Window Design Tips from a Curtain and Blind Maker

DECORATING AND ROOM MAKEOVERS

I am not an interior designer nor do I claim to be one. Truly skilled Interior Designers have honed their craft and offer expertise on colour, design and lighting creating beautiful bespoke schemes for your home. Unfortunately, many tend to work with the most expensive fabric and trims that may be out the reach of most of us.

What I do have is experience of dealing with 100’s of types of fabrics, helping customers choose the perfect fabric for their scheme, matching fabrics to wall colours when people have already chosen a wall colour before choosing fabric, have an encyclopaedic knowledge of most fabric brands available, which fabrics work best for which projects and a passion for interiors and curtain design.

If you are considering a project and have made some furnishings for a room and now fancy having a go at something a little more involved, then here are my tips.

START WITH THE FABRIC

Always start with your fabric. Find a fabric that you love and then find the paint to match. All too often, I arrive at customers' houses and they have already painted the room a certain colour but cannot find a fabric to match or fall in love with a fabric that does not work with the wall colour.

If you’re really not sure where to start, look around the room and see if you have an element that you love and will incorporate in the new scheme - such as a cushion, lamp shade, wall art, a vase… anything that you love. Now start to build your scheme around that piece taking inspiration from the colours or style.

Curtains generally require more fabric than roman blinds so I recommend using a better value fabric for curtains and maybe pushing the boat out a bit for a roman blind and/or cushions using them a statement pieces.

I am a fan of plain or woven fabrics for curtains. These will be timeless and a room can be updated around them should you choose to in the future. Maybe add a contrast fabric on a leading edge or along the curtain header or maybe a trim/braid to add interest.

Woven fabrics and patterns are great for Roman Blinds as the stab stitches will be less noticeable when the blind is finished.

Professionally made blinds, curtains and cushions can be costly so, by making your own, you will save a substantial amount of money so that may angle you to add more expensive fabrics and accessories into your scheme.

For inspiration and practicalities I have written this FABRIC GUIDE

CURTAINS OR BLINDS?

Don’t be tempted to make a blind for a window simply to save on fabric amounts. Roman blinds look great on small windows but I personally do not think they look good on super wide or full length windows. A full length blind will need many rod pockets and this can look ugly when the bind is pulled up as you will have multiple folds pushing the blind forward and, when down, it will just look like a large piece of hanging fabric. Wide blinds look fine when they are in the up position but, again, can look just flat when down.

Once you have made a few blinds and are comfortable with the process, then no problem to move onto wider blinds (wider than 130 cm with fabric joins) but I would recommend that you have a board that is as large as the blind you are making to work on so that you can keep all the layers of fabric and lining smooth and flat throughout the process. Our WIDE BLIND TUTORIAL will take you in detail step by step through the differences in making a wide blind and show you how to join lining, face fabric, interling or blackout or combined blackout interliner and how to join panels evenly keeping all sides straight and smooth

A BLIND INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE RECESS?

This is mostly personal opinion and no real right or wrong but here are a few things to consider.

If you have curtains in the same room, I would go outside keeping the top of the blinds in line with the top of the curtains (not top of pole).
Do you need to have access to the window sill when the blind is in the down position?
Blinds outside the recess will allow in more light when up as they can sit 10 - 15 cm above the top of the recess (depending on ceiling height).
Blinds outside the recess can look more elegant in a living room.
Making blinds outside the recess means you do not need to be so accurate with measuring if that worries you, a cm here or there will matter less than the need for precise measurements inside the recess.

Note - if you decide to go outside the recess, will this take you just into another width of fabric? If this is the case, then I would go inside for ease. For example, the inside recess measurement is 125cm. With 10 cm side turns, 1 standard width of fabric will do it. The sill width is 135 cm, meaning that you would need 145 cm of fabric, just nibbling ito the next width. If you still want to go outside, I would recommend using a contrast fabric for the sides that you can make any width you want rather than having a slither of the patterned fabric added on each side.

When we go outside the recess I add integral side flaps to cover headrail ends. There is a SIDE FLAP TUTORIAL demonstrating the method I use included with all our ROMAN BLIND COURSES.

I would say that this is an advanced/professional method so I wouldn’t attempt it on my first blind unless you are already a confident sewer and, for blinds inside the recess, you don’t need side flaps anyway.

CURTAINS

Curtains tend to use large amounts of fabric that can be tricky to handle. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the space that you have as it is always easier to be able to lay the fabric out on a flat surface which may bell be your living room floor. Start off small to get the hang of things, maybe a plain cotton fabric on a narrow window, up to 180cm pole and go for sill length, if appropriate. Once you understand the process and have built your confidence then you will be ready to tackle more intricate projects such a floor length, hand pleated or even interlined curtains. If you have a patterned fabric already, our CURTAIN COURSES will take you through the process of checking your fabric, checking pattern repeat, calculating your exact cut drops, cutting accurately and joining patterned fabric. The process is super straight forward when you have the right guidance.

SILL OR FLOOR LENGTH

A lot of my customers are not keen on the idea of sill length curtains but I have absolutely no problem with them if you choose the right fabric and lining/interlining.

If you are making your own, sill length have advantages in so much as you will need to buy less fabric, you will then have less fabric to handle making the process easier for you.

I would avoid bulky fabrics for sill length curtains as they can flare out at the bottom as they do not have the weight of floor length curtains. Equally, if interlining, probably best to go for a light interliner unless you need them for insulating purposes.

PENCIL PLEAT OR HAND PLEATED?

If you are new to sewing, pencil pleat headed curtains will be the easiest project for you to tackle. The LINED PENCIL PLEAT CURTAIN COURSE is a great first project and is FREE to READ, but all our CURTAIN COURSES take you step by step through the entire cutting and make up process with an Ask Cindy button to help out if you need it. Once you have developed your skills at this level then you may want to embark on something a little more adventurous like patterned fabric or hand pleating.

Hand pleating is not difficult, it just takes a bit more time. This will elevate your curtain making and finished product to a professional and a bespoke finish that you cannot buy off the shelf. It is slightly more involved so it’s not a bad idea to have made pencil pleat curtains in the past or to have a good understanding of the process by reading the instructions thoroughly in advance and watching the videos through all the way before starting.

Curtain making is not hard - You can do it. What I love about curtain making is the sense of achievement of transforming a flat fabric into something truly stunning, being able to stand back and admire your handy work with pride. The money that will have saved, being able to crate a truly bespoke look rather than having to settle for a pack of curtains that doesn’t really go with your room, having the joy of choosing the right fabric, the ability to accessorise for a cohesive look and enjoying the compliments from friends and family who then say “Could you make mine for me? “ and you just never know that this could be the beginning of something big…..

READY MADE CURTAINS

When you buy ready made curtains, they tend to come as pencil pleat as you then have the ability to pull the cords to the width of your window meaning you have some flexibility for various curtain pole lengths. When it comes to making your own, you do not need the same flexibility as you are making a pair of bespoke curtains, not a pack that will fit a multitude of widows.

Choosing which lining to use when making curtains and blinds can be confusing when you are new to curtain making. Here is our guide to help you simplify your decision and explain the terminology.