What’s your dilemma? What’s your solution? Every week we share reader comments, requests, solutions and more – so go ahead, jump in and share your successes, challenges or comments – Cindy and I are certainly don’t have all the answers – we love to learn from each other.
What Window Treatments Should Be Used?
Heidi wrote to us because she’s struggling with her window treatments. Here’s her note: “The questions I have for you are about my living room. Sorry the pictures are not the best quality but hopefully you can give me some advice. I would love another opinion.
I love the red blue combination of the pillows. I need advice on the curtains. My first thought would be cornice boards, but I am renting so I don’t want to pay for them if I can’t take them with me. I know that I should raise the curtains up higher but should I make them go clear to the ceiling? To do that I am going to have to add material to them to make them long enough. I am just stumped. What do you think? Raise them? Cornice boards? Red and blue- not really working? Thanks so much.” -Heidi
Heidi's family room windows
Drapery Ideas for Heidi’s Room
The window picture doesn’t really show the blue – if you hadn’t mentioned it I would have only seen a red/gold room. The little touches of robin’s egg blue are an unusual but pretty addition and I think you could make a pretty room with it.
Heidi's inspiration color palette.
My first thought is you don’t necessarily have to take the drapes to the ceiling – it’s a nice look sometimes, but it looks like you have several feet between the window and the ceiling and you have the sliders (vertical blinds) right next to the window so you’d lose the continuity of that line. If your goal is to give the impression of more window height, a cornice or valance is one way to go. I certainly understand about renting (we are too) vs investment in decor. It’s a tricky balancing act.
Cornice boards are easy to take down and take with you but the liklihood of them fitting another window in another home are slim. A valance is much less expensive and/or time consuming to make. You can hang the valance rod so that the hem of the valance just covers the tabs in your curtains. You can likely find valance panels that are 16-18″ deep, so that would effectively raise your window treatment about a foot (after overlapping the tab tops).
A tailored, patterned valance adds height and interest to plain panels; photo via Fabric Workroom.com
Most valance panels gather onto a rod but you can determine the fullness of the gathers, of course, by how many panels you use. Fewer panels would give you a flatter, more tailored look while full gathers may feel too ruffled and bedroomy. You could combine valances on the long wall with the sliders so that it spans both windows and gives the appearance of a single valance all the way across. It would soften the top of the sliders.
A very gathered valance; photo via Hubpages.com
A tailored valance; photo via CottageHome.com
Most importantly, consider using a print fabric to reinforce your color scheme. A stripe using red, gold, and blue would be ideal – the blues wouldn’t have to be a perfect match but I’d avoid navy so the look doesn’t become too patriotic.
If you opt not to invest in cornice or valances, you might consider adding a little pattern to the drapes by putting a trim (fringe or balls) or patterned fabric on the vertical leading edge of each of the panels (that would be just the edge that’s to the middle of the window). If you don’t sew, use iron-on seam tape to just iron the fabric or trim in place. That would customize your existing drapes and create more interest behind the chair and tie the colors together.
Your Window Advice
What advice would you share with Heidi? Do you think she needs to raise the drapes or add a valance/cornice board? How would you introduce more blue into the room? Thanks for being part of our community and sharing your ideas and tips.
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