How to Design Window Scarf Treatments

Window scarf treatments are a beautiful way to allow natural light to highlight a room's features while still giving your windows a finished look. You can quickly and easily design window scarf treatments to go with any room, and they can usually be finished in 30 minutes or less. Whether you want elaborate, flowing drapes or a minimalistic approach to your window treatments, you will be able to design the perfect look for your windows with little time, effort or cost.

Things You'll Need

• Digital camera
• Pencil
• Paper
• Silver paint pen
• Ruler

Instructions

1. Take some pictures of your windows. This will help you visualize how the windows look with the rest of the room. Take the pictures from as far away from the windows as possible so that you get a good portion of the rest of the room in the image. This will help you see what your treatments will look like in harmony with the rest of the room.

2. Sketch some ideas for your treatments. Right now you will be focusing on rod placement and length and scarf dimensions. Use the ruler to draw in straight lines using the pencil to indicate where the curtain rods that hold your window scarves will be. Determine whether you like the look of long rods that extend past the window a fair distance or not. Also, decide how high above the window you want the rods to be. Once you have selected a rod placement, sketch in your scarves. You should decide how many loops you want, whether you want the scarves to have long or short trailing ends and how many scarves per window rod. The easiest look is asymmetrical, with one scarf tail significantly shorter than the other; the scarf is a single loose loop of cloth that spans the length of the curtain rod. However, there are many other creative alternatives. Use the silver paint pen to sketch in a variety of looks until you find one that works for you.

3. Decide on fabric or fabrics. Select colors that go with your room. They don't have to match, but they should complement the rest of your decor. For example, if you have a room that is bright and sunny, then you probably will want bright colors like yellows or blues, but you could also go with a pastel green or even a cream color. It will depend on how much you want your window treatments to stand out. Also decide the type of fabric. Sheer fabrics are most common for window scarf treatments, but you can get very creative with heavier cloths such as velvet. This is particularly beautiful if you use a contrasting fabric and/or color for the lining.

4. Select your window hardware. You will need curtain rods for this look. Decide whether you want minimally visible rods or ornate ones. Also, if you plan to use heavy fabric for the window scarves, you may need sturdier rods to hold them in place.

5. Accessorize your scarves. While tiebacks are not really necessary, you can do lots of beautiful things with beading on the ends of the lengths of material or with central pieces like bows that can be created from the same material as the scarves and used to highlight the central point of the design.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you have decided exactly what you want from your design and laid it out, you can implement it easily by purchasing the proper materials. If you are hanging heavy fabrics or hardware, be sure to mount them in wall studs to prevent them from pulling out of the wall. To estimate the amount of fabric you will need, measure the width and height of the window. Double the height measurement and add the width measurement to this number. This will give you a maximum amount of fabric needed, allowing for draping and asymmetry on the tailing ends of the scarves.

References

• Window treatment design options