Window Treatment Tricks for Unbalanced Window Walls
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When I first moved into this house a few weeks ago, one of the most challenging rooms to decorate was the living room for 3 specific reasons:
1) there is a HUGE intake on the TV wall (I'm talking about a 2.5' x 2.5' vent. It's an absolute eyesore! I'll address that in another blog post).
2) there is a fireplace on the opposite wall (i.e. two competing focal points - fireplace and TV) and
3) on the largest wall (see photo below), there is a small window with shutters and then a slider.
Most people would and have only hung window treatments around the slider which allows you to hang art between the two windows. That is probably the first thing that comes to mind and the most common thing to do. I just didn't like that route because it made the room feel very uneven. As you can see, I need to place a couch on that wall. Hanging window treatments around the slider would make everything very heavy to the right side of the room, not to mention there's that little window on the left that would be hanging out by itself. Besides, if you didn't notice it before, note that the top of the windows are not at that same height. So, the best way I knew how to address this awkward window wall was to treat it like one large window and cover the entire wall. So here's what I did... I took two long rods (120" each) that I already owned and laid them out end to end (see photo below). It stretched across most of the wall, but didn't quite make the entire width. I am ok with that. There's about a foot or so exposed wall on either end which actually looks fine. The apartment I just moved from had much higher ceilings so I had 96" curtain panels that I wanted to reuse. To make the room feel more bigger and grander, I decided to hang the panels from floor to ceiling. These are 8 foot ceilings so the 96" curtains are nearly perfect...just need to get someone to sew up the rod pockets by an inch so they don't puddle on the floor.
By laying out the rods, I could figure out where to position and attach them to the wall. I took the finials off the two center ends and made sure to attach one of the rod brackets close to where the two rods met. I used scotch tape to hold the rods together as needed since I was extending them to its maximum length which makes them less sturdy. Once the sheers were on the rod, you can't see the tape. Plus, these are stationary as I don't open and close them at all. Since I hung sheers which are very lightweight, I didn't need more than the 4 wall brackets. If you hang heavier panels, you'll need additional support.
As you can see, I completely covered up that little window, but this window treatment completely changed the feeling in the room. The ceilings feel taller and the room actually feels more elegant. I actually really like the look of the sheers. I initially attempted to do all sheers, but it looked too plain, so I added the blue panels for color and it looked much better. Once I get the rod pockets sewn up a little, it will eliminate the puddling on the bottom (I prefer it to just kiss the floor) and one day, I'll find the energy to steam the wrinkles out of the sheers. Real Simple had an excellent article recently titled "Your Guide to Curtains and Window Treatments" that outlined everything from choosing fabric and color, to how the long or wide the curtains should be, where they should be mounted in relation to the window, what type of rod should be used, whether or not to use tiebacks, and where to shop. Click here to read the entire article here. I would love your feedback on today's post. Feel free to share your comments with me below. Thanks for stopping by!
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