No window treatments here. Too much garden to look at, too few neighbors to look in. I don't like little scraps of dusty cloth impeding my views.
Renee

I have natural woven shades in most of my house. For the bedrooms they have blackout lining and for living spaces they allow filtered light when down. When up, they look kind of like a valance at the top of the window. The natural grass shades bring the outdoors in because they are made of different reeds or grasses. My husband has dust allergies, so we just use the vacuum with a brush attachment. You can get them through Smith and Noble and other vendors. You could also go through an interior designer. They won't necessarily be any more expensive. I think you can even order from JC Penney.

Here in the Netherlands people generally do not use curtains in their living rooms, only night curtains in bedrooms. The most common solution for windows is to put plastic tape on part of it, it comes in all sorts of patterns, wet glass, stained glass and so on. Looks something like this:

{{gwi:331159}}

Some people also use some sort of half curtain, something like this:

{{gwi:331160}}

It is nice and easy to make, basically you just mount a pole and hand curtain on it. Makes the room to look more cosy and easy to wash really (which is main thing with allergies, blinds are hell to clean and gather the dust as bad as normal curtains).

I would not put in window treatment to please others. You are so fortunate to live where it is not needed.

We also have allergies, but we live in a housing addition where people can see in. We have shades on our windows, and when we can manage to switch them, I want to put in plantation shades. We have the cheaper variety, and I just hate trying to keep them clean. I think the wider thicker ones might look better.

Is there something about your windows that makes you feel that they should be covered? I would be willing to bet that your house is beautiful as it is, and all of your guests would love it.

You could purchase standing vases or other ornaments, but your simplicity defines you, and your windows draw the eye to the outside. It sort of unites the garden with the home, and makes a statement.

It's your home, and you are happy with it. Isn't that what counts?

Sammy

I, too, live in the country where curtains or shades are rarely needed. I only put in blinds in the living room to appease my DH, who wanted to shut out the bright late afternoon sun when he was watching TV. The blinds now spend their lives pulled up tight under a small inside-mounted valance, which does cut off a bit of the top view of the window, but not much. Actually, the best thing to dress up a window and not take away from the view IMO is the window casing you put around it. DH made ours from scratch - all the windows are trimmed out with fluted oak casing, bulls-eye corner blocks in each corner. NO way would I ever want to cover all that beautiful wood up with curtains - and visitors always comment how pretty it is. I think you need to suit yourself. If you like the spare, clean look then don't feel you have to change for anyone else's fussy ideas!

Annececilia, how about a picture. I would love to see those window casings.
Sammy

I think perhaps people see those aluminum blinds still up, with no curtains, and think it looks unfinished. ? Just take those blinds down. You don't need them, and they are probably distracting to the rest of your home's decor. Other than that, you've received some great suggestions if you want to put something else up - woven shades, cafe curtains, etched glass, sheers, even window boxes would all look fine. Or leave the windows bare. Just take down the aluminum blinds. And be sure your accessories reflect your personality. A stack of gardening books is a good start! :)

Sure, Sammy. Click on the link below to see a photo of the grandkids and DIL from Halloween. You can see the wood around the windows in the background. Not the best pic, and certainly not featuring the window treatment, but it was the best I could find quickly. :-) Hope it helps clarify.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:331158}}

What a wonderful picture.
The wood is beautiful, and nothing else is needed in my opinion.

We are thinking about getting new window soon, and to get what you have is very elegant. Your husband did a great job. I think it really looks finished, and visitors may be overwhelmed with such good craftsmanship.

I don't think you should feel that anything is missing at all.

Sammy

One reason to consider some draperies is that they can make a significant difference in your energy consumption. If the rest of your house is well insulated, most of your energy loss can be through your windows. Draperies really help. (I forget the exact numbers, but when I ran the calculations on sizing our air conditioner, it really helped that we have insulated drapes.) When there's a big difference in temperature inside and out, we can stand by a window and feel a huge difference when the drapes are open and closed.
My allergist didn't like drapes, either, but she said horizontal blinds are the worst--those sideways surfaces really catch and hold dust. If you do stick with blinds, verticals are better for your allergies. You'll also find that draperies quiet things down a little.

