6 Ways To Make Your Windows Look Wonderful

Experts offer design ideas for drapes, blinds and shades.

by Maryann Hammers

You’ve decided to dress up your windows. Here are six dos and don’ts for your room’s new look.

1. Lighten up on top. For pleated top treatments or swags, choose a lighter fabric. “Heavy fabrics bulk up when folded,” warns Janice Cairns, president of Breeze Home Fashions, which makes ready-to-install drapes, curtains and valances.

2. Turn off that '80s show. Paper-stuffed balloon valences are a holdover from the big-hair Madonna days of the 1980s, and they make your home look dated, Cairns warns. Drapes installed right above the window are also unfashionable. Instead, they should be almost at ceiling height.

3. Buy extra fabric. Custom-coordinate your room with pillows, dining-room chairs or a tablecloth in the same fabric as your valence or panels, suggests George Cronson, owner of Midas Fabric & Blinds, which makes custom window treatments.

4. Camouflage uneven walls with valance and panels. Measure the valance against the line of the ceiling, and measure the panels against the line of the floor. “The valance will look straight against the ceiling, and will hide the panel’s top line, which might be crooked. The panels look straight against the floor, so the optical illusion is perfect,” Cairns says.

5. Pay attention to hardware. Carefully consider the finish, style and size of poles, finials, brackets and rings. “Gorgeous hardware sets are meant to be seen as part of the window treatments and should complement the overall decor,” says interior decorator Kathy Gariboldi, owner of ReInvented Spaces in Raleigh, N.C.

6. Be a trendsetter. Consider modern looks like woven wood (bamboo) blinds or a roller shade in a decorative fabric.