Design Dilemma: Window Treatment Question from a Reader
A reader recently wrote with a tricky window challenge. This room has arch topped windows and rectangular windows both placed close to corners of the room and with some angled ceiling lines that make our usual solutions probably not possible.
She doesn’t want to cover the windows since that would reduce the natural light, just “dress” them with curtains.
Time to play “stump the designer”… Here is the image she sent
Why oh why do builders DO this?? Everyone wanted arch top windows for a while. And they do often have a graceful look that harkens back to Palladian windows….named for this dude -16th Century Italian architect Andrea Palladio and a devotee of classical Greek and Roman architecture.
Technically, a Palladian window is an arch topped opening flanked by rectangular openings, though he did seem to employ arch topped windows without the side windows in his buildings too.
His buildings tended to be classically proportioned and appointed…unlike the builder spec homes full of arch topped windows from the 90’s and ‘aughts in suburban America.
And while arched windows can be pretty in many spaces, they tend to make a challenge for window treatments. We covered a lot of ideas for how to treat them gracefully HERE.
But back to our dilemma.
As my reader pointed out, normally, she would hang a rod above the arch and beyond the window, but the angled ceiling…
Why oh why couldn’t these windows be nudged a little farther away from the corners. That would have made life so much easier!
Also, our goal is usually to create a consistent height around the room for window treatments - this is a great trick to tie together disparate window heights and organize them into a more pleasing rhythm.
Here are a few solutions I see for this problem:
If the height of the arch is at or below the height of the corner
A skinny rod might make it possible to hang a rod above and beyond the windows to the corner and match the height on the side windows, though it looks like that might be not quite possible.
If the arch windows are above the height of the corner,
which they seem to be, other solutions must be considered.
The easiest solution is to just leave the arch topped windows unadorned and add window treatments to the adjacent rectangular windows only. These could be hung near the ceiling line and beyond the windows for gracious proportions.
And I would consider adding a woven wood or fabric shade under the curtain panels to cover the expanse of wall between the rod and the top of the window.
OR, if you really must dress the arch windows too, you can hang the rod between the arch and rectangular portion of the windows and extend it beyond the window. And this happily is still in line with or slightly above the adjacent windows so their rods could be hung at the same height.
With this solution, the addition of trim to make the whole arch and windows visually larger would be nice.
If covering the windows a bit is an option,
another solution would be roman shades, either shaped to the arch or ignoring it and covering it completely.
Be sure the fabric wraps around the sides of the board and you use blackout lining or interlining so you don’t give away the secret!