Believe it or not, curtains say a lot about a room. They add character, color, value, and texture to any room. Not only are they important stylistically, but they are important for keeping your privacy behind the walls of your home so you aren’t exposing your business to the world!
“Why curtains Maggie?” you ask. “My home looks perfectly good with just blinds.” Let me respectfully disagree. Lets take a practical look at a room without curtains and assess why we have the need for them.
In this room, the walls are blank and look flat which equals boring. The blinds blend right into the wall, which makes the entire wall look like one shade of off white. The only thing that is interesting in this room are the pillows on the lounger.
When choosing the perfect curtains for your room, my advice is to pick a theme. Choose a color curtain that will compliment your furniture and wall color. If you have dark colored furniture, I would choose a lighter color curtain similar to it on the color wheel. Or if you are feeling adventurous, choose a curtain color completely opposite to your wall color on the color wheel. How you choose a color and texture of curtain depends completely on your individual style. I chose a gray curtain with white paisley designs to compliment this wall.
The next lesson in Curtains: 101 is measuring the length of your window. When I measure a window to fit it for curtains, I measure roughly 2 inches from the top of the frame to the floor. Having the curtains go all the way to the floor elongates your walls, and makes your ceiling appear taller. And, in my opinion, it looks better than having them end right at the bottom of the window frame.
The third step in picking out curtains is measuring the width of the window(s). When you are hanging the brackets to the curtain rods, let them extend about an inch past the frame on both the left and right side. Once you have the width of the window, double that number and you get the appropriate length of curtain for your window. If you do not double that number and you will end up with curtains looking like this:
Notice that the curtain is stretched all the way out, and you can see every fold and wrinkle in the material. Also, the curtains don’t even reach to the end of the window frame, leaving the blinds exposed. Ideally, it’s best to have curtains be scrunched together simply because it is more visually appealing, and covers more of any imperfections your wall or window may have.
By adding an additional two curtain panels, this window looks fuller and complete. These curtains are the proper length and width for this living room window. They also add an element of interest to this room, especially against the plain boring off white walls.
Another tip for choosing curtains is do not be afraid to think outside of the box! As I was curtain shopping, my eyes were grabbed by a pattern I saw. As I looked closely at the package and I realized that what I was holding was a cloth shower curtain! I thought to myself, I could totally use this shower curtain for a window! So I purchased two shower curtains, drove to Lowes and picked up some shower curtain hangers, and went to hang them up. This is how it turned out:
There are so many options for curtains out there. If you do not know where to begin to look, or are worried about the price, check out these stores, listed least expensive to most expensive.
Marshalls
Homegoods
Target
Lowes
Pottery Barn
So, now that you have successfully passed Curtains:101, I challenge you to do away with boring windows, add some color and pattern to your walls, and refuse to live in an unstylish room. Now that you have the keys, go out and drive!
xo,
Maggie