None of this helps from an aesthetic point of view, but the energy savings are a good reason to consider drapes--washable ones if you're allergic.

I'm a huge fan of natural light and love flooding the inside of the house with sunlight. My husband framed all of our windows and front bay window seat with oak and handstained each piece. I then added simple wooden blinds from 'Select Blinds' that can be raised and lowered for privacy, and colorful tiers instead of curtains.

My house is full of abstract art paintings and I like the splash of color the tiers provide; however, the wooden blinds from Select Blinds have a finished top and don't require any additional curtains if you don't want to add any.

I can't figure out what to do in my house either. I don't have any kind of visual memory or the ability to envision what something will look like. I have to SEE it to determine if something works .. this is true in the garden, too.

I finally got rid of the horrid vertical blinds that came with my house and love the natural light. My problem is that I have to put something up over the sliding doors.

It's like lucretia1 said about drapes making a difference in managing inside temperatures. All of my windows are dual pane, except for the sliders. I can feel the cold air coming in through those doors.

I hope you don't mind my asking for help, too.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn, with the price of good draperies, it might be worth your while to price out dual-paned sliders.
Renee

There are some solutions that save energy AND let me see my gardens.
Shade cloth is my best friend. It cuts out 50% to 80% of sunlight- depending on the fabric chosen. I have just made a huge shade cloth cover for my three huge (4' x10') windows in my kitchen and I've just upgraded to 'real' roll up shades that I can have down on hot days and up on days when I want the sun to come in.
(Sailrite up in Indiana is my source for window hardware and fabric for these. The shade part is on a cog-ed wheel and is what a lot of restaurants use in there parts.)

My other good friend is black out cloth lining on shades- both for light and temperature control.

A Sunset book on window covers has been my crutch for making shades and draperies for several decades now.

Renee......

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of that. I've already made three seriously poor decorating choices that I will have to live with for years and just hate the thought of making another mistake because I just can't envision the finished look. And, yes, cost is a factor. It's fear of doing it wrong that stops me dead.

At least in the garden, I can undo some of my mistakes by moving plants.

Thanks, again.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks for all the help, y'all. Been watching this thread all weekend long but for some reason the internet at home wouldn't let me log onto GW.
I have taken down the ugly yellowed with age blinds. My allergy doc never mentioned dust on blinds, and it wasn't on the literature she gave me to read, but those things were pretty dusty. I'm scared of putting up anything fabric, cause she said I need to wash that stuff once a week and I'm no housework-pro kind of person so it won't happen. Plus I can't imagine anything looking good on the windows after getting washed once a week for months on end.
I don't know if my house has enough interior decor to pull off the bare windows look. Maybe I need to start focusing on the house instead of the garden all the time! I've looked online at the indoor shutters- which look pretty cool but I can't imagine how they would look inside my house. I've looked at the wooden 2" and 2.5" blinds. I've looked at something they call etched glass blinds which seem to be like regular blinds only transparent and with designs etched in.
I never would have even thought of the blinds, or new window treatments, but I've been dating again and I keep hearing the whole 'Looks like you've just moved in' thing. So I'm taking a good hard look at my house to see what I can do to 'cozy it up'.

One suggestion - use your gardening skills! We have several windows in an outside wall which is above a flower bed. Planted climbing roses. When they got up to the level of the windows, my DH pruned and tied them so that they framed the windows - not covered them, but went all around the windows - bottom, top, and sides. One of the roses is Cl Cecile Bruner, and the other is banksie lutea. Looks fantastic from the inside! When the roses are blooming, of course, it looks like a romantic fairy tale. Even when they are not blooming the roses make a nice green frame for the windows.

It is not difficult to maintain - he just gets a ladder once a year and prunes and re-ties where necessary. Just a thought ...

Jackie

And don't forget the Home Decorating Forum. They are very nice people, and come up with lots of ideas -especially if you post pictures.

