Everything you need to know about curtains, blinds, and more.
Installing new window treatments is a quick and easy way to bring style, personality, and privacy to your home. Read through our guide (or jump to the section most relevant to you) to answer your question "what are window treatments?" and learn how to choose the right ones for your home.
In This Guide
What Are Window Treatments?
Types Of Window Treatments
Curtains and Drapes
Blinds and Shades
Valances
Window treatments are specialized covers or embellishments that hang over or around windows to block sunlight, increase privacy, add to the aesthetic appeal of a window, or all three. Some can even insulate your home in cold weather or prevent cool air from escaping on hot days. Different types of window treatments vary widely in material, installation type, opacity, and use, so you're bound to find options that fulfill your needs and taste!
Some of the more common types of window treatments include curtains, drapes, blinds, and shades. In this section, we'll briefly touch on what each individual decorative window treatments there are so you can get a better idea of which ones would be the perfect addition to your home.
Curtains and Drapes
Curtain Types
Curtain/Drape: This standard window treatment is made up of two or more panels of fabric that hang straight down from curtain rods and can be slid left and right.
Tip!
Curtains and drapes are similar, but they're not the same. Learn more about their differences and discover which one is the best window treatment for your home in Window Treatments 101: Curtains vs. Drapes.
French Door Curtain: A French door curtain is designed to mount to a French door to cover its glass for light filtration and added privacy. Rather than hanging loosely like standard curtains, these types of window treatments attach to the door at the top and the bottom of the window, so they won't swish around when the door moves. They typically come with a tie that can cinch them at the center to allow light through when desired.
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Liner: Curtain liners are thick, light-filtering curtains that are made to be used in conjunction with more decorative curtains that may not have the light-filtering capabilities you would like. They hang behind curtains and aren't meant to be visible.
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Curtain Header Types
Both decorative and functional, the top hem of the curtain (or header) defines the style and overall look of the curtains.
Pinch-Pleat: This style, marked by beautiful stiff pleats, requires additional hardware on top of what is included in a basic curtain rod kit. Clip rings, pin hooks, or back tabs are attached to the curtain to create its pleats and hold them in place. Clip rings and pins come in a wide range of styles, and pleat widths vary from narrow pencil pleats to wide, flat box pleats. Pinch pleats are formal, dramatic, and traditional in appearance.
Tab-Top: Tab-top curtains don't require any rings or grommets to hang from curtain rods; instead, they hang from fabric tabs sewn into their top edges. Depending on the fabric and width of the tabs, the final look is usually casual and modern.
Grommet: Also called eyelet headers, grommet-headed curtains have round metal-lined holes (grommets) affixed to their top edges. The curtain rod threads through those grommets. This header style creates wide, flowing folds, which lend the curtains a casual or contemporary look.
Rod-Pocket: A long pocket sewn along the entire top edge of these curtains allows the curtain rod to slide through with no extra hardware. This style produces stiffer results, as the curtains will generally hold their shape when closed and won't gather much when opened.
Curtain Quantities
Make sure you know how many curtain panels you need (and how many you are buying; check the Product Description on-site to be sure).
Panel Pair: Also known as double panels, this set offers two identical curtain panels which hang symmetrically on either side of the window. This is the most popular style of curtains.
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Single Panel: One curtain panel can be used alone or in a pair. Single-panel curtains simply allow you more freedom to choose how many curtain panels you can buy at a time (since you don't need to purchase in twos). Wide windows and glass doors may need an odd number of panels to cover the space. By buying single curtain panels, you can even mix and match curtains of different styles.
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Curtain Opacity
Consider how you use each room before purchasing curtains and determine your light-blocking, privacy, and aesthetic needs.
Sheer: These delicate curtains let the most sunlight through. They can be used alone or layered underneath other curtains. By themselves, sheer curtains provide little privacy and are therefore not recommended for bathrooms or bedrooms.
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Semi-Sheer: These curtains are a little thicker than sheer curtains but still won't provide the utmost privacy or light filtration. They work best when layered with other window treatments.
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Room-Darkening: Room-darkening curtains are designed to filter out at least 50% of light, adequately darkening a room and providing ample privacy without making it difficult to tell whether it is night or day.
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Blackout: Just like their name implies, these curtains block most sunlight from entering the room, darkening the room greatly during the day. They are excellent for privacy and are commonly used in bedrooms of all kinds. These work best when they are absolutely flush against the window and wall (so no light can peek around them), so be sure to measure diligently if you're interested in installing blackout curtains.
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Max Blackout: If you want your curtains to block out almost all light, max blackout curtains are the ones for you. These thick curtains are designed to block out 99% of sunlight from entering a space and are amazing for nurseries, gaming rooms, or movie rooms with projector screens.
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Blinds and Shades
We couldn't review what window treatments are without talking about blinds and shades! These two different types of window treatments are usually lumped together due to their similar mechanics: both install on or just above the window frame and descend downward to cover a window. But in fact, blinds and shades are even more different than curtains and drapes. Blinds are considered a hard window treatment, as they are made up of a series of hard, interconnected slats rather than a soft fabric. Those slats (or vanes, as they are sometimes called) can be manually angled to allow in different amounts of light, even when the blinds are fully closed. Shades, on the other hand, are usually made of soft materials, which puts them in the soft window-treatment category. Most shades are raised and lowered by the same pull-cord mechanism that blinds are; however, shades cannot be manipulated to allow more or less light through them, as most are solid panels rather than slatted panels.
Both blinds and shades are available in a wide range of types and materials. Learn more about both by reading our .
Types of Blinds
Vertical: Instead of having horizontal slats, vertical blinds have vertical slats that hang down from the top of the window. These slats can be narrow or wide and loose or held in place. They slide from left to right (or vice versa) to cover a window. Most vertical blinds can also be angled by a similar tilt gear wand to that of horizontal blinds.
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Types of Window Shades
Roman: When pulled up, Roman shades form wide, regal folds that stack atop each other for a neat look. Roman shades are popular shades made up of one solid panel that can be raised and lowered using a pull cord.
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Cellular/Honeycomb: Made up of two layers of accordion-like folds with cells of space between them, cellular (or honeycomb) shades can actually insulate a window against heat loss or gain, depending on the season.
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Roller: One of the most common shades styles out there, roller shades hang from a roller that rolls them up or down depending on the angle the pull tab is pulled. They are typically made up of one long panel of fabric.
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Zebra: Zebra shades are striped like their namesake, though their stripes aren't simply decorative. Their stripes have differing opacities, allowing for unique light filtration.
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Blinds & Shades Opacity
Just like curtains and drapes, there are different types of window treatment options for blinds and shades. Blinds and shades can be found in sheer, semi-sheer, room-darkening, and blackout opacities. Refer to the section on curtain opacities for a more detailed look at what each of these terms mean.
Valances
A valance is a decorative window treatment that hangs from a curtain rod just above the window frame to hide the headrails for blinds or shades and/or add a little bit of decorative flair to a window. Often patterned or ruffled to add embellishment to a window, valances are very short and can't be raised, lowered, or slid left or right; their function is purely decorative. They may block out some light at certain times of the day, but they otherwise lack coverage; for that reason, they are usually used in conjunction with blinds and shades.
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Tip!
Window valances are key players in window-treatment layering. Read our guide to learn more.
Ready to take the next step with your window treatments? Learn more by reading our guides How to Hang Curtains and How to Measure for Blinds.
Now that you know how to choose window treatments, get browsing.
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