Window Treatments: My Ultimate Guide - Part 1.
A journey through four completely different homes. Plus my best ever tip for window treatment design paralysis.
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In our last four homes I have had the pleasure of working with a good number of window dressing brands and have now witnessed first hand and often single-handedly fitted: pinch pleat, double pinch pleat, pencil (my least favourite), wave, Venetian, eyelet, roller (my 2nd bête noire), blackout, pooled, Roman, thermal, plantation, solid panel, cafe and even outdoor style curtains, blinds or shutters. This is my ultimate guide in three parts and you don’t want to miss it. Plus I reveal my number one tip for making the choice easy!
Having an eye for interiors and somehow, almost magically, making a career out of it, you would be forgiven for thinking that most design choices come easy to me. I often agonise over the minutiae and the more choice I have, the more confused I become. I’m a true believer in that there is almost too much choice these days. Take TV for example: am I the only person who sometimes longs for the days when we only had a handful of channels to choose from? It was so much easier then. A quick flick through The Radio Times would furnish me with the offerings and then I could decide whether to delve into a good film or read instead.
Nowadays I can endlessly scroll through Netflix, Prime and god knows what else and still find nothing that floats my boat and so we always end up with the trusty back catalogue of Grand Designs. It’s not due to lack of quality (although there’s a hell of a lot of bizarre D-rated tat out there, Netflix Christmas movies being a prime example), it’s more that I lose the will to live with the infinite listings. I’m exactly the same if faced with a field of jumbled clothes rails in TK Maxx (That’s TJ Maxx for you Americans) and don’t even get me started on my design paralysis if faced with a mountain of fabric or wallpaper swatch books. Too much choice I tell you!
So when it comes to windows and how to dress them, I always used to struggle until I discovered a very simple way to home in on what I loved the most and narrow down my options and it all stemmed from a certain degree of curtain-phobia.
I’ve never been an enormous fan of heavy drapes and adornments. Indeed, I have a bit of an allergic reaction when I think about mounds of ruched fabric gathering dust and blocking out precious joyful light. However, in recent years I have needed to address my fear of the upholstered window and throw myself wholeheartedly into its pleated depths and you know what? I kind of like it.
The rest of this post and most of next week’s part 2 as well as the concluding part 3, which I hope you know took an eternity to write, is for paid members only. Upgrade now and get 20% off an annual subscription for just £3.46 a month, that’s 85p cheaper than an M&S Club sandwich for goodness sake, it’s practically free! What’s more, it will never go up as long as you are subscribed. Come and spend 2025 with us and transform your home and garden.