Window Shopping

If you look at your windows and feel that you are in the presence of a badly dressed professor with cornflakes on his blazer, it’s probably because you haven’t chosen the right curtains. Janice Anderssen has done all the thinking for you.

Unless you own a mansion of stately proportions, you want guests to admire your window treatments as a whole, not simply to point to the ends of your curtain rod where you have placed giant carved acorns. To get window’s right you have to take some odd sentences seriously. For example: Finials should be an integral part of the drapery design rather than an afterthought. Or: The curtain rod is very important. When you see a rod up close you might think it looks big with the finials.

It’s a mysterious and confusing world, the world of curtains and finials and drapes, but it’s one that we so seldom get right and, much as many of us might see curtains as just sheets to keep the sun out, getting it wrong can ruin a room.

You don’t have to go with curtains, of course. Today’s window dressing styles are endless: vertical or horizontal, cellular shades, fabric or wood blinds, and so forth. Window treatments have gone from simply dressing the window to a designer style that is as individual as each home. Not everyone loves drapes. There are those that prefer the more tailored look of shades or blinds.

For a full break-down of all the dos and don’ts of window dressing, visit www.home-dzine.co.za