Drapery length and style for high ranch strip windows

14 years ago

I am going to be redoing my kids bedroom and replacing the existing drapery...I'm in need of a little advice. The room is 12x13, has 8 foot ceilings, and two sets of strip windows. The strip windows are about 30 inches high and one set is about 120 inches long...the other is slightly shorter. They currently have pinch pleated drapes hung on plain carrier rods (cords at the end open and close the drapes). The drapes extend from just above the window frame to about 6 inches below. This style looks really...well...truncated....like someone chopped off the drapes...like a flouncy wedding dress miniskirt.

So I would like to go a bit longer, but not too long....if I went to the floor I'd be covering 90% of two walls with drapes! I'm also planning on updating the hardware, so I have the option of taking the drapes to the ceiling (about an 8 inch gap now). I'm open to other styles of drapes but want something that can be opened and closed with a side cord.

I'd love to hear ideas. BTW the house is a classic 50's modern ranch...these windows are those Anderson patent pending awning windows from the 50's. There's about 5 feet of wall between the bottom of the window and the floor.

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Comments (4)

OKMoreh
14 years ago
The bedrooms in my house (1951) have the same kind of windows, and also have pinch-pleat drapes that end a few inches below the windows, a treatment that does nothing for me.

Here's what I'm doing: in the MBR, installing woven-wood roman shades, mounted above the window frames so that the self-valance of the shades ends at the top of the glass, plus fabric valances just below the ceiling. The front bedrooms have corner windows. A second closet has been added in the MBR, creating an alcove in which one window is off-center. I'm hanging a single long panel next to that window to fill the gap; the panel will hang behind a low dresser that fills the alcove, sort of squaring it off. I'm not hanging a corresponding panel at the end of the window on the other wall - the windows are asymmetric to begin with.

In the bedroom that I use as a home office, however, I'm going to hang floor-length panels on either side of the double window (not a corner window). The difference is that a lateral file cabinet occupies the space below the window and between the panels (when they're installed), with a tallish table lamp on it, so that there won't be a large gap of empty wall between the panels.

I don't particularly like the appearance of long panels framing an wide, empty section of wall, so I very much prefer to have the space below a high window filled with furniture. (I don't like to see a gap above windows, either, so the current fashion of hanging single panels, either fixed or not adequate to draw closed, at ceiling height doesn't suit me either, not that the ceilings in this house are high enough for it to matter.)

For now, I'm not changing the stubby pinch-pleats in the guest room, but the long-term plan is to replace them with roman shades as well.
annzgw
14 years ago
I wouldn't do drapes.......not in a kids bedroom.
My DM has the same windows in her home and a decorator used a triangular valance, with wood blinds behind it. It's very similar to the one below but hers is a little more formal with cording and edging since it's in the LR.

The finished results in DM's LR was amazing. One's eye was no longer drawn to the high, short window but to the overall room and the rest of the decor.

Here is a link that might be useful:
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graywings123
14 years ago
I agree with okmoreh and annz - avoid using drapery panels in favor of some combination of blinds and valances.
andee_gw
14 years ago
I have white wood blinds under a fabric-covered cornice. The cornice starts at the ceiling and extends down only to cover the inside-mount blinds when they are up. This lets in maximum light. The fabric cover gives me the feeling of some decoration in the room.

Drapery length and style for high ranch strip windows

Comments (4)

OKMoreh

annzgw

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