Designer Michelle Gerson agrees: "When you have something beautiful to look at outside and your windows are beautiful, there's no reason to make them look fussy," she says. In fact, KK Harris opines, "if you have windows that are beautifully handcrafted and unique, they don't need dressing."
It depends. If you find you sleep better in a lighter room, it may be okay to go bare. However, as the experts suggest, there are some curtain alternatives that will allow you to control temperature and light levels, so you can curate the best sleep environment to suit your personal preferences and needs.
Curtains are good for insulation
Curtains reduce the amount of air exchange between a cold window and the rest of the room. For keeping heat inside the home, high-quality curtains can reduce heat loss by around 40%. This means you will be less susceptible to illness in winter and will save money on your heating bill.
Not only do draperies make a space feel finished, but they also have the magical ability to transform an interior, whether it's creating the illusion of a higher ceiling, drawing the eye across a room, or framing views to a beautiful vista just outside.
If you're looking for a more permanent option, you can hang blinds, shades, or shutters. Whatever you choose, your home is sure to look incredible once you add your personal touch!
In Modern Home Design, they highlight choosing curtains that are a simple color, but with a small pattern near the top. This pattern can then be matched with the furniture, or can simply add a nice touch to a solid-colored modern room.
Traditional blinds are probably the most popular alternative to using curtains or drapes. They provide a lot of privacy and blinds can be opened or closed to control the amount of light that enters a room. Blinds are relatively inexpensive and can be installed by virtually anyone.
Making Your Room Look Larger or Smaller with Curtains
High-hanging curtains with long vertical stripes create the illusion of height, which is excellent for low ceilings. However, short curtains and horizontal stripes shorten your wall height and make the room appear smaller.
“It is important to maintain as dark of a room as possible while you're sleeping,” says Dr. Phyllis Zee, a neurologist at Northwestern University, founder of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and co-author of both studies mentioned above.
Smaller windows tend to need curtains, if only because the curtains can help visually extend your windows' size. However, if you have vaulted ceilings with larger windows and low square footage, then going without curtains might be the smarter choice. You can always dress a window without curtains, though!
Window treatments can transform the way a room looks and can give you privacy. However, in activity areas like the dining room, living room and the kitchen, you can probably live without them. A window without any coverings or obstructions can make your home so much brighter.
Are they still in style? Just about everyone agrees that curtains are still in style, but not just because they are useful and affordable. According to Livingetc, curtains add texture and coziness to a space, something other window coverings like blinds and shutters cannot do.
curtain, in interior design, decorative fabric commonly hung to regulate the admission of light at windows and to prevent drafts from door or window openings. Curtains, usually of a heavy material, arranged to fall straight in ornamental folds are also called draperies.
Don't Let Criminals Window Shop
Your home isn't a retail store. Covering your windows with blinds or curtains can prevent burglars from evaluating whether or not it's worth the effort. It's better to get full-coverage draperies.
Curtains can produce a certain visual finish to a room (and of course, they cover the presence of the blinds entirely if the curtains are room-facing with the blinds inside the window recess), but this is simply down to your personal tastes, and not a need per se.
Not only do closed curtains help add a little extra warmth to your bedroom and prevent onlookers, they have a strong effect on your quality of sleep.
One of the benefits of sleeping in a dark room is that it helps you fall asleep easier. According to sleep experts, darkness helps to stimulate the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep quickly. It also helps to keep you asleep until you complete all sleeping cycles.
For keeping heat inside the home, high-quality curtains can reduce heat loss by around 40%, particularly if they are floor length and close to the wall and window panes.
— Closing your curtains won't just give you more privacy at night, a new study finds it can also protect your heart while you sleep!
Dark colours absorb light and therefore will make a room appear smaller. Select warm, deep tones and perhaps consider painting your ceiling a darker colour to visually lower it. You can also experiment with heavy, textured fabrics in rich colours as well as bold, dramatic window treatments.
Add reflective surfaces
Yes, you know that mirrors make a space appear larger. (“It's like doubling a room,” Curtis says.) But other reflective surfaces — high-gloss painted ceilings, lacquered furniture, shiny tile on a kitchen backsplash — have a similar effect, casting light and creating the illusion of volume.
It is important to consider the right paint finishes when choosing colors to make a small room look bigger as Helen Shaw, director of Benjamin Moore highlights. 'Lighter paint colors like off-whites, light neutrals, pales, and pastels give the illusion of larger, brighter rooms.
Thankfully, Stewart was quick to ease our curtain concerns. She says, “They're beautiful, I don't have anything against them, I just don't live with them… I like to look outside. Every window [in my home] looks out to something nice, and it's just all open to the view.”
During her Nashville Antiques & Garden Show lecture, Martha Stewart revealed she doesn't use curtains. Shop alternatives, including blinds, shades, and verticals.
Darker coloured sheets or towels, and even blankets can be more desired to block out the light. Make sure they cover most of the window if not the entire window. This technique is common and can be a very cheap and effective solution.