Window Treatment Ideas: Curtains and Drapes

Find a drapery design that suits your room's practical and aesthetic needs with this collection of beautiful fabrics and handsome hardware.

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Contrasting Curtain Colors

Well-Trimmed Drapery

Cordless Shades

Drapes From Top to Bottom

Striped Window Treatment

Tied Italian Silk Curtains

Bamboo Curtain Rods

Window Treatment Tricks

Blue and Yellow Drapes

Kitchen Curtains and Valance

Drape to Wall Pattern

High Ceiling Draperies

Fresh Fabrics for Old-World Charm

Subtle Drapery Panels

Repeating Print

Scalloped Valance

Linen Draperies

Solid-Colored Curtains

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Contrasting Curtain Colors

Curtains can quickly liven up a room up when used with a high-contrast color scheme. When working with contrasting colors, it's important to create visual rhythm with the accent hue. Here, the lamp, flowers, and rug create a pleasing counterpoint to the blue-striped curtains and darker blue wall.

Well-Trimmed Drapery

In a room where refined taste reigns, these detailed drapery panels echo the room's traditional fabric selection. The floral trim visually divides the drapery panels into thirds, a pleasing design proportion. The soft yellow silk fabric, lined for shape, adds another grace note. Panels are gathered on painted rods hung directly below crown molding--such installation adds importance to a treatment and visually extends window height to beautiful proportions.

Cordless Shades

Beautiful fabrics on cordless Roman shades from Levolor add texture and color to any room. Lightweight sheers add a finished look.

Drapes From Top to Bottom

Floor-to-ceiling drapery panels and tall beaded-board wainscoting add visual height to this low-ceiling space.

A busy pattern does not have to overwhelm a room. The patterned wallpaper and curtains offer an interesting break from the solid colors around this family room, while the simple two-color palette avoids an overpowering effect.

Striped Window Treatment

In this living room, horizontal and vertical stripes coexist, unified by butterscotch and ocher hues. Smocked and velvet-banded burlap curtain panels give the eye a place to pause between the horizontally-striped wallpaper and the vertically-striped Roman shades.

Tied Italian Silk Curtains

In this ladylike bedroom inspired by 18th-century American Colonial houses, couture-quality fabric dresses up window treatments. Because privacy was not a concern in the home's country setting, the interior designer repeated the bed skirt's tone-on-tone Italian silk blend for the drapery panels.

Keeping the graceful look going, the unlined panels are simply gathered and tied over the rod and allowed to puddle a little bit on the floor. Pineapples--a popular 18th-century symbol of hospitality--appear as finials on each rod.

Bamboo Curtain Rods

For a room of exotic treasures, these fixed, self-pleated drapery panels attach to bamboo rods mounted below the crown molding. The treatment helps balance the proportions of a large room with an eight-foot ceiling.

The panels frame the windows, adding a soft touch to the room. Operable woven shades are mounted below the rod. The inspired mix introduced additional textures into the room.

Window Treatment Tricks

This window treatment uses multiple tricks to add height to the living room. Not only do the vertical stripes on the drapes carry the eye upward, but the wooden rods are also mounted close to ceiling. The lightweight drapery panels are hung to show the darkest and lightest of the drapery's three stripes, adding visual interest. Sunshine-friendly bamboo shades complement the draperies and make a stylish alternative to heavy draperies.

Blue and Yellow Drapes

The blue-and-yellow pattern of these curtains seems to vibrate, providing a pleasing tension between warm and cool. Although cooler wall colors tend to be restful, pattern and contrast combine to invigorate this sitting area.

Kitchen Curtains and Valance

Spice up your kitchen with a mix of fabric prints and window treatment styles. Classic café curtains dress the window bottom, and a layered valance garnishes the window top.

Drape to Wall Pattern

Toile with a chinoiserie motif envelops this cozy bedroom. The window treatments, straight curtain panels that overlap, fold back tent-flap-style to reveal a contrasting lining. Employing pattern everywhere is a trick that hides flaws in a room and enhances ordinary design features.

High Ceiling Draperies

High ceilings give a space grandeur, but they also can make a room feel uncomfortably cavernous. To give the room more human-scale proportions, formal silk draperies with tightly smocked headers hang on gilded rods at the level of the window frame. Around the edge of the ceiling, crown molding and painted bands accented with gold stripes and buttons further shorten the vertical space.

Fresh Fabrics for Old-World Charm

Old World ambience and modern conveniences combine in this stunning recreation of a 19th-century English manor dining room and entry. Up-to-date fabrics for the curtains and upholstery add a punch of personality to the room.

Subtle Drapery Panels

For a master bedroom furnished tastefully, these drapery panels introduce subtle pattern and color. Lined and interlined for warmth and graceful hang, the panels graze the neutral carpet. They are sewn to rings for a traditional operable treatment, sharing the space with solid, tufted chairs and a traditional chest. White wood blinds, pulled up during the day, ensure privacy without adding the distraction of another fabric treatment.

Repeating Print

A classic document-style print balances the richly detailed moldings and candle chandelier in this living room of a period home. Because the upholstered fabrics are solids and tone-on-tone silk, the lush drapery fabric gives the room style appropriate to the setting.

The tailored pinch-pleat style, without ornate hardware or top treatments, allows the detailed patterns to be viewed clearly. Installation below the gold-leaf egg-and-dart molding contributes to the grand effect. Accent pillows echo the drapery for a unified design.

Scalloped Valance

For a bedroom with an old-fashioned feel, a scalloped valance overlies drapery panels sewn from a novelty print with green background. The valance and drapery panels attach by rings to an iron rod featuring decorative finials. Greek-key trim stitched to the edges of the panels is an appropriate finishing touch that echoes the classical motifs of the fabric. Tasseled rope tiebacks gently hold the panels in place, creating a soft fullness that works with the romantic feel of the inviting room.

Linen Draperies

The full-plaid linen drapery panels seen here provide textural contrast and light control while bamboo shades gently filter warm sunlight. Tasseled trim on the curtains adds a finishing touch.

Solid-Colored Curtains

Sometimes a room calls for solid-color curtains. In this intimate living room, a paisley pattern dances across the walls, but it doesn't overwhelm the space and its disciplined play of contrasting colors. With all the elements of motif, color, and fabrics carefully orchestrated, the finished room feels casual and comfortable.

Window Treatment Ideas: Curtains and Drapes

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