Good luck with the dating thing. That's one roller coaster I would hate to get back on. ;O

There's a thread right now on the Decorating forum that is discussing potential window treatments for windows they don't want 'covered'. Thought you might find some additional suggestions there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread on Home Decorating forum

Thank you for suggesting us, we never thought of this. It will be helpful for many other who are planing to renovate their windows.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wigger Draperies

Another vote for nothing on the windows. I'm in the country also, and my windows are framed in cedar so they're lovely like they are. It's nice to be able to see the garden through all the windows. I have double glazed windows so I don't have to worry about energy waste. Up your game on the inside with paint, pictures, framed mirrors and other design elements. Maybe some small pieces of furniture that make a statement, like a leopard print chaise or an antique bombe chest, bowls of seashells, pinecones, or other little treasures you may collect.

I remember this topic, and it's reminding me of a story my mom told me. One of her neighbors, the husband and wife, a few doors down, lived in a very old house with a beautiful garden around it. The windows were old, they didn't have much money since he was an artist, and she was a school teacher.

One day my mom went into their home for some reason, and noticed the nice twining ivy around the windows, she asked if the lady's husband had painted the ivy on the wall; there were no window curtains, just the ivy, and a few houseplants arranged around the windows edges. She said "No, the plants are our curtains", and then my mom noticed that the ivy was coming in from the outside, through the wall, the lady had just trained the ivy around the window to make the window treatments.

Maybe you can do something like that, but be more energy efficient.

I will put in a vote for curtains, ideally washable curtains because drycleaning is quite expensive. I like being able to control the amount of light. Sometimes when it is hot and the sun is beating in through the windows or glaring directly in our eyes, I want to be about to screen some of it out.

Also in rooms with lots of hard surfaces, curtains can soften sound and keep noises from booming. I actually used to get headaches when we gave parties. Everyone would always end up in the kitchen where the surfaces are all wood and tile and metal, and the sound would echo. I love entertaining, but by the time the party came to an end my head would be pounding. We have since put curtains up in the kitchen and that has made all the difference. Now the sound is softened and the glaring summer sunlight can be moderated. Maybe it is time for another party.

Rosefolly

Vertical blinds won't collect dust the way fauxwood blinds do, and can be closed when you need to keep out the heat and opened completely. I was in a golf course view apartment (briefly!) in Texas, had them and loved them.
I have cellular shades on the south side of the house here in Virginia to keep the heat out; they don't seem to collect any dust. In the winter they're up all day since I want the heat to come in!
Both have been good solution for my allergies.
Best allergy tips: if you work outside all day when grass and tree pollen are high, wash your hair before you go to bed. If you can't do that, change your pillowcase every day. Put your hamper in the laundry room so you don't have pollen covered clothes in your closet!

Window treatments are the best way to add color, pattern and instant style to your living room.You can buy high-end styles, of course, but standard versions hold their own aesthetically and are easy on the wallet.
Have s look at [url=http://www.curtains4u.co.uk/voiles/readymade-voiles-curtains.html]
Voiles curtains[/url] :
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Here is a link that might be useful: Voiles curtains

Window treatments are the best way to add color, pattern and instant style to your living room.You can buy high-end styles, of course, but standard versions hold their own aesthetically and are easy on the wallet.
Have s look at [url=http://www.curtains4u.co.uk/voiles/readymade-voiles-curtains.html]
Voiles curtains[/url] :
[url=http://www.curtains4u.co.uk/bedding/duvet-sets.html]
Duvet sets[/url]

Here is a link that might be useful: Voiles curtains

I have plain white linen curtains, floorlength, washable, but I vacuum them regularly. I love them in summer when they move in the breeze from the balcony door. All blinds are between the double window panes.

On my large living room window which doesn't need curtains for privacy I simply hung a single panel of toile on each end which softens the look without obstructing the view. The nice metal curtain rods and panels add a warm touch without obstructing the view. I don't have an allergy problem and have never washed them. They're from Country Curtains who have beautiful and affordable curtains that are American-made. Don't know about the allergy problems though but they don't seem to be dust catchers.

giannapeterson, you just joined the forum today, and you retrieved this older thread.

curious

I didn't realize this was an old thread, yes, it looks suspiciously like advertising.

yeah, spammers are getting really crafty these days.