lace may shrink slightly after they’ve been washed, but you can often iron them back into shape if they are still damp. You may lose half an inch, but this can be mitigated by lowering the curtain rod or hanging the curtain through the header instead of the lower rod pocket.