By Linda Braden Albert
for Blount Voice

An innate talent for sewing and the perseverance to succeed has a Maryville woman going above and beyond in the field of custom upholstery and draperies.

"We do very, very high-end, the best money can buy," explained Shirley Rupert, owner of Above and Beyond Custom Interiors: An Award Winning Custom Drapery Workroom. "Everything is very custom, with all the bells and whistles and all the fun stuff."

The international award-winning, master-certified drapery workroom at 710 Montvale Road, Maryville, showcases the expertly crafted slipcovers, draperies, upholstered furniture, headboards and cornices created in Rupert's shop with the help of her assistant, master upholsterer Phyllis Price. The display area changes often; Rupert said the goal is to get finished pieces to the client's home as quickly as possible.

Price is responsible for doing reupholstery and making slipcovers. Self-taught, she has been working at her craft for 25 years. She said it takes her about a day and half to reupholster a simple chair.

Price said she enjoys her work. "Every job's new. It's different every day, not like standing in a factory doing the same thing over and over. It's fun."

One chair in the showroom appears to be upholstered, but it isn't — instead, the chair is slipcovered. Rupert demonstrated how the cover can be removed for cleaning.

"Anything that can be stapled, cut, sewn or glued, we can do it," Rupert said.

Full service

The client normally comes to the shop and explains what is desired. Rupert is not an interior decorator or an interior designer, she said, but if a client wishes, she can go to a home and do a consultation and make recommendations.
"But primarily we let people come to us and tell us what they want done," she said.

Rupert and Price focus mainly on upholstery, slipcovers, draperies and any other window treatments. Books filled with different fabric choices, trims and hardware are available for the client to choose exactly what she wants.

"One of the things with me is, you can come and I can help you pick out your fabric, the trim that goes with it, the style, the hardware that you need, then we manufacture it and we come out and install it," Rupert explained. "So everything's done at one shop. Our customers more and more are appreciating that. They don't have to run from place to place and then find someone to install."

Rupert said home furnishing trends change just as clothing trends do. Right now, she's seeing a resurgence of pinch-pleated drapes. "Very few valances anymore. It's mostly panels and draperies — but there are new ways of doing them now. The lining has changed. The old lining would come apart on you; it didn't hold up well." Now, a layer of felt is used rather than the polyester lining of the past. "You can't hardly beat the natural fibers."

Colors are changing, as well. Rupert said blues are trying to make a comeback, although they can be difficult to match.

Simplicity is on the upswing, as well. Rupert said only a few short years ago, clients were wanting more elaborate items, trimmed to the gills.

"Now, it's really clean-lining," she said. "Eliminating the fuss."

Cost will depend on exactly what the customer wants. But, Rupert is quick to add unashamedly, her custom pieces are expensive — for example, a recent customer paid $300 per yard for fabric for drapes, with each length of drapery costing about $900.

God-given talent

Rupert discovered her talent for sewing at the age of 10. As the scorekeeper for the basketball team at the now-defunct Union School, she and the girls on the team were instructed to buy a pattern for an outfit to wear after the game in University of Tennessee orange. The girls were given the pattern number and told which fabric to use, and after Rupert's foster dad helped her get everything together, Rupert made her own outfit.

"The moms were so amazed," she said, adding that following the directions was simple for her. "This is a gift. I know God gives everybody a gift and a talent, and this is my talent. Many, many ladies never find their talent."
Rupert, now 47, has been working at her craft as a full-time profession since 1994.

"I've done this 15 years out of my two-car garage while I raised babies," Rupert, a single mother, explained of her business, then called Shirley's Workroom. "I had one table, and my machine."

Rupert recalled a comment made by the mother of one of her daughter's friends.

"She said, my mama says your mama is smart because she gets to stay home all day," Rupert said with a laugh. "Nobody knew I was working at 3 in the morning, and sometimes you work all night to get it done — or pay the electric bill."

Her current workroom opened in 2007, with lots of extra space for more tables and state-of-art equipment. Originally, Rupert had planned to call the new facility Custom Interiors — until a lady who had worked with her for years caused her to change her mind.

"She said this is not just custom interiors, this is your vision, this is your dream," Rupert recalled. "She said, 'this is above and beyond.' So we're Above and Beyond."

Rupert's international workroom award was given on a design of a cornice over a window at a Maryville client's home. The hard cornice is made of plywood and, because it would have to be removed to get to the window's plantation shutters, Rupert put the cornice on hinges. "It will lift up so they can open the shutters, clean the windows, whatever they need to do. They don't have to take the whole thing down to get to the window."

Some of Rupert's pillows have appeared in Oprah Magazine. They were in use when the magazine published photographs from Blackberry Farm in Walland. The shop was given credit in the back of the magazine.
"It was just a plain, simple pillow — but we'll take it," Rupert said.

Rupert is now serving as president of the Knoxville Area Workroom Association, which includes about 25 of the 50 workrooms in the area. Members meet once a month to keep abreast of new ideas and equipment as well as to talk over problems and find solutions.

"When I first found out about it, I was overwhelmed," she said. "Finally, there's someone else out there, sitting in their basement making drapes and understands what it's like — and has a drapery pin in their pocket at all times. It's just something else that makes this a better workroom."

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