Monday, July 22, 2013

Window Treatments - Not-So-Plain, but Simple

Window treatments can be a real money pit in a home's decor, and most folks explicitly stipulate in home sale contracts whether treatments stay (generally they, along with hardware attached, do). In my home, all the window treatments are uniformly styled with wooden blinds, no drapes or curtains.  In fact, the only curtain in my home is one shower curtain - in the bathroom I call mine (the Mr. and I do NOT share bathroom space in this house).
For an otherwise plain, straight-edged curtain, I recently added a deep, hand-crocheted vintage lace to the curtain, spaced and draped across evenly among the hooks. It was an easy styling for a great piece of vintage lace that was likely originally intended to trim a bed sheet.  To the right is a glimpse of the uniform all my windows in my home sport.

I have a couple of family members who have integrated some other easy styles into their window treatments that I'm sharing today.  One treatment is with the use of cloth napkins, dressing up a kitchen area.
Two napkins are draped over the center, and two of a different pattern are simply twist-tied and tacked at the corners.  How cute and easy is that?  For another look, at the kitchen sink window, the napkins are gathered and  twist-tied in a pouf.
The poufs are simply tacked into the window frame on each side.  Architectural salvage hardware adds a nice flair inside the window frame.  Vintage hankies would be another nice alternative for these two previous looks.

Another family member uses sheer fabric yardage to create a nice, transitional look in her home, three different ways. Each of these are in one large, open space - living room and dining room. Here's the first treatment, over a large picture window:
In this arrangement, the center of the fabric is shaped into a rosette pouf, the center pushed down and billowed around tissue paper, then simply tied with a hair tie (Goody's).  Then the fabric is draped evenly on each side until reaching the corners.  At the corners, and two more evenly spaced points along the sides, the fabric is simply gathered & tied off in poufs.  The remaining fabric simply falls just below the window ledge.

Another treatment, over French doors, utilizes the rosette pouf over the center, and then drapes over curtain tieback hardware at each corner.  The fabric then falls to the floor.
A third treatment, this time at a sliding glass door, drapes the fabric over sheer panels utilizing a double rod:
The panel on the left side falls to the floor, alongside the sheer panels, but the right side (where the door slides) falls only to the handle.

I really don't have a preference when it comes to window treatments.  I think if I lived near a coast, though, I may lean toward simple blinds, shutters or sheers.  Over the years, I've used draperies (pinch-pleats & shirred), blinds (vertical, horizontal, honeycomb), and valances (poufs, pinch-pleats, box).  One thing's for certain - you don't have to break the bank to create a little style in your home.  Vintage lace can be scoured from estate sales, napkins can even be purchased at a thrift store, and sheer muslin can be purchased inexpensively at fabric outlet stores.

How do you treat your windows?

Postscript:  I was super excited last week when I was featured on Common Ground's "Be Inspired Top Visited Links". Thank you, Debra, for continuing to host this party and allowing us all to connect with each other to showcase our weekly projects.  While my project was solely the work of a master seamstress, not my own, it was a pleasure to showcase Doris' talent and, at the same time, draw in new readers.  Welcome, new readers!

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