Choosing Curtains for Your Home in Tampa | Interior design often sounds too intimidating to many of us and, if we can afford it, we would rather leave it to the experts. There are interior designers in Tampa who would gladly do the job for us. Even then, we would still be asked for our preference in window treatments, for example. Even for that alone, there are too many to choose from. Do you want shutters or blinds? Do you want curtains or shades? Would those be solar shades? Perhaps you want more formal draperies? Do you want to scrimp on your windows or will you go for top of the line brands such as Hunter Douglas? How exactly do you want the windows of your Tampa home to be like? There's no escaping the fact that we need to educate ourselves about these things as homeowners.
Then again, there are those of us who would rather not have the extra expense of hiring a professional in interior design and prefer to decorate our Tampa homes by ourselves. Actually, even non-homeowners need to learn how to decorate rented homes.
To ease into the complicated topic of interior design, let's zero in on window treatments first. And to keep things really simple, let's just go for curtains this time. After all, curtains are the most common choice of window treatment in most Tampa homes. They are quite inexpensive and easy to replace.
There are various curtain styles to choose from. All of them are hung from decorative curtain rods.
Bishop sleeves use very generous material that is then bunched up into poufs using tiebacks. You can do just one pouf or several, depending on the size of your window and the room. You can also have the material gather in a puddle on the floor. This is a very romantic and elegant look.
Cafe curtains have rods both above and below, with the fabric stretched between them. The fabric is either pleated or shirred. It can cover the entire window or only the lower half. This can be used for glass doors, as well.
Cottage curtains have tieback curtains layered over cafe curtains which cover only the lower half of the window. The same fabric may be used or you can go for either contrasting or complementary fabrics.
Grommet-top curtains have eyelets at the top through which the curtain rod is inserted. This gives a very modern look. Sometimes, curtain hooks are used on the grommets instead.
Hourglass curtains are similar to cafe curtains but are longer, and are tied in the middle to get the hourglass shape. This can also be used for glass doors.
Pocket rod curtains are the most common, with pockets at the top through which the rods are inserted. Sometimes, the pocket is positioned some two inches below the top so that a ruffle is formed at the very top when the curtain is shirred.
Priscilla curtains are ruffled with crisscrossing panels tied back, They are often used with valances and are for more formal themes.
Tab-top curtains have tabs at the top through which the rods are inserted. They are intended to hang flat.
Tie top curtains are tied to the curtain rods at the top and look very casual.
Sash curtains use very sheer fabric hung flat close to the window glass, mimicking the look of shades.
So have you decided yet on what type of curtain you want? Once you have, perhaps you might want to consider matching the material of your curtains to your furniture and your decor, even to your bedding in the bedroom. That will really unify the look of your Tampa home.
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