CURTAINS AND DRAPERIES SHOULD LOOK THE SAME FROM OUTSIDE

The color of the window treatments, curtains and draperies, in the front wall of your home should, ideally, all match when seen from the outside. The obvious answer is to have an identical window covering in each window but, of course, this is not very often possible or even desirable when planning the design elements of the various rooms in your home. To take an extreme example the first floor windows may be in a formal dining room, an office and a kitchen and the second floor windows may be in a hallway, in a guest bedroom and another in the master bedroom. This would necessarily require different approaches in each room in order to compliment the interior decor.

Fortunately there are ways to accomplish a uniform outside look even if you have a lace curtain in one window, a drapery in another and a wood or metal horizontal blind in still another. One easy solution would be to use wood or metal blinds in every window and use an additional lace curtain, roman shade or drapery over treatment to coordinate with the interior room style and color. This, of course, would be relatively expensive but there is another way. A more economical and probably much more practical method would be to use a similar color in each window although each treatment may be different.

Lace curtains in one window could be off-white or ecru. A wood blind could be of similar color. You could use an off-white lining for a drapery. The important thing to remember is that they do not have to be identical in color - just similar. The color of the exterior of the window treatments should, if possible, also match or, at least, blend with the color of the outside of your home. This is not always achievable. You may have, for instance, a Victorian or Colonial home which has a fairly vivid or dark coloring which would be difficult to match or blend with. In this case you would probably want an off-white or bland color as well.

Window coverings quite often are the very last decisions to be made but they are just as important to the final product. Careful planning ahead is always important in order to create a beautiful, warm and inviting home. Once you have mastered these window covering suggestions it might be a good idea to review even more innovations about window curtains.