#1.  Make your Window a Focal Point

Every room needs a focal point for design.  If you have an exceptional painting or sculpture, that may do the trick. If not, remember, your custom window treatment is the one design feature created specifically for you.  A print or color treatment can set the tone for the entire room achieving just the effect you want for your home. If you want a focal point in your room, a creatively designed window treatment is the answer. Windows are truly a design opportunity for setting your room’s mood and style!

#2. Make your Window a Background

You’ll add beauty and grace to your home by creating a soft background in your window treatment design.  Choosing simple lines, soft swags and muted or neutral colors help make a gentle, yet finished-looking decorative statement, a lovely background for a comfortably beautiful room.  Decorator blinds and shades are now available in such a wide array of styles, you may want to consider them as a background option, too. There are too many to mention here, but ask me for some suggestions… you’ll be amazed at the flexibility, functionality and beauty these new options provide.  Whether you choose to make your windows a focal point, or a subtle yet dramatic background, remember that each window in your home serves its functional purpose.

#3.  Mix Prints and Patterns

In today’s free wheeling world of decorating, mixing prints and patterns is more the rule than the exception. In many traditional rooms, a single print is still used lavishly, for upholstery, drapery and even as a wall cover. But today’s fashion conscious homeowners want to mix and scramble both patterns and colors with a truly uninhibited hand.  If this approach is a new one for you, we will start with a very simple pattern perhaps in a single color, with a white or ecru background. It’s easy to add additional patterns by keeping to the same color scheme.  We can consider combining a large scale floral print with a plaid, stripe or check! An instantaneous decorator look will appear.  Or how about adding a paisley pattern, perennially popular, with a simple geometric pattern?  The thing to remember is that there must be some relationship in color, pattern or theme between our desired prints. Naturally the color relationship is the easiest to establish! A general rule of thumb is to follow The 60-30-10 rule: Our main pattern will be used the most (60); our secondary pattern half as much(30); and our third (10), or splash pattern is used sparingly.

I suggest that when we find a print you absolutely love, you should consider using it on the flattest surface possible… perhaps as a bedspread, or sofa upholstery. If this print is gathered into a window treatment, you’ll tend to diffuse the design that attracted you in the first place! By all means, have fun when you play with prints and patterns. Look in magazines, read books, collect swatches. Your new room will be much easier to design than you think!