I’ve alluded to my thoughts on curtains before–things haven’t changed in the last week, though I do wonder how it has been a whole week since I wrote about my JCP childhood–I just can’t figure them out in terms of my own interior design. But functionally speaking, I appreciate that there’s a definite place for them in our lives. Mostly, for making things dark. For making kids sleep in later than 6am. In my last house, I installed light blocking blinds on all of the windows and a giant roller blind over the sliding glass door. All of them were installed for the purpose of privacy, to prevent people from looking into the house when the house was close to the road on a street with moderate foot traffic. The roller blind over the door shielded the dining room table from neighbors behind us who could easily see inside, and doubled as insulation during the winter.
In the kids bedrooms, darkness is a necessity, but I didn’t know what to think of the cropped sliding curtains that came with the house, all lined and very heavy and yellowy beige or baby blue in color. Their length, while respectable for the decade-status of the house, actually just made me feel like I was wearing jeans that shrank in the dryer.
Back to how I don’t understand curtains for a minute, maybe, hopefully you can help me out with this… for windows of any kind that end 3-4 feet above the floor, are floor length curtains weird? They don’t look off-putting when most people install them, but generally think they’re a better fit when the windowsill is 1-2 feet from the ground. The proportion is better, or something. With that said, they might be a good fit for our dining room, where the window sill is 14″ off the floor, but the other rooms? I guess I just prefer to keep them naked until I figure things out.
Anyways, I removed the blinds in the nursery when we were painting, and in the master bedroom too, but we left the operational curtains in Julia’s room because we really needed that room to be dark in the early evening for bedtime, and stay as dark as possible until morning. Because I was eager to update the short curtains and had no reasonable alternative in mind, I picked up a whole bunch of Tupplur black-out roller blinds last time I was at IKEA, this was last October. Sometimes it makes me a long time to build or install the mass amount of merchandise that I buy during a single IKEA visit.
I’m slowly installing them – roller blind #2 of 6 went in on Monday. They make a big difference in the room, and I immediately wish I had gotten around to doing this sooner.
I still have another corner window to fit in Julia’s room, but the pause in my progress, and thanks to the iPhone, I can take a minute to show the dramatic contrast from one corner of the room to the other. Buh-bye, shorties. One corner, clean and modern, the other corner, looking like, uh, pee-colored daylight. Right?
The old curtains, when opened, still managed to cover almost 1/3 of the window on either side – they weren’t wide set. When the rollers are completely raised, the windows are fully exposed and let in a lot of light. I’m going to like this.
Actually, the only thing I can definitively say that I don’t like about the rollers is that they raise and lower without a chain. I miss the chain that was installed on the roller blind in the other house, in terms of cleanliness, accuracy, and intent. IKEA changed the product. And Julia can’t raise and lower them herself, like she was able to with the chain. I might try and retrofit them in eventually, I found an online curtain hardware supplier that may have what I need to make this happen.
The sight is a lot different from the hallway perspective too; the photo on the left was taken before we moved in last June.
How about you guys – can you share your thoughts on installing curtains on either side of a window like this? Always so curious about how people make decisions about window coverings.
15 Comments
Oh, I can so relate – I agonize over window coverings, and why??? Maybe because there are so many options?? I am actually loving the “openness” of those windows with just the roller blinds…what about Roman shades?? Having said that, I think curtains that hang all the way to the floor look the best, no matter how small/high up the windows are – (They do it all the time on HGTV) I’ve also never dealt with “corner windows” which seem somehow trickier to me…??
LOVE those floors, BTW…
Leah: )
Glad it’s not just me. Long curtains always look good when I see them, I don’t know why I always think it’ll look weird in my house/homes. I think, if I hang the curtains, I would go the U-rod look so that it would be a rod that makes the right angle in the wall. Floors make a huge difference, right??
I would hang the rod as close the ceiling as possible, and let the curtains hang to the floor. We have windows that are 4ft wide by 2 ft tall and sit high up on the wall, and the floor length curtains make the window seem bigger. I just have solid panels at either end and those delightfully cheep and frothy IKEA sheers in the middle.
We have a midcentury house too, so I’m having fun watching what you do with yours!
Someone on FB recommended sheers too, that would be a nice touch I think. Glad to have your point of view on hanging around windows of those dimensions… ours are about the same size. I definitely do think that if we were to hang curtains, hanging the curtains outside the width of the windows will also help to make the windows look bigger! Thanks for the tips!
What a transformation! Looks fab. I have no problem with floor length curtains in this kind of setting, especially since the windows are larger. Another good alternative is roman shades… Do some searching around over on Emily Hendersons blog for good examples, she uses roman shades frequently.
My mom suggested roman shade today when she visited, it’s a good idea. She was also talking about the blinds she installed in her house, that are sort of like my roller blinds in that they retract up and down without the cord or pull string, but can fit inside the window frame and appear very minimalistic when fully lifted. I asked where she found them and she said (I’m not kidding) JCPenney. Ha.
