Window dressing: How to choose curtains and blinds – Irish Examiner
There is a bamboozling range of curtains and blinds available, and knowing what to choose to suit your room can seem overwhelming. Roller, roman, sheer, heavy, slatted, wooden, fabric, plastic, blackout, bamboo: The options are endless and the decision is important as blinds or curtains can have …….
There is a bamboozling range of curtains and blinds available, and knowing what to choose to suit your room can seem overwhelming. Roller, roman, sheer, heavy, slatted, wooden, fabric, plastic, blackout, bamboo: The options are endless and the decision is important as blinds or curtains can have a dramatic impact. Luckily there are practical tips to guide you through the decision-making process.
As with everything, I like to first consider what they will be used for to help me make my choice, and then decide on how they will look to suit my style.
While there are many options with both curtains and blinds, in general curtains offer greater opportunity to add some luxury, colour, and style to a room — whereas blinds are generally more functional. Curtains will become a focal point in a room; blinds tend to blend into the background. This may mean that curtains become the better option in areas such as living rooms or bedrooms, where you want to bring in some drama and aesthetics, leaving blinds for more practical spaces such as the kitchen or a home office.
Curtains not only afford more flexibility with fabric choices but also give you the chance to trick the eye into changing the style of your window. For instance, in general, it is recommended to hang curtains 15cm above the top of your window, but you can go above this to create a greater sense of height in the room. You can also choose to let your curtains hang all the way to the floor — or even longer, to create a luxurious pool of fabric.
Blinds can still provide excellent style, typically as a more refined and minimalist look. Wooden venetian blinds remain eternally popular for instance, and offer a clean look while still giving a sense of warmth and cosiness. Voile vertical blinds can also offer the same effect. If you don’t have the space around your window to hang curtains, but still want to bring in more dramatic colour or texture, consider roman blinds which can be made from most fabrics and still hang neatly inside your window frame.
Roman blinds or roller blinds will work with patterned fabrics, whereas most other blinds will not. I chose roman blinds for my front windows as I did not have the space for curtains, but wanted a colourful velvet fabric to bring pattern and texture into the rooms.
Blinds offer greater functionality than curtains in terms of light control and privacy. Curtains have two modes — open or closed! (OK they can be partially open, but that just looks messy.) Blinds on the other hand — venetian or slatted blinds in particular — can either be rolled up, fully down, or the slats can be partially opened to control the amount of light getting through. Partially opened affords privacy while still letting light into the room. To achieve this level of control with curtains, you could add a sheer voile behind your main curtains.
This is not as effective as blinds but will still add a layer of privacy and light diffusion. Be aware that you may need to add two curtain tracks to achieve this — measure to make sure you have the depth available. If you don’t have the depth, you can hang a voile curtain within the window frame.
Roman blinds offer a choice of fabrics but don’t take up space.
Of course, you can combine curtains outside the window frame and blinds within it to get the best of both worlds — I did this in my upstairs bedroom, where I wanted curtains to create luxury and a sense of height beyond what the window size was providing, but also wanted the privacy of a blind.
I have a sheer roller blind within my window frame and curtains hung outside — to be honest, I prefer the look of layered curtains, but I didn’t have the space to hang two curtain tracks in my little bedroom! I’m happy with the result.
If you wish to choose blinds for light control and privacy, but prefer fabric over the wood, plastic, or aluminium that venetian and slatted blinds typically come in, you have two options — vertical blinds or zebra blinds. Vertical blinds are a series of long narrow panels that can be rotated to control light and privacy.
They are excellent for wide windows, and you can choose the right fabric and colour for your room.
Zebra blinds are roller blinds that have alternating horizontal stripes of opaque and translucent fabric. Therefore as they roll down, you can line up the transparent stripes such that some light gets through, or overlay the opaque stripes on the transparent ones to block the light. Block colours are better than patterned fabrics with vertical and zebra blinds.
If your window tends to be draughty, insulation is an important factor to consider when choosing curtains or blinds. Thick curtains will offer full window coverage and will serve to keep heat from escaping the room (or coming into it, if we’re experiencing a heat wave!).
It is also important to consider humidity here — it may be that moisture is also getting through and therefore you should choose a curtain fabric that will resist mould should it get damp.
Again if you don’t have the space for curtains but need the insulation, consider roman or roller blinds and ensure there are minimal gaps for full window coverage to keep the draught out. Keeping my velvet roman blinds closed during last week’s heat wave worked wonders to keep my house cool during the day!
Both curtains and blinds vary hugely in cost. The materials you choose and the size of your windows will dictate the final cost — plastic venetian blinds are much cheaper than wooden ones for example.
Typically, curtains are more expensive than blinds. They take longer to make, and if you’re paying someone to install them they take longer to hang than blinds do. Of course, you have control here over which fabric you choose, and how much of it — some curtain styles are also more expensive because they require more fabric, for instance, pleated curtains or eyelet curtains. If you’re handy with a sewing machine, you can save a small fortune by making your own curtains!
Curtains can also be easier to clean, depending on the fabric.
They can be taken down and put in the washing machine, or patch cleaned while remaining hung. Blinds can be trickier — the slats can gather dust and can be awkward to get to with a duster, and any stains can be hard to access as they generally cannot be disassembled. Vertical blinds are the exception here, as it’s not hard to remove one panel for cleaning or replacement.
Irish Examiner columnist and RTE Home of the Year 2021 winner Jennifer Sheahan outside and her late 1800s artisan cottage in Dublin. Picture: Joe McCallion
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