10 Living Room Curtain Ideas to Transform Your Room
Curtains play a pivotal role in transforming your living room by impacting the aesthetic and overall atmosphere of the space. Drapes — and any style of window treatment — are both functional and a key element in your interior design. Choosing the right living room curtains is essential for creating just the right look and functionality, but how do you choose? These living room curtain ideas are a great place to start by sparking your creativity and guiding you in designing your own curated space.
Before you dive into curtain ideas for living room windows, first learn about the benefits of choosing curated drapery.
Benefits of Beautiful, Curated Living Room Curtains
Taking the time to find the perfect drapery for your living room has several benefits, including:
- Aesthetic enhancements – The right drapery will give your room an intentional, curated aesthetic that improves its overall look and feel.
- Privacy and light control – Curated curtains will provide the right level of light and privacy control you need for a relaxing, calm atmosphere.
- Insulation – Drapery made from the right material, and with the right lining, will ward off the chill and block summer heat, keeping your room temperate and comfortable.
Curtain Ideas for Living Room Windows
Now that you know the benefits of choosing the perfect drapery for your space, kickstart your design process with these 10 inspiring living room curtain ideas.
1. Capture an Antique Feel: Pinch Pleat on Tall Windows
For tall, wide living room windows, Drapery is one of the most efficient — and attractive — window treatment options. Curtain ideas for living room windows like these should focus on wide panels of fabric that will easily stretch from wall to wall as well as tall panels that will help to accentuate the height of your windows and ceiling, creating a spacious look and feel.
To keep your room from feeling too open, explore living room curtain ideas that feature a pleat style with more visual weight to it, like Pinch Pleat Drapery. A pinch pleat has three-finger pleats pinched four inches from top of the panel which create a visual break right at your ceiling to stop the eye and ground the design. You can add additional depth and dimension to your design when you choose a fabric with a subtle pattern and texture like Surrey Stripe. The vertical pinstripe-inspired lines complement the verticality of your wall and windows while adding visual texture that further grounds the design.
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Pinch Pleat Drapery
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Surrey Stripe
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2. Embrace an Earthy Look with Dark Grey Drapery
Capture an earthy look and feel in your room with living room curtain ideas that feature organic tones to complement other natural colors and materials in your space. A deep warm grey like Lisbon Woven in Agave features a rich earthy tone that resembles stone. The natural linen blend fabric also has a subtle hand-woven texture that adds visual warmth to your space and complements the textures of wood furniture and décor elements. For pleat style, consider Ripple Fold Drapery which creates subtle highlights and lowlights with its soft S-fold curves that resemble elongated afternoon shadows.
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Ripple Fold Drapery
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Lisbon Woven
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3. Go Bright & Modern: Sky-Blue Drapes On Glass Doors
When looking for living room curtain ideas for glass doors, it’s essential to have window treatments that are as functional as they are attractive. Tailored Pleat Drapery, which features three-finger pleats pinched at the very top of the drapery panel, is one of the most functional pleat styles available. It’s compatible with traditional rod and rings hardware (pictured) as well as track system hardware. For the best functionality, choose track system hardware, as the panels are attached to carriers on a track so you can effortlessly glide your panels back and forth as needed. You even have the option of a motorized track, which allows you to open and close your drapery with a remote, an app on your smartphone, or even the sound of your voice when paired with a smart home device.
In terms of aesthetics, Tailored Pleat Drapery helps create the illusion of height with its streamlined design, which can be useful for windows or doors that are short. To complement the bright natural light that filters through your glass doors, choose a sky-blue fabric with a subtle pattern, like Jasmine in Sky. The light blue is bright and airy while the pattern adds just a touch of visual depth and dimension. For greater privacy and light control, add privacy or blackout lining to your panels.
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Tailored Pleat Drapery
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jasmine
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4. Balance brightness with Dark Drapes
Need living room curtain ideas for a room with floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors? It’s best to find drapery fabric that balances the brightness of all the natural light in your space. Choose a richly hued fabric like Jasmine in Midnight to ground your design and create a sense of harmony with the brightness of your room. Privacy and light control are also hugely important with such large glass windows and doors, so you’ll need the right level of privacy and light control. Privacy or blackout lining can give you peace of mind by creating a cozy, private space when you need to. To keep your room from feeling too dark when the drapery is drawn closed, choose lighter design elements like off-white furniture and whitewashed wood flooring, or a bright white and grey striped rug.
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Tailored Pleat Drapery
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jasmine
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5. Create a Luxe Look with Drapery on Arched Windows
Have a luxurious living room with arched windows? Living room curtain ideas for your formal space should focus on high-end natural materials to match the opulence of the space. Linen, silk or wool fabrics all deliver character-rich beauty thanks to their unique natural qualities like linen’s laissez-faire look with soft wrinkles, silk’s subtle sheen and wool’s heathered texture. Plus, choosing drapery for arched windows allows you to fully enjoy the architectural beauty of your window — thanks to their ability to be fully pulled off the window — while still giving you the light and privacy control you need.
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Tailored Pleat Drapery
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Luxe Linen
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6. Embrace Chic Continuity with Wall-to-Wall Drapery
Even if your windows are not overly tall or wide, drapery can still be a great choice to add a dramatic aesthetic effect to your living room. Especially for living rooms with a lower ceiling, the right choice among living room curtain ideas will help create the illusion of height for a more spacious look and feel. For wall-to-wall drapery, an ideal choice is Ripple Fold Drapery, which is only compatible with a track system, so you can enjoy effortless ease in adjusting your drapery. For even easier adjustments and a bold look, consider adding a third center panel in addition to two end panels, so you don’t have to pull any one drapery panel very far.
