How Do I... Choose Window Treatments?
Finish off the look of a room – and boost your home's energy efficiency – with a well-chosen window treatment
In this practical series, we ask experts to answer your burning home and design questions. Here, Frances Cosway, principal at White Pebble Interiors and author of Your Forever Home provides a step-by-step guide to selecting the right curtains or blinds for your home.
Start by asking yourself the right questions
- What style do you want – formal, casual or traditional?
- What’s your budget?
- Do you have neighbours overlooking your property and need to increase privacy? This can affect your fabric choices.
- Do you prefer a window treatment that will provide insulation? If yes, you’ll need to choose an insulating fabric and window treatment style.
- Which direction do the windows face and what sun management is required? West-facing windows will generally need to be protected from the harsh sun, and internal treatments may not be enough. An exterior blind, which provides better solar control than an internal blind, may be a better option.
- Do you need to manage glare in a working area such as the kitchen or study?
- If it’s a window treatment for a bedroom, how light-sensitive are the people who will be sleeping there? Again, this will affect your choice of window treatment and fabric.
Know the main options
The main styles are:
The main styles are:
- roller blinds (sheer, translucent and blockout),
- Roman blinds,
- Venetian blinds,
- sheer curtains,
- blockout curtains, and
- plantation shutters.
Understand the different looks they create
- Blinds and plantation shutters provide a casual feel.
- Curtains create a more traditional look, but how much so depends on the heading and the fabric chosen. Curtains with swags and tails are far more formal and traditional compared with more relaxed, sheer-linen curtains.
- Sheer curtains provide a soft and sophisticated look. They boost privacy during the day, don’t need to be drawn, and can be used to create a formal or sleek and contemporary look.
- Lined curtains are best for insulation and blocking out light.
Choose the right blinds
- Roller blinds: Often used as a double treatment, such as combining a sheer and a blockout blind (as shown above).
- Sheers: These can boost privacy and add solar protection in the day, but do not provide privacy at night.
- Blockout blinds: Often used in bedrooms, these block sun and light, and create full privacy.
- Roman blinds: A more traditional and formal treatment that is often made from a feature fabric. It can be lined to form a blockout blind or unlined for a translucent look.
- Venetian blinds: These horizontal slats allow you to manage light levels with ease.
Consider whether a layered treatment is best
Layered treatments allow you to boost privacy and block out light, without sacrificing your views. Having a sheer curtain over a blockout blind can also soften the harsh lines of the latter.
Popular choices include:
Layered treatments allow you to boost privacy and block out light, without sacrificing your views. Having a sheer curtain over a blockout blind can also soften the harsh lines of the latter.
Popular choices include:
- sheer curtains combined with blockout curtains,
- sheer curtains over blockout blinds, and
- sheer blinds over blockout blinds.
Colour and fabric considerations
- If you want your curtains or blinds to be the focus of a room, choose a standout fabric that contrasts with your walls, such as a bright colour or a graphic print.
- For a subtler look, select a neutral in a colour that’s similar to – but doesn’t match – the colour of your walls. Just make sure the two colours are similar in tone, whether it’s cool or warm. Carry this tone through to the other decorative elements in the room, such as the bedhead and flooring.
Tips for measuring up
- With curtains, decide whether you’re top- or face-fixing them. With top-fixed styles, the curtain hardware (poles or tracks) is attached to the ceiling – great for creating the illusion of height in a room with low ceilings. However, they don’t always work with cornices. In this case, you’ll need to face-fix curtains; here, curtain hardware is attached around 100-150 millimetres below the cornice.
- Curtains that pool on the floor create a sophisticated and polished look, and can help you disguise an uneven floor. You will need to factor in extra fabric when measuring up.
- When measuring up, assess whether blinds will be inside the reveal (inside the window frame) or fixed to the architrave. You’ll also need to factor in any window winders or door handles that the blind needs to clear.
- What sort of light bleed (the amount of light that comes through the sides of the blind) is tolerable in the room? Generally, the closer the blinds are positioned to the window frame, the less light bleed there will be.
A word on plantation shutters
Plantation shutters are very popular at the moment, but they’re often installed in homes they don’t suit. In my view, they’re well suited to traditional Federation-style and contemporary homes, but don’t sit so well in 1950s and 1960s homes.
While they can add a relaxed yet polished edge to a room, they do have their downsides. They are not great insulators, have light bleed, and take up a lot of space when opened, especially with plantations on doors and large windows needing a frame that goes right from floor to ceiling.
In my opinion, curtains and other types of blind treatments are a lot less obtrusive and provide much better light and temperature control.
Plantation shutters are very popular at the moment, but they’re often installed in homes they don’t suit. In my view, they’re well suited to traditional Federation-style and contemporary homes, but don’t sit so well in 1950s and 1960s homes.
While they can add a relaxed yet polished edge to a room, they do have their downsides. They are not great insulators, have light bleed, and take up a lot of space when opened, especially with plantations on doors and large windows needing a frame that goes right from floor to ceiling.
In my opinion, curtains and other types of blind treatments are a lot less obtrusive and provide much better light and temperature control.
Motorised window treatments
Motorised blinds and curtains are the ultimate in convenience, allowing you to open and close your window treatments via remote control, smart phone or tablet. Companies such as Somfy Australia even allow you to open them via voice command with your Alexa smart-home device. Alternatively, have them linked to a sensor system so they open or close automatically according to the weather.
Motorised blinds and curtains are the ultimate in convenience, allowing you to open and close your window treatments via remote control, smart phone or tablet. Companies such as Somfy Australia even allow you to open them via voice command with your Alexa smart-home device. Alternatively, have them linked to a sensor system so they open or close automatically according to the weather.
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Here’s what you need to know before making your selection.