Window Treatments

Practicality should be a major priority when considering the dressing of a window.  As with clothes, we need to protect from the cold, shield from the heat, allow privacy and, yes, express ourselves – but appropriately, please…gold spangled stilettos on a cross-country run? I don’t think so. Sensuous swags and tails on a tiny kitchen window? Definitely not.
 
There is obviously a lot less risk to dressing your body than your windows.  For a start you can try out as many shapes, sizes and colours as you want before confidently handing over that credit card.  A dress hanging limply on the rail might suddenly look a million dollars with the right curves to fill it out.  Alternatively, the lime green shirt looking fabulous on the nut brown model in the mail order catalogue makes you look as if you just ate a dodgy oyster.  But that’s OK – all you suffer is the minor inconvenience of sending it back for a refund.  Sadly, not the case with the 35 metres of  hideously expensive fabric you fell in love with and had made up into full length, lined and interlined curtains before discovering they simply do not do anything for your sitting room.  You either have to live with them, being painfully reminded of your mistake every time you draw them, or, if you’re lucky, sell them on “e-bay” for a fraction of their original cost. 
 
From a designer’s point of view, the final denouement of a project, when the curtains are dressed and the blinds patted into neat folds, can be the most rewarding moment of any job. A client might have stood by patiently for months while walls are put up, floors put down and lights put in – a slowly unfolding plot…then tar rah! in two shakes of a Black and Decker all is suddenly revealed in the final chapter. And call me sentimental, but I never fail to get a little frisson of excitement when the storyboard I have carried around in my head for weeks suddenly becomes reality

So, how do you get the Happy Ever After ending? Well, first of all consider the style of your house and go with it – grand or simple, urban or rural, traditional or contemporary.  Do you want clean, crisp lines or generous, soft folds?  Consider what is going on outside your window – the seasonal cycle of mountains and glens, or the wash cycle on your neighbour’s drying line; do you want to frame your view and flow into it, or do you want to form a distraction from your exterior and create a self contained interior?  These are general questions of style which you need to address before you start thinking about whether you want Cabbage Roses, Jackson Pollock or anything in between.  Remember the frillier the curtains, the more distracting they will be and the smarter the blind,
the more contemporary it will look.

It is sometimes helpful at this stage to look through magazines for ideas – find styles that instinctively appeal to you and consider whether they can be adapted to your windows.  I have never been an advocate of following any trend – unlike this season’s yellow polka dot bikini, your curtains need to look good in summer and winter for years to come, regardless of what’s “in” or “out”.  Another reminder of my cobbling parents – our sitting room curtains, now 20 years old, adorned the windows of two other houses before finally coming to rest here – of course they were only meant to be a temporary measure, but I am now far too attached to them to even consider replacements. (If they last another 30 years, they might even,
like that teeny weeny bikini, come right back into fashion again!) 

Whether you opt for curtains or a blind is often a practical rather than a stylistic consideration. If you have a radiator or a piece of furniture in front of the window, you should either have short curtains or some form of blind.  If you opt for curtains, make sure that their length bears some relation to the sill – a couple of centimetres below looks fine – as nothing looks worse than curtains dangling in the middle of nowhere.  Also make sure that you don’t make any pelmet too top heavy, although you should have it covering the top of the window opening, and even the top line of the frame if it is very prominent (e.g. a dark wood) – otherwise you get too many conflicting lines vying for attention.

Remember that curtains fitted outside a reveal can usually be drawn back off the window to maximise light, whereas a Roman blind fitted within the reveal will block off the top 8 or so inches, even when up – and an Austrian blind will take up at least 14”. If light is an issue, choose your style with care.  For the uninitiated, a Roman blind is the one that folds up in straight lines (like their roads), but is a flat panel of fabric when down. 

A roller blind is also flat when down, but the roller itself only takes up about 2”; if you don’t want the reverse (laminated) side to be visible on the roller, you have to ask for the blind to be reverse rolled, or you can hide it behind a discreet pelmet. If you are covering a wide window but you don’t want any seams on these flat blinds, choose a fabric which can be used sideways (a plain or a check) – this will also cut down on the material and labour costs.

In complete contrast, an Austrian blind is as frothy as a Viennese Whirl, gathered across the width and falling in scalloped pleats – not for the faint-hearted.  The situations in which these can be used are understandably limited, but with the right window and the right fabric, it can look as stunning as a ball gown.  Bear in mind that Roman and roller blinds only require as much fabric as the area of the window, whereas an Austrian will require even more than curtains for the same area.

Of course, blinds need not be of fabric; slatted blinds, whether wood or metal, are very practical and contemporary looking in an office, bathroom or kitchen.  Like just about everything else these days, they come in every colour imaginable, with webbing and cord to match – however it is not advisable to use the wooden slats in a steamy room, as you might end up with a banana blind.

Curtains and pelmets come in endless shapes and sizes.  Whenever you are unsure about proportions, it is always best to do a scale drawing of the window (usually 1:20 gives a good idea), including the lines of the floor, ceiling and cornicing – you can then adjust the pelmet length with a pencil and rubber (less expensive than fabric and scissors). 
For floor length curtains, the general ratio of curtains to pelmet is 7:1, so if you haven’t enough room above the opening to achieve this without losing a significant area of your window, then it’s probably best to avoid a pelmet, and opt instead for a pole.  If you think this is the simplest option, beware, for there are still decisions to be made – wood or metal? Painted or stained? Ball or cage finials?
Which curtain heading would look best – ruflette, pencil, French or goblet?....

As with blinds, the simpler the pelmet, the more contemporary the look – in its simplest form, a fabric covered fascia not only looks smart, but serves to cover the curtain track behind. 

At the other end of the scale, you can shape and trim, bind and frill or swag and tail to your heart’s content, creating luxurious statements of design – bearing in mind, of course, that the fancier the pelmet the fancier the price tag that comes with it.

The last element to consider is whether to interline. Interlining comes either as “domett”, a thin layer like a crepe bandage, or as “bump” – thick like a woolly blanket. Which one you use should be determined by the weight and texture of the main fabric, the size of your window and the amount of room you have to the sides.  Interlining curtains involves a great deal of hand-sewing and is therefore more expensive than merely lining.  A compromise is to use black-out lining, which is a heavily-coated thermal lining; this blocks out the light, retains the room’s heat and gives a fuller, more substantial look to your curtains than by using ordinary lining.

You now have three options:

A. Pop some pills, dash into your local home improvements store and buy a pair of ready-mades (then pop some more pills)
B. Forget the whole idea – who needs curtains, anyway
C. Get in touch with Jane Blanchard Design

Hmm, I wonder……