How to Dress Problem Windows

Good Morning, Lovely Friends!

I hope you are getting this week off to a great start! The weather is warming up here, and everyone I know is VERY  glad. If you live where it is still cold, hang in there… spring IS coming!

It was such an honor to be asked to guest post the other day over at my friend Barb’s blog, The Everyday Home. She has had a bum wrist that prevented her from typing (the WORST thing for a blogger!) and needed some help to stand in for her for a few days. Here is the post I shared over on her blog as well:

How to Dress Problem Windows

The art of window dressing has changed so much through the years! What began in Europe as mainly a way to keep heavy drafts out of homes, and of course control light, is now one of the major points of interior decoration.

Some windows are so architecturally beautiful, and the spaces so private, that treatments are not preferred or required. While some of us may have a window or two like that, most of us need and want some kind of window dressing on our windows.

A client of mine has a ranch-style home that was built in the 60’s, and over the past few years we have been updating it. The following photo is similar to hers, especially the very high, short windows. The house has had a couple of additions, so it is much larger than the one below.

She has made many improvements and it already looks amazingly different than the original home. But one thing that had not been adequately addressed were the windows.

Her eat-in kitchen had one smallish window on the breakfast area wall. Honestly, it was just plain dinky! So I designed a curtain to deceive the eye into thinking that the window was much larger. This is the before and after:

She had put up plantation shutters, which certainly helped, but it didn’t address the scale problem.We chose an Ikat fabric and had them made about twice the width of the window and hung them almost to the ceiling. This is one of the best tips I could give you when doing your windows…

In almost ALL instances, window treatments should be taken to the ceiling or crown mold. Your window will look much more finished and grand if you do this one simple trick!

Of course, we re-did the walls as well! Got rid of the chair rail and the dated wallpaper, and painted the room a nice fresh greige. Well… what do you think?

The next major problem area was the master bedroom. The two sets of windows in that room were thin and horizontal. And they weren’t centered on the walls. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the design!

My solution for this was to connect the two windows. I went with a design that joins in the corner, coming out with the curtain equal distances on each wall. How do you like the result?

Here are the before and after photos of the Master Bedroom windows:

Again, I took the rod up to the crown mold. We had the room painted and have a new upholstered bed coming (this poster bed is just too short). Choosing the fabric was fun, and we have the bedding designed as well!

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Well, thank you for reading and I hope you are inspired to come up with your own solution to dressing problem windows! When you do, please share them with me, OK?!

Blessings to you today!