Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A rule worth following.

Allow me to get share a design rule, that shall never be broken:
The length of your curtains must touch the floor.
The fabric can "kiss" the floor, it can "pool" around the floor, but they must never be inches off the floor.


I truly do not know why the standard size of curtains sold in stores are 84", we are setting up people for failure. I'm not big on rules but I have never seen curtains that are "capri length" that look good, see below.

While we are talking about curtain length, let's talk about where the rods can be hung to make the most impact.
Here is a helpful illustration below, hang them high!


I'm always scared to share opinions with people because I don't want to breed discontent with what people have, sometimes ignorance is bliss. I don't want my silly opinions and quirks to make people run out and spend lots of money. However, this is a rule worth following.
If your house does have high water curtains, you can remedy that pretty quickly by adding a contrasting banding to the bottom of your curtains:
Darby from Fly Through Our Window used this trick on existing curtains and I think we can agree it looks pretty darn good.

Sorry to sound so snobby, you'll probably never invite me to your home. But seriously, if you are in the market for curtains that will not be custom made, look for 96" and 108", you'll be happy you did and save money in the long run by not needing to replace them.

Do you have any design quirks? Please share...

5 comments:

Audrey said...

my design quirk is people who hang artwork too high. the center of your piece should be at the eye level of someone who is 5'-6" - not someone who is 7'-0" tall. :) drives me bonkers!

Boo Hazard said...

Oh I love when designers share their peeves! Makes for fun conversation! Here's a link to one of my peeves... and I know what you mean bc as I hit "publish" I knew friends were guilty of it. But sometimes you gotta share!

http://bywaterboo.blogspot.com/2011/05/that-awful-sofa.html

- BOO

alli/hooray said...

I completely agree about hanging curtains (I like the phrase, "high and wide"). I wish this tip was shared more often, too; it would have saved me a lot of work when I got my first place!

Kiley said...

I did not know this! Thanks for the tip, Ash!

Tammy Robbins said...

I was sooo tired of looking at my bare windows, so I broke down and bought 96" curtains (that was as long as I could get them). I knew (and wanted) them to touch the ground. However, that meant having to compromise at the top. The rods are about 1.5 -2 inches from the top of the window. I swear, though, it doesn't look bad. The windows are very long, so you really don't notice. At least that's what I'm telling myself. It was either that, spend a fortune, or make them myself. I compromised...for now. Thanks for the tips.