Choosing living room
curtains, drape, soft furnishings and window
treatments can give a new look to your living room. An
appropriate curtain design for the living room depends
on your décor and color theme, your budget and your
size and shape of the living room and its windows and
doors. If you have a certain curtain design in mind,
choose your material carefully as all fabrics and
patterns do not go well with all curtain designs. An
overhanging layered curtain will have to use a
different fabric and material than a pleated simple
curtain design.
The windows and doors of the
living room that open outside on the road or garden and have the
possibility of public seeing your curtains from outside should use
double-sided curtains, so that there is no wrong side to your
window and door treatments and your curtain looks equally good
from inside and outside.
To see whether the drape you chose really goes well with your
living room decoration theme or not and how will it look at
different times of the day, take a small piece of fabric and
attach it to the place where you want to hang the curtain. This
will help you to determine the look of the living room curtain
depending on the amount of sunlight and other lightings at
different times of the day and how well it goes with your décor.
Most people ignore lining the curtains due to time and money
constraints but lining the curtain, not only increases the life of
the curtain and protects its colors and fabric from outside
weather conditions but also improves the drape of the curtain and
improve the insulation property of the curtain of keeping the
cooling or the warmth of the room inside it.
Living room curtains do much more than blocking the sunlight and
maintaining your privacy in beautifully designed living rooms.
They are also useful as camouflaging tools for architectural
defects and awkward windows in your living area. Hanging curtains
in right fabrics and patterns in different ways can make your
window look larger, smaller, wider or narrower than it really is,
add height to the living room or give an oriental or romantic feel
to the living room. There is no golden rule that says that you
have to follow the exact shape of your window while hanging your
draperies. Fix your pelmet near the ceiling and let the curtains
extend from ceiling to the floor to add vertical height to your
living room or extend the pelmets on both side of the windows to
give your window a wider look.
Fancy tiebacks and tassels can make your present curtains look
more attractive and draw attention to them. You can use net fabric
and contrasting curtains to add liveliness and color to your
living room or just change the look of your old and existing
curtains by changing the curtain pole, making a new interesting
pelmet for your curtain, hang them in a different manner or add
swags and valances to your living room curtains in contrasting
colors. Screens, shutters and blinds such as roller blinds or
modern Venetian blinds in contemporary and modern living rooms
often replace traditional curtains. Creative and artistic living
room setups sometimes do away with curtains altogether and
highlight their windows for making just one more artistic
statement.
They use glass paints to make elaborate designs or abstract art on
the window panels, install stained glass on their living room
windows and doors to play with colorful patterns or put a leading
or stencil on frosted window and door glass panels. You may also
want to hang curtains in the living room to block the view from
your seating area to straight inside your bedroom, bathroom or
kitchen or to hide an open closet. For an oriental look, you can
use beaded curtains or ethnic and decorative hangings made up of
shells or acrylic shapes. If your windows get ample of sunlight,
you may want to add potted plants on your window sill instead of
adding living room drapes to block the sunlight. You can create
creative and stunning window dressings and balance your curtain
design in lieu of the overall living room look, if you keep the
size, style, positioning and setting of the window in your living
room and keep in mind its attributes and limitations.
