Curtain design

Find the Best Curtain Design for a Room

When picking the best curtain design for a room—be it a personal space such as the bedroom or a more common area like the living room—there are a plethora of options to choose from. Whether it’s the slatted-style of a louver that adds a more polished look to your home office or muted Roman blinds that don’t pull away the attention from the rest of the décor in the home, the curtain design you choose should be thought-through to work with not only the aesthetic, but the requirement of a home.

Pro Tip: It’s always important to consider the size of a room along with the natural light and ventilation it receives. If you’re planning for a smaller space with limited lighting, sheer curtains or diaphanous blinds may help open up the entire room, while larger spaces can work with thicker floor-to-ceiling drapes.

…Or Even Pair Prints for the Best Curtain Design

If you love pairing prints on yourself with clothes, you can translate the same aesthetic to your home décor with your curtain design. Pairing prints not only creates a look that’s unique and unusual, but also creates a play of texture and colour in the space. And, while mixing prints might seem like a daunting idea for a few, it doesn’t have to always be. There are several options when it comes to pairing prints—you could either pair a single print with a solid colour or several complementing colours that are in the print’s design or pair two prints within a similar colour family, hue or tone.

Style Tip: In this room, the tall curtains framing the window are in a different colour and print from the linen on the bed, but they still tie the entire room together. This is because the entire décor and aesthetic chosen for the space is in a muted, earthy hue, creating a sense of planned uniformity. 

You can Mix and Match Your Curtain Design Style

Thick and long blackout drapes? Translucent curtains? Or modern Roman window blinds? The options for a curtain design are many, but you can choose one that works best for you or you can have the best of all. If your window area extends across the breadth of an entire wall, you can help create sections within it with your curtain design. For example, in this room, the side walls are kept hidden with the floor-to-ceiling curtains, which not only add a bit of muted glamour to the room but also create the illusion of more window space. Complementing it in the centre are sheer drapes that let light to flow into the room while also allowing for privacy, and Roman blinds ahead of it for a complete blackout when needed.

Create Natural Lighting and Ventilation Options with Your Curtain Design

With your curtain designs, you can control the strength of lighting that enters the room. From completely darkening the room with thick velvet drapes to letting in just the right amount of light to brighten up the room, the curtain design you choose can make or break a room. In this room, a mix of two styles of drapes allows for controlled lighting in the space. This works well for different moods and situational requirements—for movie night when hosting guests, you can completely blackout all the lights with the thick curtains, while the harsh afternoon sun can be controlled while leaving the room well-lit with the diaphanous drapes.

Your Curtain Design Print Creates a Theme for the Entire Room

If you have a theme or colour scheme in mind, use your curtain design to spread it to the whole room. Since a floor-to-ceiling drape will probably end up being the tallest element in the room, it also has the potential to visually draw the eye to it first. In this room, we can immediately see a tropical mood at first glance. The simple curtains in a leafy print with a clean solid off-white background is paired with a large house plant and chairs furnished in a floral scheme. While the chairs are in opposite contrasting colours, they seem to work and tie the room together, as a floral or tropical theme always works with a mélange of colours.

Pro-Tip: If you’re scared of mixing colours, textures and prints, and are particularly worried to “overkill” the whole space, remember to keep the rest of the room—especially the walls—in a solid light colour, which will act as a blank canvas for the rest of the furnishings.

Use Your Curtain Design to Work with a Room’s Colour Palette

For a monochrome palette or a uniform-hued room, use your curtains to create a theme or complement the décor colour. In this room, while the armchair and ottoman are in a cobalt-print with a complementing print panel on the walls and the carpet, the curtains framing the entrance window set the colour of the room with its solid shade of blue.

Style Tip: If you’re picking a colour for a room, start with a solid colour for the drapes and then work it into the rest of the furnishings, linen, accessories and décor.

Picking the Right Height for the Best Curtain Design

With the range of curtain design options available on the market, which one is the right one for your home? And what’s the right height to hang it? How high is too high? What is the most budget-friendly option for the room?

The rule of thumb when hanging curtains is that floor-to-ceiling drapes will add height to the room and create the illusion of higher ceilings. Just make sure to cut the curtains slightly above the floor to avoid it getting dirty or gathering dust over a short period of time. Looking for a cost-saving option? Consider Roman blinds to frame only the length and breadth of the window.

A Sheer Curtain Design to Brighten Up the Smallest of Rooms

This tip works best in small-space apartments and rooms, especially with limited openings or windows for natural light. Diaphanous, sheer drapes don’t overpower a room unlike how a thicker curtain may leave a room looking stuffy. The sheerness and lightness of this curtain design lends its features to the rest of the space its furnished in. Plus, when fitted tall along the height of the room, this makes the room look taller and even more open.