Roundup – Window Treatments

Dreamy drapes in flowing fabrics covering walls of wide windows. It’s only when you finally hang up the curtains in a room that the space softens up and envelopes you in its warmth. I think meters of delicate fabric can help make some serious magic, and fabric-selection-day is one of my top favourite days on any project. Let me take you through the roundup of Window Treatments 2023, and you’ll know why.

Window Treatments 2023

Yes, the primary purpose of curtains is to block out unwanted light and give you privacy. But they do a whole lot more than that for the look and feel of the room. So today, I’m sharing the why, what, where and how of all the windows we dressed up over the last year, in this roundup of window treatments 2023.

Living Room of Manzil

As far as possible, you’ve seen that I prefer to hang curtains right up from the ceiling. It makes the ceiling look higher and the room look taller and more spacious.

In this home though, the beams above the windows are almost a foot deep in all the rooms. Hanging the curtains from the ceiling means they would hang another 8 to 9 inches ahead of the beam. That’s almost two feet of space lost in every room only for the curtains. It wasn’t practical to place the curtains ahead of the beams, and so we placed them under the beams instead.

The pelmet is placed flush with the wall and helps conceal the window tracks. We have two tracks behind the pelmet – one for the solid curtains and the second for the sheers.

The pretty paisley pattern is in keeping with the ethnic vibe and colours of the living room. The sheer fabric in corded stripes avoids competing with the paisleys while still keeping to the same colour family.

Click here to see this living room.

Living Room of S & Y’s Home

Here’s another living room where we couldn’t take the curtains up to the ceiling because the AC unit is placed on the beam above the windows. The pelmet has been made from the ceiling to a few inches below the curtain tracks. It conceals the curtain tracks and also the AC pipes which run behind it.

In keeping with the soft creams and beiges of the living room, the curtain fabrics are also off whites.

The curtain has a self pattern. We went with a geometric in keeping with the checks and stripes we’ve used in most of the living room. The sheer is a wider stripe. The texture in the stripe helps to keep the drapes from looking too plain or flat.

Click here to see this living room.

Living and Dining of Falak Azura

This living and dining space has two windows spanning almost its entire length, separated by this bookshelf in between. Yet we have treated both the windows differently.

On the right, we have the larger window. There is empty floor space below the window as it falls behind the seating and dining area. Here we took the curtains all the way to the ceiling.

On the left, we have a seating ledge below the window. We didn’t want the curtains coming ahead and falling on the seat, so we pushed them under the beam and as far back against the window as we could. The solid fabric has been stitched as Roman blinds for this window. The sheer curtains in front of it match the sheer on the right side.

Given the heavy colour and pattern we’ve used across the living and dining area, we kept the curtains lighter in terms of colour and design.

Cream and beige with a hint of shimmer are common to both fabrics. The solid fabric has intricate embroidery with beige-gold stripes on the sheer, both adding a richness to the drapes.

Click here to see this living room.

Living Room of Vivid

All the window beams of this home too are quite deep and easily fit in the two channels for the curtains under them. Here we also have the AC outdoor units placed just outside the window. Which means the piping is easiest done with the AC unit placed on the window beam.

For both these reasons, we hung the curtains of this home from the top of the window and not from the ceiling.

The upholstery fabrics on the chairs and stools have quite a prominent pattern on them. We went for a softer pattern on the curtains to balance that.

The curtains have medium sized floral motifs on them, while the sheer is a textured stripe, very similar to the sheer in S & Y’s living room.

Click here to see this living room.

Master Bedroom of Manzil

Let’s move from living to sleeping spaces in our window treatments 2023.

The window of this beautiful bedroom is divided into two parts. We have a large window running across most of the room. Because of the deep beam, we hung the curtains from the bottom of the beam itself.

On the other side is a much smaller window. If you hang curtains in a narrow window, most of it remains covered even when you draw the curtains open. So it makes more sense to use blinds in narrower windows.

Though we have used lots of patterns and motif across this home, we avoided them on these curtains because of the beautiful wallpaper covering most of the walls here. The idea was to have the fabrics fade into the background so that the wallpaper can be the hero. So we have a self pattern in beige for the heavy drapes and a textured stripe for the sheer curtains.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Master Bedroom of Falak Azura

This bedroom is a relative small one packed with furniture all around. We used a lot of white in here so that the furniture blends with the walls and keeps the room looking light.

And so we decided to go all out with vibrant designs on the fabrics.

The intricate printed motifs on the heavy drapes are well complemented with the smaller diamonds embroidered on the sheers.

Click here to see this bedroom

Master Bedroom of Vivid

In this bedroom we have the AC unit fixed on the wall above the window, so the curtains hang at window height.

Here too, we weren’t shy to use exquisite prints and motifs to make the room come alive.

The dual tone walls are plain. We selected prints in similar colours and motifs for the curtains, bedding and artwork.

This lovely floral fabric was a lucky find. I knew we’d find a something pretty in peach, but we hit it big with the blues in this delicate print. We had to keep the sheers simple to allow the curtains to shine.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Father’s Room of Keje

Here’s a classic example of curtains going all the way up to the ceiling, and you can see how beautifully tall they make the room look.

