New Year New Window Treatments

How many of you have window treatments you don’t love? I bet a of lot of you are raising your hands, and don’t worry, my hand is up too. It’s hard to furnish and decorate a home from top to bottom, and often the focus is on the major pieces of furniture, with window treatments left as an afterthought. But window treatments can make a room–either by being the jumping off point that inspires a whole space, or by being the finishing touch that makes a room feel complete and pulled together. So in the spirit of the new year, I want to motivate you to stop settling for window treatments that you don’t love, and give them the attention they deserve in 2017.

I have a window treatment transformation doozy to share with you. My master bedroom windows underwent a huge transformation over a three-step process. It is okay to take small steps! Below is the before picture of our master bedroom. When we moved into our home, we decided to live with it for a while, knowing that we planned to renovate the bathroom and bedroom in the future. I, however, could not live with the master bedroom window treatments and needed to change those out ASAP! I’m sure this leftover-bridesmaid-dress-fabric extravaganza cost a bundle back in the 80s or 90s, but they had their heyday, and it was time to say goodbye!

At the time I didn’t want to spend a lot on my window treatments, as I knew we would be redoing the room at some point. So, lucky for me, I was able to enlist my mother-in-law Jean to help. She is a retired interior designer and in her barn has a collection of leftover fabrics, as well as antique furniture and decor accents, from which I have greatly benefited. From that treasure trove I chose a fabric which, while not exactly my dream fabric, was free and worked with the colors in the room. We used the existing window treatment hardware and had them made up!

Unfortunately I never felt inspired by them enough to photograph them, so I don’t have a picture to show you. But even though they were nothing to write home about, they were a step in the right direction. Often times I believe people get hung up at this stage, paralyzed if you will. If it can’t be their master vision, then why bother–as if it’s not even worth changing until it can be perfect. I would like to disagree with this way of thinking, and challenge you to change this practice. I know not everyone has a interior designer mother-in-law with a barn full of fabric, but still if something in your home isn’t right, CHANGE IT! Small steps are better than no steps, and there’s no need to overthink it! If you are not quite ready to make the commitment to creating your dream window treatments, or simply don’t want to spend the money on custom, there are so many options out there for low-cost, ready-made curtains to give your windows flair without the wait. Below are a couple good options.

Source: Wayfair

Another good option from Joss and Main

After living in our home for a couple years we decided to jump into our first master bedroom/bathroom renovation. What really drove this project was that the bathroom was much too small for two people (I’ll show you the finished bathroom another time, or you can peek at it in my home tour), while the bedroom was unnecessarily large. As you can see in the before photo above, it had not only enough room for a bed and a dresser, but also a couch. So our renovation plans included pushing the bathroom wall out into the bedroom to make for a larger bathroom and walk-in closet. New walls meant new paint, and then with the new paint color I finally had an excuse to get new window treatments! And here they are!

We went from floral bubble curtains, to okay-but-not-really-my-jam curtains, to finally window treatments made from a fabric in a calming color with an exquisite embroidered motif that I absolutely love. I know you have been patiently waiting to see them! They are a bit difficult to capture in a photograph because of how the sheer fabric lets the light through, but you can still get a good sense. They don’t have a huge wow factor, but I know I’ll never tire of their quiet beauty. And while I did sample many other options, perhaps flashbacks to the original voluminous floral curtains steered me away from choosing an overpowering fabric, and towards the understated, serene elegance of these window treatments.

In case you were wondering, the paint color in the room is Hazy Skies by Benjamin Moore, which is a soft, beautiful gray-green (more on gray paint here). Love it! I wanted to keep things neutral and restful in the bedroom, which this paint achieved. But I found that when I tried more colorful and bright fabrics against this gentle backdrop, they appeared a little too bold. But subdued doesn’t have to mean boring, and this fabric from Calico Corners with its delicate-but-stunning details was the clear winner. It was love at first sight! Here is a similar fabric option as I can’t find my fabric online. It’s quiet but luxurious, with a metallic sheen–gorgeous!

The window treatment hardware is from Pottery Barn. I always admired the glass globe doorknobs in the room, and when I saw these window treatment rods, I liked how the glass globe finials mirrored the doorknobs. Perfect! Tying together not only the colors within a room, but also other decorative accents, makes it feel cohesive and planned-out.

Here are a couple takeaways, or my decorating gems of wisdom, if you will. First, you don’t have to wait to decorate! Even if your dream vision isn’t possible at the moment, there are many great in-between options out there. And second, don’t underestimate the power that window treatments and hardware have as decor tools for tying together a room. It’s with details such as these that design cohesion can be achieved. Now start the year off right with some new window treatments!