I see it being functional, but this looks too much like hung laundry to me. Perhaps it could work better if the pegs were more contemporary and the fabric too.

I'm not sure I understand how they cut down drafts.

I've never seen this use before. Those peg rails really are versatile. That fabric in the picture probably could've been hung more neatly, but it's still a really clever idea.

These comments are making me giggle.

I love this, especially the chair that is hung on the wall. I have been wanting to do this with a chair I have that is beautiful, but not useable. Now I'm just gonna do it.

Shawn...drafts are cut down by the hanging cloth (maybe even a quilt in winter) because the walls may not have been completely snug, and the cloth acts as a barrier. Especially around a bed, drafts can be very uncomfortable. This is why canopy beds were so popular, and why people wore bed-caps.

I love the Shaker look of simplicity and gentleness. This is a great idea for our corner-angled bed, which needs some kind of visual anchor (not a good place for a headboard though). Maybe I'll just hang some curtains in a corner. These photos are inspiring even if they are a bit messy.

That may be the first time in history that the Shakers have been referred to as messy!

shaker design is anything but messy. lol. never saw this in my visits to canterbury and village in maine. clever, clever design at work.

But the drafts would occur around window and door frames, wouldn't they, so how does fabric on the wall block that?

Just think of it as season specific insulation for the walls. I did something similar (though less elegant) with a spare comforter in college. Warmed the room up considerably.

Shaker design is lovely because it pares everything down to the essentials.

In the same vein, if you watch older films, you'll sometimes see a curtain rod hung over an interior or exterior doorframe, and a heavy tapestry curtain hung from it, across the door, to cut down on drafts and cold . I love the look, and may try it in our bedroom this winter.

On how wall curtains and tapestries exclude drafts and make spaces warmer: basic physics suggests that heat moves from a warmer body to a cooler, by the fastest means available. Heat transfer happens one of three ways, convection, conduction, and radiation. Tapestries and curtains create a pocket of still air between the wall and the rest of the room, and that still air stops convection along the wall and is also a poor conductor, so the warm air on the other side of the curtain doesn't conduct its eat into the cooler wall as quickly. Drafts usually are just convection currents of air moving from where it's warm to where it isn't.

I love Hancock Shaker Village; one of my favorite places to visit when I am out east. As pointed out by other commenters, wall hangings have a long history. The particular "messiness" noted could be solved by having the distance between loops more closely match the distance between pegs.

erika in iowa

As the inhabitant of an old, uninsulated house, I can tell you that cold certainly does permeate through the walls in winter. I've seen wall quilts to deal with this issue before, but never seen the Shaker/wall peg version. I agree, it looks so nice it makes me want to try it, except none of our beds are currently situated in a way that makes sense for that application. But yes, I wondered when I saw the picture whether "real" Shakers would've hung the blanket a bit more neatly. :)

Good explanation, Ulrika. Although I'm pretty sure that drafts are currents of air moving from where it is cold to where it is warmer, not the other way around (because hot air rises and is therefore at a lower pressure than cold air). Otherwise drafts would feel nice and warm, not cold.

I've obviously never lived anywhere cold enough for this to be needed.

Shawn-

Yes, drafts may move from where it is cold to where it is warmer, but the reason the air moves is because heat moves from the warmer body to the cooler. That is, warmth transfers from warm rooms/air to cold walls by conduction. Wall hangings slow the transfer by creating a pocket of still air between the warm air and the cold wall. Because air is a poor conductor, you don't get much heat transfer by conduction, and because the air is still, you don't get much heat transfer by convection, either.