In keeping with the client’s brief, of keeping this room simple and classy, we chose uncomplicated fabrics for these drapes.

The heavy drapes are a beige, linen textured fabric, while the sheers are a corded stripe. You saw the same sheers in another colour in the living room of Manzil.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Mother’s Room of Falak Azura

This windows of this room span almost two entire walls. The curtains went below the windows because both the beams are really deep, and also because the AC unit is placed above one of the windows.

Though the client selected purple for her bedroom, she wanted a soft, gentle vibe to the room. We chose this mauve shade so that the colour is not overwhelming even spread across two entire walls.

The heavy drape and sheer fabric are both florals. The pinkish mauve of the heavy drape pairs well with the pink and grey embroidered flowers of the sheer.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Guest Bedroom of Manzil

The hand painted floral motif on this bed is the show stopper in this room. So here we went with fabrics that would help us bring out the florals.

We found this pretty printed motif which is so in sync with the bed design. In terms of colour and style, it almost looks like we had this fabric printed to match the bed, or vice versa!

The random dots embroidered in silver on the sheer add a subtle sparkle to the room.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Guest Bedroom of Vivid

This small bedroom packs in quite a punch in its little space. We used curtains on the large window running across the room, and a Roman blind on the smaller on above the study table. Pulling the blinds up allows the fabric to stay off the table and also plenty of natural light to work in.

Blue is the most loved colour in the world, and so is often a favourite for guest rooms. Your guests are more likely to be happy in a blue room than any other colour!

The colourful geometric pattern of this fabric gives us quite a bit of flexibility in terms of colour. We decided to focus on the blue and pink and use those for the other furnishings in the room too. The sheer remains subtle so as not to overwhelm this small space.

Click here to see this bedroom.

Little Boy’s Room of Keje

It’s time to look at some children’s spaces in our window treatments 2023. Let’s start with the only boy’s room we designed last year.

We usually end up selecting heavier curtains and lighter sheers to go with them. In this room, we fell in love with these playful sheers immediately.

Don’t the colours gel so well with the colours we’ve used in the room and wallpaper? To balance out the burst of colour and pattern in the sheers, we went with simple coloured stripes embroidered on the heavy drapes.

Click here to see this kids room.

Girls’ Room of Manzil

When we plan a wardrobe or storage unit near a window, we make sure to leave space between the wardrobe and the window to allow the curtains to slide into the gap between them. This way, the hanging fabric stays out of the way and doesn’t further block the window.

We’ve used a mix of florals and geometrics in the furnishings of this entire room, and we stayed with the combination for the curtains too.

The woven checks of the heavy drapes are the same colours as the embroidered butterflies on the sheer. I love the way the butterflies combine so perfectly with the floral print on the study chairs. And you can see above, how pretty the full room looks with the butterflies taking to flight when the sheers are drawn.

Click here to see this kids room.

Girls’ Room of Falak Azura

I rarely do curtains that don’t go down all the way to the floor, but in this room we didn’t have a choice. In case you missed this reveal, this room used to be a kitchen. As you can see, the windows were designed to have kitchen counters placed below them. We fit in our beds and study table instead, and kept the curtains well within the windows.

Since we don’t have enough space to run two channels in this narrow pelmet, we have a sheer curtains running on a channel in front of Roman blinds made with the heavy fabric.

You can see how our choices have become bolder and brighter in the children’s rooms. It’s the one space where everyone, including the kids who are going to use the rooms, are happy to let go of their inhibitions when it comes to colours and patterns.

The pink-green-yellows you see in the feathers are in perfect harmony with the smaller raindrop pattern of the sheer fabric.

Click here to see this kids room.

Girls’ Room of Vivid

Finally, to wrap up our window treatments 2023, another girls’ room. Yes, we’ve designed a lot of girls’ rooms over the last year! And I love how different each one is, even though they have much in common. Especially these last two rooms.

Did you notice that the sheer curtains of both are the same? And that the headboard of Falak Azura is the same as the study chair fabric of Vivid?

I knew we had selected the same fabrics for one room before, and I gently tried to guide the clients to different selections for the other room, without completely influencing their personal choices. But both seemed to love these fabrics and were quite sure they wanted them in their rooms.

And at the end of it all, I think both turned out really pretty!

The patterned fabrics are doing equally well with the rich floral wallpaper on one end, and the plain study unit on the other.

The smaller raindrop pattern once again goes well with the larger festive pattern on the curtains, and the similar colours in both help them make a pretty pair.

Click here to see this kids room.

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That’s a whole lot of beautiful fabrics I’ve shared with you from many of the delightful rooms we’ve designed over the last year in our window treatments 2023. From almost plain whites and creams to a riot of colours, we’ve covered them all. I think this post is a great example of the fact that there is no right or wrong when it comes to design. Different things work for different people and different spaces, and they can all look fabulous.

These roundups are amongst the most loved posts on this blog, so click here for them all for whenever you need any design inspiration or are looking for product sources.

I know I haven’t shared a new project for a while, but we have a couple of them cooking and almost ready to serve. Can’t wait to share them with you!

Until then,