Fabric Window Treatment Ideas

Selecting curtains for your windows can be an exciting yet daunting task with the many styles, fabrics and colors available. It is now possible to buy reading made curtains from the shops to suit your windows yet for that total unique look either making them yourself or recruiting a trained professional to help you design and sew your curtains will be money well spent.

Firstly you will have to think about the style of your room, what furnishings do you have, what is the colour scheme, are you starting from scratch or updating the look and feel of the room. Taking into account all these factors you then have to decide how much light you want to let in.

Each room will, of course, be different, styles will vary, and fabric will need to be different, as will colours. Heavy fabrics such as velvet and damask would be used in living rooms, dining rooms, and anywhere formal or rooms needing a warm feel. Valances, heavy tassels, and ornamental rod ends can be used with this type of window treatment. The fabric is used in pleated or gathers curtains. Silk curtains are also popular in living and dining rooms giving an air of opulence. For the adding of extra warmth, thermal curtains are also a good choice and feature an additional foam or suede lining.

Children rooms, playrooms and less formal living areas a mix of polyester and cotton is a good choice. These fabrics can be plain, printed or especially in the case of fabric for children’s rooms, has a theme or children’s pattern. Basically the more lightweight the fabric the less formal the curtains and with the growing trend of simplicity these fabrics lend themselves well to tab top curtains where part of the curtain rod is exposed or gathered curtains with or without ties.

For the more romantic lace curtains are often used in bedrooms although the sheer fabric is also used as it does not appear to be quite as feminine to look at. Used either as cross over or continuous style in bedroom both of these fabrics have now gained popularity in both bathrooms and kitchens in various styles according to the window.

Layering is another way of using fabric for window treatments. Sheer continuous type fabric is used as curtaining on a rod with heavier curtains on another rod over the top which can be “pulled back” during the day and closed at night for greater warmth and privacy. This layering effect has remained popular for many years.

There is no doubt that using fabric for window treatments gives you many options and variable to work from and can be used for other matching accessories as well.