How to Dress Up Window Coverings

Window treatments can be expensive. Instead of spending a lot of money on designer curtains, learn how to dress up window coverings to turn the plain into the fabulous. Add a few embellishments and decorations on your cheap standard treatments to create great draperies at a fraction of the cost of custom ones. These can be tailored to match any interior design scheme and complement any decorating style.

Things You'll Need

• Plain window treatments
• Trim
• Decorative hooks
• Curtain tie-backs
• Charms
• Sewing supplies or hot glue gun

Instructions

Choosing Your Embellishments

1. Narrow down your choices for trim. Take your window treatments with you when you head to the craft store and pick out a few different trims that complement the color of the fabric, or an accent color that you have in your room.

2. Hold the various trims around the bottom and/or sides of the curtains to see what it will look like when attached. Have a clerk hold them up, if you are choosing tasselled trim, to see how it will fall when the treatments are hung up.

3. Choose the trimmings that express your interior design scheme the best. For example, you can dress up window coverings in rope trim for a western flair, and just as easily for an elegant twist, depending on the color and thickness of the braid.

4. Pick out decorative hooks and tie-backs that also fit in with your decorating style. Choose the tie backs in the same color as you did the trim, the hooks in the same metal as other elements in your room, such as silver for chrome light fixtures or wrought iron for spaces that have black accents.

5. Buy a few other embellishments that could be used to dress up window coverings while you are there, such as charms that can be hung off drapery hooks or in-between panels. These can always be returned later if not used.

Adding Your Embellishments

1. Sew or hot glue your trim onto your window treatments. The website Window Curtains online says "If you think several colors would go you can add parallel lines of several different braids or ribbons of different widths along the bottom part of the curtains with a narrow gap between each trim."

2. Hang up your draperies to decide whether you want further embellishment and put on the charms you purchased earlier if you want to add more decorations. Hang the charms off the drapery hooks in front of the curtains or off the rod itself in-between paneled draperies.

3. Install your decorative hooks and tie-backs to see the finished effect. See how your dressed up window coverings look hanging as well as tied back and edit out any charms that take away from the interior design style you are trying to create in the space.

References

• Window Curtains Online: 7 Ideas for Plain Window Curtain Panels