Traditional Home Décor

Styles of the past have been fused with the modern to create a wealth of window and blind treatments available for your interiors and home improvements. Traditional window treatments fall basically into two categories.

Formal Window Dressing

Formal styles of curtains create an impression of luxury in your home. Traditional styles include pinch pleat curtains on a brass or wooden curtain pole or curtains with a pelmet of decadent swags and tails draped over an ornate wooden curtain pole. The curtains are normally floor length and often held back with a pair of matching wooden curtain tie backs or classic hold backs. Decorative curtain poles can be used either with very ornate curtain fabric or luxurious silks in stunning colours. These types of curtains are often interlined, giving them a truly decadent appearance. The curtain treatment is sometimes elaborately finished with plenty of trimmings and fringes which can be purchased from any good curtain retailer or home improvement store.

Country Curtain Styles

The other common style is the country cottage look which conjures up a traditional country house or cottage. This style can be pleasantly introduced into a town house, apartment or urban home by, for instance, the introduction of floral curtain fabrics. Flowers, being the most potent symbol of the countryside, frilly pelmets on a valance track or ready made lace eyelet curtains on net rails are ideal for creating the country cottage look. The country look is more inclined to be pretty rather than chic like the contemporary look.

By keeping the window treatment simple and using classic wooden poles, nets, and subtle curtain accessories the feeling of country living can easily be introduced to your home improvements and interior designs.

Traditional Poles and Tracks

In the United Kingdom we have a long history of interior designs even if originally it was either a sack over a window opening or a woven wall hanging, depending as always on your financial situation, to keep out the bitter wind or rain. It was not until the invention of glass that we were able to start on our interior designs and window dressings.

Modern technology has enabled us to develop on our wonderful heritage of interior decoration. We can now have all the stunning grandeur of the past with classic wooden curtain poles, different types of brass and brass effect poles and decorative window accessories being reproduced at affordable prices. Fifty years ago these decorative poles may have only been seen in the most grand of stately manor houses and castles but are now readily available to anyone and for any price point depending on whether they have been mass produced, or meticulously hand carved and finished.

Plastic curtain tracks or metal curtain tracks, with or without a corded system, fixed to pelmet boards or valance tracks have enabled the introduction of a multitude of decorative swags, pelmets and valances into every home wishing to re-create the splendour of days gone by.

Traditional Blinds

The Romans probably made the first major transition from the sack at the window to a proper structured window blind, hence the name Roman blind. Roman and roller blinds are very well defined in their appearance and in a traditional window treatment, work well if they are used in conjunction with curtains. The blind does the work and the curtains can be left arranged in its curtain holdback or tie back and not continually needing to be re-arranged every morning. The soft folds of the Austrian blinds and Festoon blinds give an air of bygone opulence especially if they are made with pretty floral, silks or damask fabrics.

If you are wishing to make your roller blinds look more traditional than the introduction of contrast trimming or braid will add that touch of glamour.