Time for me to start thinking about skirting for my layout. Since my fascia is going to be flat black I also want the skirting to be black. What material and method did you use? Do you have a source for made to order skirting? Please post pictures if possible.
Thanks in advance.
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I use electrical conduit as curtain rods. They are cheap at HD/Lowe's/Menard's. I think I paid $2 and change for 10 foot lengths. That can't be beat. They also sell stand-offs (pictured). For curtains, I used these. They are black and you get two 42" panels for $20 or less (fluctuates).
Layout Skirting
When the layout was moved to the new train/media/audio room 5 years ago it was put on legs at 35 inches above the floor. This height was found to be good for operating and viewing from standing or sitting on a stool. Since the train room does not have a closet or storage room the space below the train layout is used for storage of LP records, spare stereo gear, etc. This makes for a messy looking area. It was decided to make a cloth skirt to hide the mess.
Some dark inexpensive material was purchased at Jo Ann’s or another cloth store. Enough was purchased to make skirt for the whole perimeter around the layout. Skirting was made for the most visible ends of the “L” and the sides where the control panels are. It was not made at this time for the less visible sides facing the two walls with the train shelves. This also provides easier access to the boxes of LP records stored under the layout.
The skirt is made using simple panels 6 inches wide with 2 inch pleats. A 5 inch hem was sewn on the bottom and a 1 inch hem was sewn on the top. The skirt was held to back side off the 1x6 base boards around the layout with thumb tacks or push pins. The skirt is sized to hang about ½ inch off of the carpet. It was made in panels large enough to cover each straight side or end with about 2 feet extra to overlap and not leave any gaps. Believe it or not I sewed the skirt with my wife’s help threading the sewing machine.
Pleats would be better sharper if I had ironed them !
It turned out the layout would be an eye sore without the skirt hiding the storage mess under the layout. It is more convinent to access the LPs under the layout with out the skirt on the backside.
Charlie
Black landscape mat works fine and is inexpensive. Not my choice for a finished layout but I used it on a few temp jobs and it looks great.
Inexpensive and I just stapled gunned it to the under side of the fascia.
Cabinet style fronts on magnetic latches are great too. Only did one of these but it was really nice for a solid look that was quick to remove.
What ever you do use a solid dark color. This brings the eyes to the trains instead of the skirting.
I ordered two 14' long premade table skirts from Amazon. They have Velcro already sewn along the top edge, so I just stapled the matching side to the facia. They are currently $18 ea.
I use a matching skirt to the train room window. I purchased this combination at a large brand name department store.
This is a large window in a window well. I built this addition to our home in 1997. The home was built in 1936 and is on Michigan’s Register of Historic Homes. This was required by local building codes and is a fire escape.
This is the main section showing the matching skirt.
The east end turn around section
The front view of the hanger. 1/2 inch pvc pipe.
Side view of the hook. This is a long threaded hook. This thread hook can be adjusted to level the PVC Pipe.
Hope this helps and thanks for taking a look. Gary
jhz563 posted:Black landscape mat works fine and is inexpensive. Not my choice for a finished layout but I used it on a few temp jobs and it looks great.
Inexpensive and I just stapled gunned it to the under side of the fascia.
Cabinet style fronts on magnetic latches are great too. Only did one of these but it was really nice for a solid look that was quick to remove.
What ever you do use a solid dark color. This brings the eyes to the trains instead of the skirting.
I did use landscape fabric for my skirting. Can't beat the cost, especially with a couple hundred feet needing to be done. There is one minor drawback with it, and that is it's a bit stiff, and doesn't like to hang in a "re;axed" way. It seems like every time you touch it, you have to go back and adjust it.
Because the fascia on my layout has a lot of curves, I created my own rail to hang the skirting from, using 3/4" plywood strips for the straight parts, and laminations of 1/4" Luan plywood for the curves. Here we are gluing up a curved rail.
This section is ready for fabric.
We just stapled the fabric directly to the rail, adding pleats along the way.
Mo985 posted:I ordered two 14' long premade table skirts from Amazon. They have Velcro already sewn along the top edge, so I just stapled the matching side to the facia. They are currently $18 ea.
What Mo said.... all of my layouts (and my modular one too) use pre-made velcro-ed banquet table skirts. They are only available at a fixed height of about 29" but that works for many installations. You can custom order different lengths but the cost skyrockets. If you need shorter, just get someone who sews to hem 'em.
You can buy long rolls of the matching velcro at Amazon too.
I just used panels overlapped an couple inches of felt from the local fabric store. The panels allow me to lift them up to get to the plastic storage bins I have under the table. I just stapled
them to the wood frame under the table.
Cheap material from Jo-Anne's that my wife hemmed and suspended from some café curtain rods we had laying around
trainroomgary posted:
Nice T-28 trainroomgary. I have one too. Super easy and fun to fly.
Have Fun!
Ron
Any suggestions for hanging the curtain material around curved layouts? I don't think I can bend curtain rods or conduit pipes, but there's got to be something.
Paul Kallus posted:Any suggestions for hanging the curtain material around curved layouts? I don't think I can bend curtain rods or conduit pipes, but there's got to be something.
The white 1/2 inch, 8 'foot sections of PVC Conduit is very flexible and could be coerced into a curve.
Paul Kallus posted:Any suggestions for hanging the curtain material around curved layouts? I don't think I can bend curtain rods or conduit pipes, but there's got to be something.
Paul, if you took care of this already show some pictures please! If not just use some velcro.
Thanks to everyone for the photos. I've got several more months to work on my new layout, but skirting is one of those finishing touches on my mind.
I like the banquet table skirting idea. LinenTableCloth.Com is one source with polyester skirting on sale at a buck a foot. Also Wal Mart had plastic skirting really cheap. The poly will help with sound reduction however.
Rods and cup hooks available at the big box stores. My sweetheart did the drapes. Her new sewing machine.
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