Enhancing Interior Appeal With Custom Draperies

Instead of being an afterthought, custom draperies can be used to set the tone of any room but are, unfortunately, often overlooked. Any window treatment that a homeowner picks should be functional in that it should help provide protection from the sun but should also enhance the appeal of the room's interior. Using drapes in traditional settings can make a powerful statement, while most people going for a more modern look use drapes to a lesser degree. In both cases, the functional benefit of protecting the home's interior will be accomplished. When it comes to enhancing the appeal, that is a matter of personal taste.

Custom drapes will add height to your ceilings and add appeal to the window without drawing too much attention. Drapes can do an amazing job of "finishing" a room by pulling elements and colors from various fabrics and furnishings in the room together - kind of like putting the final piece in a puzzle. Most interior decorators will tell you to hang drapes as high as possible, which will make the ceiling and walls look tall and wide, respectively. If you want to add a rich feeling to the room, opt for wide and full drapes that will add a luxurious feel.

Just as important as fullness is length. If you put drapes up that are too short, the line of the room will be ruined and things will not look ideal. In fact, they may look plain old bad. In the case of shades and shutters, length is also important as they need to fit the entire window opening. This helps insulation, and looks a lot better than shutters or shades that have gaps of light shining through them.

Window treatments like custom drapes enhance or define the personality of the room. A custom treatment is preferable to ready-made drapes because they will fit the windows better and are available in more patterns, fabrics, and styles. Having a custom look will enhance the room's appeal more than the cookie cutter feel that ready-made drapes can add.

Window treatments should be viewed as the "icing on the cake" for the room. Drapes can make a big statement by using large prints or combinations of subtle, solid colors. Adding trim to your custom draperies like tapes, cords, or bandings provide additional pieices of the puzzle and a means to tie in colors and textures from other parts of the room. Also important are the choice of the rod used, which can enhance the scheme, and the linings. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, custom draperies typically use contrasting linings to unify the colors.

The best advice is to speak with a window treatment specialist in your area to develop a clear plan for addressing your windows. There are so many options out there and different ways to combine them that it is often beneficial to speak to an outside party to ensure that the styles and choices complement each other. At the very least, they will be able to help you develop a "plan of attack" for completing your window treatments, even if you insist on doing the work yourself.