Curtains and Draperies Decorating Ideas

We have been concerned with the basic problems of curtain and drapery making. But you may want to use your imagination, and window treatments lend themselves to the fanciful touch.

Decorating your shades may prove amusing. Use regular canvas paint, available at art-material stores, and trace or free hand whatever gay design you like, whether it is a sophisticated abstraction or a quaint Pennsylvania Dutch or peasant motif. You can paint your entire shade to match or contrast with your walls or fabrics. If your draperies have a pattern, trace the pattern on the shade. With a broad window treat the shade as a mural, and paint a rural scene or seascape, thus enlarging the horizons of your room. Or, if you have found a stunning fabric that is too expensive for draperies, use it for shades that you make yourself.

Take your old shade as a guide, adding 2 inches for a hem and 2 for tacking the shade to the roller at the top. Hem the sides with a narrow hem. Use your old shade rod for your hand-made shade, binding it in with firm stitches.

Although bamboo blinds are very handsome in their natural state, if you have an elegant room, with metallic fabrics, echo the glint of the gold or silver with metallic paint, or better still with gold or silver leaf, brushed or streaked, very thinly, on your blinds. The effect seen from the outside is entrancingly rich. Another idea is to paint your blinds the color of your room. This also applies to the wider porch or slat type of blind which may be used on a large picture window.

When hanging bamboo blinds simply use large hooks at either end of the window to hold the top bamboo pole. Use cleats, like those used on sailboats, to fasten the rope that pulls them up. Attach these on the inside of the blind, and they will not be seen. Venetian blinds, now available in aluminum or galvanized steel, won't rust, sag, warp or break. They last for years.

In a small room with a high ceiling, you might continue your valance all the way round three walls, directly under the ceiling. This will help to focus attention on the window, and will seem to expand the walls.

If you have television, remember that plain white spaces make it easier to concentrate on the screen. Try a three-quarter length white opaque glass curtain, hung from a bold black or brass pole, and used with draperies that can be drawn aside when your set is in use.

The very newest idea in window styling is that of the fabric vertical blind, for average windows or for large picture windows and window walls. They are custom-made to varying designs by a handful of companies, but the hardware is not as yet available for making these blinds yourself. They are fairly reasonably priced in a wide range of modern bold and pastel colors, come in fabrics such as corded acetate faille, and can be drawn back from the window by one control, and set at angles by another. They are proving a handsome addition to sun-shielding devices for large glass areas.

Finally, use your imagination when it comes to tying in your draperies with your other fabrics. Use the same patterns or colors for portieres, slipcovers, spreads, lampshades. Ensembles, particularly for the bedroom, are more popular than ever.