Since three panels of drapery that span from wall to wall take up a lot of visual real estate in your living room, consider a fabric that matches or is just one shade lighter or darker than your wall color. The effect will be a continuous, clean, and soft aesthetic.
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ripple fold drapery
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heathered
linen
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waterfall woven wood shade
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grassweave
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7. Create Textured Layers with Sheers over Shades
When considering living room curtain ideas, don’t write off other window treatments. While your focus is on drapery, layering in blinds or shades can give you greater versatility in your light and privacy control than just drapery alone. Plus, the layers of color and texture beautifully add to your room’s design dimension. When layering, it’s best to start with a base: Which window treatment do you want to be the star of your design? After you make your choice for the base layer, you can choose complementary colors and patterns for the rest of the window treatments.
For a living room with lots of wood tones, Ripple Fold Drapery made of Linen in Natural offers a soft warm beige color that complements the wood. To layer in Roman Shades, choose a fabric with the same color temperature (warm, in this case) for a cohesive look. A good choice is Sahara Stripe in Desert, which has sandy-colored simple stripes on an off-white background for a touch of visual interest. If you can layer in a third shade, like Solar Shades behind the Roman Shade, stick to the same color temperature and choose a color that’s just a shade or two lighter or darker than your shades or drapes.
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ripple fold drapery
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linen
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Flat Roman
Shade
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Sahara
Stripe
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8. Capture a Unique Look with Two-Toned Curtains
Looking for unique and creative living room curtain ideas? Try two-toned curtains, which can be created with a bottom border that runs about two feet up from the ground. The effect can be either bold with strong color differences between the top and bottom, or subtle with similar colors only a shade or two off from each other.
A good rule of thumb for choosing two colors for your curtains is similar to the advice for layering your window treatments: Stick to colors with the same temperature (warm and cool). Mixing warm and cool colors is certainly an option, but it will create a stronger contrast for an even bolder look. For a softer combination of warm tones, choose a light beige color for the top, like Andes in Castle Wall, and pair it with another warm tone that’s just a bit darker, like Andes in Rye.
If you choose to also layer a shade with two-toned drapes, choose a material and color that closely matches the top color of your drapery. This will create subtle visual interest with your shade, while still allowing your two-toned curtains to be the star of the design.
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ripple fold drapery
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Holland & Sherry, Andes
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Waterfall Woven Wood Shade
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Artisan Weaves, Cove
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9. Go Classic: Pinch Pleat Drapes Over French Doors
Need living room curtain ideas for French doors? French doors are beautiful architectural elements and drapery is a great choice as the panels can be pulled fully off your doors so you can use them unhindered. Just like drapery for any doors, functionality is essential, so opt for a pleat style that pairs with track system hardware for the easiest use. Pinch Pleat Drapery is one such pleat style that can be used with a track system, and it delivers an elegant, classic look that complements traditional French doors. For a subtle yet sophisticated look for your drapery that complements a classical aesthetic, choose a fabric like Sankaty Stripe, which features thin shadow stripes for just the right touch of visual interest.
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Pinch Pleat Drapery
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sankaty Stripe
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10. Create Depth with drapes in a Breezy Coastal Space
For living room curtain ideas for a bright coastal-inspired space with lots of bright white and light blues and greys, consider drapery that adds just a touch of weight and balance to the space. Tailored Pleat Drapery made of Harbor Stripe in Sand features bold shadow stripes on a sandy-colored background that complements your white and blue tones while grounding the space with a slightly richer color. Choosing bold black rod and ring hardware, like Wrought Iron Hardware in Black, adds high contrast against your white walls for more visual weight to balance the space.
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Pinch Pleat Drapery
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harbor stripe
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Tips for Choosing Living Room Curtains
As you can see from the inspirational examples above, there are a lot of curtain ideas for living room windows. So how do you choose the right look and functionality for your space?
Here are some tips to help you choose:
- Match to your existing aesthetic style and color scheme – Your curtains should complement your existing décor. To get the right color, a great place to start is your wall color, then choose drapery that is a shade or two lighter or darker.
- Consider functionality needs – Will you need to be adjusting your living room curtains on a regular basis? Make sure you choose a pleat style and hardware that are easy to open and close. Ripple Fold, Pinch Pleat, Tailored Pleat and Cubicle are all easy pleat styles that are also compatible with track system hardware for effortless ease.
- Think about privacy and light control – Do you need a room darkening effect for a theater-like experience for movies or do you just need to cut the glare by softening the light? Your drapery fabric — and lining that you choose — will dictate the level of light and privacy control you have. Blackout lining with a heavyweight fabric will get you excellent privacy and a room darkening effect. Privacy lining with any fabric will get you excellent privacy along with a soft touch of light filtering through. For the most light filtration and least privacy, choose a curtain sheer material without lining.
find the Perfect Fabric for Your Living Room Curtains
Now that you have lots of inspiration with living room curtain ideas as well as tips for choosing, you’re ready to take one step closer to brand new drapery by selecting your material. Find the perfect fabric by ordering unlimited free swatches of all your fabric colors, patterns and textures. Be sure to observe each one in your living room at different times of the day to get a true sense for how the fabric complements your room.
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