The right type of curtains helps set the ambience of a room by filtering light while offering insulation and privacy. They also contribute to the overall room decor by adding colour, texture, patterns, and a sense of dimension to the space.
But there’s more functionality to consider other than aesthetics, privacy, and insulation when it comes to choosing curtains for a bedroom. This is because a wrong curtain choice can leave you waking up due to slight changes in light reception from external sources, and therefore, affect the quality of your sleep.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, a nerve pathway from the eye’s retina to the hypothalamus area of the brain gets stimulated through exposure to light. The hypothalamus has a special centre known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) which functions like an internal clock. When SCN is stimulated, it affects the entire body by releasing stimulating hormones like cortisol and suppressing the sleep hormone, melatonin. It starts off regulated pattern of activities in the body as a result, waking you up in the middle of your sleep.
This is why you need to choose your bedroom curtains carefully, so that they effectively block headlights, streetlights, and other sources of light filtering through your windows. In this guide, we’ve put together essential information to help you choose the right curtains for your bedroom so that it suits your needs.
Choosing the Right Bedroom Curtain Material
Home designers and window experts suggest using heavy fabrics for bedroom curtains as they provide enhanced light filtering, insulation, and privacy. Some of the common bedroom curtain fabrics considered by homeowners are silk, velvet, and lined fabric.
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Silk Curtains
Silk is a good choice if you want to create a luxurious or formal look in your bedroom. This heavy fabric offers a rich texture and depth to your room. It also drapes well to accentuate your windows and complement your furnishings, thereby providing a very refined look to your space.
Hang silk curtains using unique vintage or modern style hardware that suits the overall interior decor of your room. However, silk curtains are prone to sunlight damage. Make sure that your bedroom windows aren’t located in a direction that attracts too much sunlight if you want to opt for silk curtains. An alternative way to extend the life of silk curtains is to pair them with other window treatments like roman shades, roller shades or blinds.
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Velvet Curtains
Velvet is a woven and tufted fabric. Its thick and dense fibres block light more efficiently than silk and provide enhanced insulation from cold and moisture. This fabric also helps to block dust and pollutants from entering the room, making it a healthier option for people who are allergic to such external elements. Another advantage of velvet curtains is their soundproofing characteristic, which is conducive to a quiet atmosphere in a bedroom.
But a major disadvantage of this fabric is that though it blocks dust and microorganisms from entering your room, it’s susceptible to the accumulation of both. It requires frequent cleaning as a result.
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Lined Curtains
This type of curtain helps to control the level of external light and create a dim space. They’re mainly regular cotton, polyester, linen, or wool curtains that are coated with acrylic foam or another lining on the opposite side. Lined curtains are available in three versions – standard, blackout, and thermal.
The standard lined curtains usually come with a coated cotton lining, which prevents sun damage and discolouration. They help block a significant amount of light from outside and improve the drapes.
Blackout lined curtains are, on the other hand, an ideal choice if your bedroom windows let in a lot of light during the day or night. As the name suggests, these curtains completely block light. The lining used in this fabric is coated with harmless chemicals which conceal the tiny pores of the weave through which light passes. They also have limited thermal properties. Blackout curtains can also help you minimize external sounds, making it a good choice when your bedroom is situated beside a busy noisy street. Learn more about the advantages of blackout curtains.
Thermal lined curtains have acrylic foam or a thin layer of aluminium coating on the backside which imparts insulating properties to the fabric. It helps control the temperature of a room by preventing heat loss during winter and heat retention during summer.
The Different Types of Bedroom Curtain Styles
Curtains come in a wide range of header styles. Here’s a list of styles that are suitable to use in a bedroom. Choose a style that suits your personal room decor.
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Pinch Pleats: This style provides a classic look making it perfect for a traditional or an elegant bedroom. They have evenly spaced pleats pinched together and sewn at the top of the curtain. The pleats are weighted at the bottom of the curtain seams which make the drapes fall evenly and smoothly. Pin hooks are sewn at the top of the curtain panel which are then attached to curtain rings or traverse rod to hang the curtain. There are different varieties of pinch pleat curtains available such as five-finger, four-finger, three-finger, two-finger pinch pleats and French pleats. To know more about pinch pleated curtains, click here.
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Grommets: This style of curtains has a continuous panel at the top with circular eyelets. To these eyelets, either heavier fabric or metal rings are attached. When hanging grommet curtains, you require a curtain rod that needs to pass through each of these eyelets.
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Gathers: It’s a traditional yet informal curtain header style that suits small windows. A standard gather header contains undefined pleats all along the top panel. There’s a row of pockets at the backside of the panel to hang them with the help of curtain hooks on a rod. These curtains can also be hanged on tracks.
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Tab Tops: Tab-top curtains also have a continuous top panel like grommet curtains but instead of eyelets, they have fabric loops or tabs all along the panel. Usually, the tabs are about 2” wide. The panels hang straight downwards as the curtain rod passes through each loop.
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Swags or Scarves: These are toppers that are mostly used to decorate windows for adding a feminine and romantic charm to the space. They’re mainly draped over the curtain rod or hung loosely at each corner of the window frame. Designers, however, recommend pairing it with other window treatments because they alone can’t provide privacy, light control, and insulation. You can pair them with your bedroom curtains and create a unique style. There are several ways to hang swags or window scarves to stylize your windows.
How to Pick the Right Bedroom Curtain Colours and Patterns
When choosing colours and patterns for your bedroom curtains, determine whether you want the curtains to stand out or blend in with the room decor. For a bold statement, opt for black, shades of blue, grey, bright reds, yellow, orange, green, or purple. If you want a soft look that blends in with the rest of the room, choose neutrals but make sure that you get the right kind of fabric to control light.
Patterned curtains work well when you don’t have too many patterns in other elements of your bedroom such as bedding, furniture, upholstery, rugs, and wall art. Starting from small dots, elegant stripes, checkered to geometric patterns and quirky graphic prints, you have a wide variety to choose from when you have solid coloured home decor elements as mentioned above. However, opt for solid coloured curtains for better coordination if you have other patterned elements in your room.
Now that you have this comprehensive guide to choosing the right bedroom curtains, we hope that you can make an informed purchasing decision. When buying bedroom curtains, talk with your dealer for sample fabric swatches so that you can figure out easily what will work well for your overall space. Make sure to consult with window covering professionals to help you select appropriate hardware that complements your bedroom curtains.
Contact Centurian Window Fashions if you’re looking for custom window coverings in Toronto from high-end brands like Hunter Douglas, Maxxmar, ShadeOMatic, Norman, Somfy, Levolor, and many more. Call us at (416)-489-9990 or visit our showrooms at Vaughan or Mississauga for free in-home consultation.
