Window Treatment Made Easy
Window Treatments:
Update the window treatments in your home with these great ideas for window decorating. You will find helpful information including window treatment ideas, and much more. Today's look in window treatments ranges from a simple length of fabric arranged over a rod to elaborate draperies reminiscent of those in historic mansions. Whatever the style, the basic approach to design is the same. And as a professional designer and installer, I've learned the tricks for creating treatments that are appropriate, beautiful, well constructed, and suited to my customers needs -- whether they're traditional draperies or unique window treatments that incorporate couture dressmaking techniques. These procedures can be helpful to you, too, if you want to make your own window fashions. I'll elaborate more on the couture techniques in a future article, but for now, let's take a look at some design fundamentals as well as some tried-and-true workroom techniques to get you started creating effective window treatments for any room.
Start with the Elements of Design:
Window treatments come under the heading of applied design, which means they must be practical as well as beautiful. For a professional designer, the elements of design -- color, line, texture, form, and space -- represent tools of the trade in the designing process. Color: Choosing a color scheme is usually one of the first steps in the design process, because color can be used to create a focal point and set the mood in a room. Colors like coral, red, and peach, for example, create a cozy feeling and are a great way to warm up a north-facing room. Cooler blues and grays might be more welcome in south-facing rooms. Bright colors against a light background can fill up a wall, but those same colors against a dark background will not appear as bright or large. And window treatments placed against a lighter value of the same color blend into the wall. Keep in mind that colors may change from the light of day to evening. The element of line: The element of line is second only to color in defining mood and feeling. Vertical lines add height and dignity to a room and are considered more formal. A window treatment using strong vertical lines will carry the eye upward and can disguise boxy or odd-shaped windows. Horizontal lines, on the other hand, create a casual, restful feeling or can be used to give a sense of breadth or size and a relief from bold vertical features, like paneling or moldings. Diagonal lines attract attention, causing the eye to follow them in each direction, but they can be distracting if not bordered by vertical lines. I suggest using them as a detail rather than the focal point in a treatment. Curved lines keep window treatments from looking too stiff. Using bands, borders, trims, and contrast fabrics are all ways to emphasize line. Texture: The surface texture of a fabric can also convey mood. For example, chenille, denim, and linen are more casual, while smooth, shiny silk and moiré are more formal. Nubby, coarse textures absorb more light, creating shadows and making the colors look darker in value, while shiny textures reflect light and tend to look lighter in value. Combining several textures adds variety and interest, but juxtaposing strongly contrasting fabrics, like corduroy and smooth silk, produces incompatible effects. Form: Lines joined together create shapes. In my experience, rectangles are the most preferred shape for window treatments as well as objects in a room, like tables and chairs. You can turn a square-shaped window, like a sliding glass-door unit for example, into a rectangle by extending its window treatment onto the wall beyond the edges of the glass. And you can soften the stiff feeling of rectangles with curving lines.
Measurement Chart:
Space: Boundaries create space. For example, walls define the room as well as the window and determine where and how a particular treatment can be installed. Moldings, air ducts, and furniture are also part of the space and must be considered as you design a window treatment. Because space influences the type of design and details you may want to use, precise measurements are a crucial part of planning window treatments. When you combine the elements of design with the principles of design--balance, emphasis, rhythm, and proportion or scale -- you can alter the look of a window or room to achieve most any effect. Let's look briefly at those principles.
The Principle of Balance:
Balance: This principle refers to how and where the elements are used in the window treatment and/or in the room. It considers the visual weight of objects, that is, the amount of space they appear to occupy. Formal balance is symmetrical, projects a sense of dignity, and is usually less interesting than the asymmetry of informal balance, which pairs different objects of the same visual weight, and conveys a more subtle, spontaneous, and casual effect. Emphasis: Generally there should be one obvious focal point in a room. Before choosing a window treatment, decide if you want that treatment to be the focal point or a backdrop for emphasis elsewhere. Rhythm: This principle directs the eye as it moves around the room, through the repetition of line, form, color, or shape and the progression (the gradual increase or decrease in size and direction) of these elements.
The Principle of Proportion and Scale:
Proportion and scale: These principles address relationships of size. Proportion refers to how the elements within the treatment or room relate to one another as a whole. Scale refers to how the size of an object compares with the size of the space it's in.
Design considerations:
When I design window treatments, I take into account the design fundamentals I've just outlined, as well as other considerations, the first of which is style. Be aware of your own preferences in terms of style--that is, formal, classic, contemporary, casual, and so on -- but also take into account the latest fashion in interiors. And try to be consistent with the period and architecture of the house as well as the specific room and its special characteristics. Choose simple treatments for small spaces and more elaborate treatments, for oversize spaces. Create treatments that flow visually for multiple windows, and, if there are disparate windows in the room, try to unify them by accentuating their common elements. Consider the shape of the window and with a visual reference point, like the window sill, the apron (horizontal trim below the sill), or the floor, following the proportion guidelines I'll discuss in a moment. And try not to make design decisions that will present maintenance nightmares.
Get Out the Sketchpad:
Working on paper is a way to visualize your design and plot out measurements. Use graph paper and start by drawing the window, then sketch in your treatment, considering all of its components: the length; the heading, the top treatment, or valance, that runs horizontally across the top of the window. Although there can be exceptions, the following proportion guidelines hold true for most situations: Try not to divide the length of the window in half. Instead, use the Rule of Fifths or Sixths. Here's a good rule of thumb: For treatments mounted just above the window, divide by six; for ceiling-mounted treatments, divide by five. A second rule of thumb -- the rule of threes -- which I learned many years ago in design school, maintains that objects placed in threes, or multiples of three, are the most pleasing to the eye. If you're planning stationary panels, use a ratio of two-thirds panels to one-third window. And use that same ratio when using two colors or two fabric prints, for example, and a 60%, 30%, 10% mix when using three. Using three colors or prints allows you to use one color or print as a statement, one as a contrast, and one as complement.
Will it Work?
Before your design can become a reality, you need to consider how and where you'll mount your treatment. Do you want them on the window frame or on the wall? Placing them on the frame is not as good a choice as on the wall because gaps can occur at the edges of the panels. Ideally, consider mounting the headrail so the treatments extend at least 4 in. up from the top and to each side of the window. Before I plan to install headrail on a wall, I examine the wall's surface to determine whether it's drywall or plaster, because that might affect installation, especially the choice of mounting screws.
Start your Design and Choose from one of the Window Treatments below:
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