I’m trying to reply to Emily – which JCP product did your mom get? I’m in a rental so Roman blinds would be too expensive, and I’ve been thinking about this so much I’m ready to buy the first inside-mount, sturdy, inexpensive option someone recommends.
Hey Sabrina! The product my mom referred to is this: http://www.jcpenney.com/for-the-home/sale/window-/jcp-home%25e2%2584%25a2-blackout-cordless-cellular-shade/prod.jump?ppId=1d6df71&catId=cat100260235&subcatId=dept20022800026&deptId=dept20000011&topDim=Item+Type&topDimvalue=cellular+shades&dimCombo=Item+Type%7C&dimComboVal=cellular+shades%7C¤tDim=Item+Type¤tDimVal=cellular+shades&colorizedImg=0900631b81dd8b0aM.tif&urlState=/window/shop-/energy-efficient-blackout/cellular-shades/_/N-1noxajZ1z140zj/cat.jump
She did mention that she liked how in addition to being cordless, the blind was cellular for energy efficiency! Hope this helps!
I think floor length curtains would work in this situation! We actually have floor length curtains in our bedroom, which has windows a similar height from the floor. Right now they (still) only have one panel per window, because I’m a slacker, but I’ve been meaning to make a second panel for each window. I think our bedroom windows are about 36″x36″, and the current curtains are around 54″x82″. Since our ceilings are only 8′ high and we’re planning to add crown molding down the road, I chose to ignore the “high and wide” advice (although maybe when we add the second panel we’ll go “wide”). I’ve been toying with the idea of adding bamboo blinds in there as well.
The two of the other three rooms with this size window (actually they’re corner windows, like Julia’s) have shorter curtains, too. (The third is a spare bedroom that mainly houses dog kennels, and the window opens to the back porch, so it’s still rocking plastic venetian blinds from when we moved in almost 5 years ago.) The art room has a desk in front of the window, so floor length didn’t seem to make sense, and up until recently we had a window seat under one side of the windows in the library, so shorter curtains seemed like the best option. (Especially since our dogs like to look out the windows a la the Evil Yorkies in the Grand Avenue comic.) I will say that we have yet to move the window seat back after taking the Christmas tree down, and the shorter curtains look a bit silly.
We also have some long-and-squatty (technical term) windows in the living room – roughly 24″ high x 55″ wide behind the tv, and two 24″x110″ windows on the perpendicular wall – and we just hung new floor length curtains in there, too (these from Target). I was worried it would be too “wall of fabric” for me, but thankfully since they are a light color it has been fine (plus they’re always open if we’re home during the day).
Too long, didn’t read version: Basically I’m a curtain rule breaker, so I say if you’re going to try curtains, go for floor length! I obviously tend not to pay attention hanging the rods at the ceiling, but definitely go outside the edges of the window (like you and Stephanie said above). Also, make sure floor length curtains won’t interfere with the baseboard heaters (which may be the previous owners’ reason for the short curtains?)
Forgot to mention (shocking I know, given the length of the above novel) that I like the cellular blinds your mom recommended! My mom has something similar in their hall bathroom, but I find the style she got irritating because I can never get it to go all the way to the window sill. I think it has something to do with the button mechanism on the one she bought, and that the JCP ones wouldn’t have that issue.
Awesome insight, Cait. It’s nice to hear of others bucking the trends and breaking the rules to suit. Always interesting to hear about how others approach the window treatment issue. I really like those Target curtains; pretty detailing!
I, too, have suffered from curtain-itis. I have only recently begun to toe the line over to the dark (room) side. I lived in my current home for a solid year with NOTHING ON MY WINDOWS. I really don’t care about people looking in, I guess. Anyways, IKEA has amazing track shades. I installed the metal rails above the windows and the woven paper panels were cut to the right length before I inserted them into the attachments that glide inside the rails. They are amazing and simple. You can use fabric or the stuff they sell at IKEA. I wanted this 10 years ago, and I even called hospital supply companies back then to see if I could buy the rails they have in hospital rooms for privacy! Nope.
Also, I do have (long) white cotton curtains in my bedroom…I think in a bedroom they work because it’s nice to have a bit of softness there.
Very nice blog.
Glad to hear you like the tracks! Those were something we have considered… they might be a good fit for our larger windows, for sure.
Lovely room! I generally prefer shades, and when we first moved in, we bought the cheap ones at Home Depot but the ones in the kids’ rooms ripped and the mechanism keeps failing. I’m torn on replacing them with Ikea’s or going the curtain route. I’m with other commenters on floor to ceiling curtains–I think if you actually get them as close to the ceiling as possible it doesn’t matter the size of the window. That being said, I also see the way my kids like to twirl in them, despite my insistence, and have had some rods bent or pulled out of the wall and have been considering shortie curtains for the kids’ rooms (wide-set of course), plus their beds are under the windows and imagine them curling up in the curtains and pulling them down if they were floor to ceiling.
These made a big difference! Sometimes blinds or shades can be a great alternative to traditional curtains. Looks great!