Get the 'WOW' Factor in Your Home

The most common styles of window treatments are custom made, store bought, no-sewing, shutters and creative styling. Custom made window treatments are the best choice of window treatments to help you enhance that special mood or illusion that you are trying to achieve in your home. However, you can in some cases transform some store bought window treatments to get the look you want.

Different styles of window treatments or curtains and different styles of fabrics will give you a totally different look and feel in your home. Window treatments will help you pull your room together as long as you realize they are just one aspect in
decorating. You will also need to choose a color palette to know the proper color for the walls, furniture, lighting, flooring, art work, and accessories.

If you do not like having window treatments or drapes in your home but you need them to help soften and complete the look of the room, then paint the wall the same color as the fabric of the window treatments. It will give the illusion that the window treatments are not even there. You will still have the visual warmth, shape styles depth and comfort to accent your décor.

In many cases it is important to raise the window treatments up higher than the molding on the top of the window. This will allow more sunlight to come into the room and give the look that your windows are taller than they really are.

Many people have blinds on their windows that they never raise up and down. They just turn the wand to allow the sunlight to come into the room. If you have blinds on your windows that you raise up and down every day, you will need to allow your window treatment or valance to come down far enough to at least cover the box section at the top of the blinds. Two or three inches past the bottom of the metal box is best so you can allow sunlight into the room and still cover that
metal box. 

Raising the window treatment will also allow you to have a “longer drop” or length on your valance. When you install the window treatment higher than the window casing molding you are able to show off more of the window treatment design and the personality of the fabric. The standard length of a valance is 16”-22”. Window treatments designed and hung properly can help a room that has over a 9-foot ceiling feel unified. Sometimes when you have a very tall ceiling you can feel like the ceiling is going to float away if you do not raise the window treatments higher than the molding.

There are times that you do not need window treatments or draperies on your windows. If you have a special view as you look out your windows you may not want the window treatments to distract from the view. You want the outside beauty to be the focal point. However, if the windows are so large that nothing could stop the view then you have to decide if you want to use draperies or not.

Window treatments can provide the “WOW” factor for a room. That is one reason they can be considered the “finishing touch” to complete a room.