window covering ideas  »  window treatments

Window Treatment Style

Finding The Right Style For Your Window Coverings

Christopher Smith

One of the areas of home decorating that is most exciting to take on is selecting what kind of window treatments you are going to use. Not only do you have the decisions of what style, fabrics, and colors but you also have to decide whether you will use matching or contrasting borders, fringe, cording, and other accents that will announce your individuality. The choice of window treatments tells a lot about a person's personality. My wife and I latterly redesigned the window treatments in one of our homes and selected a tropical them complete with bamboo rods for the curtain holders and blinds that were made from bamboo slats for an island look. When we added some floral curtains and draped synthetic flowers over the bamboo rods it actually set the entire room up.

Many folks don't understand how many different parts go into creating great window treatments. In addition to the above you also have to choose your draperies and valances as well as what sort of ties you are going to go with and with the valances you have got to decide if you are going formal or casual as well as choosing the sort of fabric and whether it will be flat, gathered, or pleated.

Next you may want to make a call about blinds and shades. There is now a various choice of shades and blinds to choose from. This wasn't the case as little as 20 years ago but now you can walk into home improvement store and find an enormous selection, if you shop online you find an even bigger selection. Here you will have to choose whether or not you are going to use shades made from fabric or the cellular variety. You may also have the options of bottom arched, pleated or flat, Roman and balloon styles. Keep in mind the cellular shades will give you a much tidier look.

If you opt to go with blinds as we have in all of our houses then you have many more selections. You can select aluminum, vinyl, imitation wood, or real wood for your blinds and of course you also have a rainbow of colours to make a choice from. The great thing about using real wood is that you can match them to any color you need. They are also very adjustable as far as how much light you want to let in and you can open them with open windows to let breezes flow thru and still maintain a degree of privacy.