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Curtain Call: Sprucing Up With Drapes and Curtains

Before you consider any home remodeling or redesigning, take a look at your curtains. Your window coverings transform the room’s aesthetics and atmosphere, controlling the light and mood, ensuring your privacy, protecting the home from extreme temperatures, and adding color and character to your space. So ask yourself before doing any major remodeling, is this a problem that new or replacement curtains could solve? The answer in most cases is yes.

The wide variety of curtain styles makes it a versatile design element, and a well-chosen curtain can be exactly what a bored room needs. First, choose between curtains and drapes. These commonly interchangeable terms actually refer to two distinct items: while curtains are lighter, more casual cloths attached with rings to an exposed curtain rod, drapes are heavier, more formal cloths, usually pleated and drawn with a cord, and whose rod and hardware are covered by a valance, cornice, or roman shade. Drapes are appropriate in fancier parts of the house—like dining rooms and foyers—or places where keeping out sunlight, heat, and cold is a high priority, like bedrooms.

Curtains come in many varieties, each with a distinct purpose and personality. One choice that will determine the right curtain for you is how much of the curtain rod you want visible. In a room with metal finishes, a matching curtain rod will look splendid; in a softer room without metal, you may want a curtain that covers the rod. Rod-revealing curtains include tab-top curtains with rings formed with the curtain cloth, ring-top curtains with metal rings attached, grommet-top curtains with rings built into the pleated, modern fabric, and sheer curtains of nearly see-through fabric that dyes sunlight while providing privacy (you’ll need double the width of your window!). All of these curtains are easy to open and close and let you display a decorative curtain rod, which you can adorn with finials on the ends. If you like these curtains’ style but still want to conceal the curtain hardware, consider adding a window scarf or installing a valance or roman shade.

Other curtain styles to consider include rod-pocket curtains, that conceal the curtain rod by feeding it through a long pocket, and back-tab curtains, like tab-top curtains except that the fabric loops are on the back of the curtain. This style makes your curtain blend in with the surrounding walls, which can be an ideal look for cozy lounges and family rooms. Don’t feel like you can’t install these without a window; curtains and drapes over walls can mix up a room’s design in great ways. And if you’re worried about your curtains being impractical, you can always combine decorative curtains with more functional window blinds.

Finally, the curtain’s color and pattern determine the mood it casts. Choose block stripes, black and white, or geometric patterns for a distinctly modern look, or find warm oranges, pinks, and floral patterns to cast a cozy hue over a room. You can find affordable curtains or even make them yourself out of fabrics and table cloths, so evaluate your curtain options before paying for a complete room makeover.

How to use this Information

But curtains aren’t always the problem (or solution)—sometimes its carpets. Stop by Sloane’s Carpet Secret, your discount carpet flooring retailer, to browse the best wholesale carpets and discount rugs in Denver. We are committed to helping you affordably improve your home and your life.

Tell us how you’ve used curtains creatively to spruce up your home!