To dress or not to dress a window, that’s the question. Of course, it’s the view from the living room that matters. As this is the space you’d spend most of your time, you must have it just right. And deciding whether you hang curtains in your living room will happen more often than not.
Privacy can influence whether you dress a window. There is no rule that living rooms should have curtains. Interior designers even opt to go bare for the right reasons. The design principle is that a view should be used rather than hidden. Curtains do not only limit vistas but light too.
How you decide to treat a living room window depends on several factors. For some designers, window treatments are the home’s jewelry, without which no room is complete. But choosing not to drape a curtain from wall to wall across a window is an option. Let’s see what to do about curtains in a living room.
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A Living Room Window With A Curtain
When you have a new apartment or house or even think of redecorating an existing living room, you first want to look at fabric samples. It might even fulfill a lifelong dream when deciding to put up curtains and drapery. We don’t forget the extravagant window treatments in manor houses or castles.
Just how much of this kind of ornate curtaining is still used? Looking at staggering amounts of curtaining manufactured, one can’t think there might be a trend afoot not to hang curtains in a living room. Nor that, besides curtains, a window can have heavy drapery.
There are reasons to have a curtain in a living room, though, despite this being the most frequently used room, with the most access to a garden and a patio with additional leisure entertainment. Or the living room has the best view in the house or apartment.
The reasons for dressing a living room with curtains often stem from our earliest associations. It’s hard to convince people from earlier generations that you might not put curtains in your living room—especially heavy ones with covered pelmets and even drapery.
Curtains are also used to add personality, even as a display of wealth. Some treat curtains in a living room like the warmth from the cold outside; others might see curtains in a living room window as romantic. But often, it is a first impression principle about the style of a house or home.
Curiously, how windows are treated when deciding on a curtain is referred to as dressing. In much the same way we think of clothes as the feathers that make us, dressing a window is a statement.
Related: 9 Reasons Why Curtains Are Important
Curtains In A Living Room As Statement
Few people have not stood back in awe and admired the curtains in a living room. Though trends have become minimalist, curtains add a presence to a room. And often, we think that curtains in a living room tell us about the person’s personality (s) living there. Curtains have been regarded as the design element that pulls a room together.
So whether it’s a stylish damask print, a gingham drop, romantic light chiffon panels of curtaining, or classically elegant moments when you can make a bold statement with the pattern and style, the living room window has been the place. Floral designs never appear to go out of style for living room designs.
The first impressions not only stay but are ingrained, and it’s hard not to be momentarily stunned and instinctively react with surprise when you walk into a living room with no curtains.
A Living Room With No Curtains
Daring, some might explain. With modern designs featuring tall windows, almost cathedral-like, such challenges have often resulted in no curtains (or blinds). Conventionally, curtains shut the outside out. The drama of the window speaks, and so too does what lies outside.
Window treatments are changing, though, and now interior designers say: it’s OK to go bare ….for the right reasons. As with every rule —design and elsewhere—there are exceptions. If you’re uncertain whether you should have curtains, consider the purpose of your living room, as this is the space you spend most of your time in.
Don’t Hide A Good View With Curtains
The first aspect to consider whether you hang curtains is to look at the view. In most cases, you might feel exposed and want to block out a neighboring view, especially at night. But, it’s almost sacrilegious to do so when you have a view, even looking out at a garden, or no curtains when you have a view from up high over a cascading cityscape!
Decorators unanimously agree that if there’s a view from the living room, don’t hide it. Sometimes we hang sheer curtains for a rustic feel, but the attitude is, why do this at all?
The best option is a living space with no barriers like curtains between the living room and outside. What is meant by this is to bring the outdoors in rather than drawing the curtains to shut it out.
An expansive view is an asset to a living room and should be incorporated into the room. Whether it’s a city view or a tranquil garden, the design of a living room through the treatment of the windows can add or detract. Trees, in the distance and close by, add to the ambiance of a living room.
So too, a curtain-less window in a city apartment allows one to connect with the city. But there’s more, as a curtainless window allows us to follow the sun, an asset in light.
Curtains In A Living Room Blocks Out Light
The views from a living room window have visual interest for designers, but un-curtained windows are a prized design item for creating light (and shadows) in rooms. Natural light is a dramatic accent to use in design, and without curtains, this is an asset to a living area.
It has become fashionable to speak of bare windows. These curtain-less options in a living room are often chosen when an architect has already decided on the importance of light in a living room. Modern loft spaces, and brownstones or houses with double-height windows, are best suited to curtain-less options.
Besides the commanding views that take center stage in a curtainless living room, the light and reflections (without curtains) are natural assets. Following the sun’s path throughout the day, the patterns of shadows and even those of the moon will add to your living room experience.
Conclusion
If you can break from this engrained pattern to shut out the outside world from your living room with curtains, a new world of experiences awaits you. The heavy curtains that defy the sun’s light no longer need space in your living quarters.
Though curtain-less options in the living room appear most attractive, the privacy aspect might overrule this. Finding a balance between an unadorned window treatment and privacy might not have an easy solution. But it’s worthwhile trying this option too.