Good things come in small packages… remember those wise words when you start decorating a small home. Perhaps your new digs is a starter home, or maybe you just don’t want all the hassle or expense of keeping up a larger home, so the place you hang your hat is relatively small. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have all the accoutrements of a home twice that size. Never feel you have to scrap your grandiose ideas just because your home is smaller.
Granted, the rooms are smaller, so the windows are smaller. So… for decorating purposes, you never want to overwhelm the room with accessories. This is true for window treatments as well.
Sure, the decorating magazines might suggest using accessories which will create the optical illusion of having a much-larger room. One designer suggested using a canopy to draw the eye upward and create the illusion of a high ceiling. Still another designer recommended using poufy curtains to draw attention to the window, rather than the lack of space in the room. Another suggestion was to use louvered shutters at the windows in natural wood or painted to match the wall colors.
Well, perhaps all those suggestions would work.
But… a much better idea would be to keep the lines simple and clean.
In the bedroom, for example, a small room would be simply overwhelmed by much fussiness, including frills for the bedspread and full and billowy window treatments, and, especially if those items involved a pattern. Here is where a simpler style, which harmonizes with the room, rather than works against it visually, works so much better. Pick window treatments that allow the natural sunlight to filter in and also gently frame the windows. If you want to use shades or blinds, but simply cannot let go of those curtains or drapes, be sure to use sheer fabric to keep the rooms airy, light and spacious looking.
Using any of the beautiful types of blinds or shades now available will give your home an elegant look despite its diminutive size. The secret to the perfect window treatments for your home is choosing an expert whose skill is in window blind installation. You can find such a person or company. He or she will review your windows and make suggestions on pairing the particular blind or shade to your need for that window or windows. After a decision on the perfect window treatments is made, then you’ll decide on what material the blind(s) will be made of. Rest assured that, with the proper custom window treatment consultant by your side, the most-difficult portion of this project will be picking the style, color and fabric for each room.
Honeycomb or cellular shades are in the same family as pleated blinds, except they are insulated with layers which trap air and provide insulation. They are excellent in the standards of energy efficiency and are sound absorbent as well. The added “cells” in these cellular shades will not provide bulk at the window, but instead will be trim and flat against your window.