Should you have short curtains?
What do I mean, short curtains?
Curtains that don’t go all the way to the ground. Curtains that look like they are ill fitted to the room. My answer is no. Curtains should either go all the way to the ground, leaving a very small clearance, puddle on the ground, or sit approximately 15 cm below the window sill or just on the window sill.
So below you will see some examples of what I call short curtains. Think of it this way, how would it look to see a man in a business suit with the trousers stopping at the calf? There you go, they need to go all the way down!
You will see what I mean when you view these photographs below.
Short Curtains
This example shows a curtain stopping at the bottom of the sill, but because there is a cupboard beside it that also finishes at the same height, I feel that if the curtains went all the way to the ground then the window in the room would appear more grounded and the corner more balanced. At the moment it looks as if they ran out of fabric.
Short Curtains in Child’s Bedroom
I can understand why they have chosen short curtains in this example, because it leaves the space below the windows free for the children’s toys.
I believe this room would have worked better with some for of blind, then the window treatment is definitely out of the way of the children, a roman blind or shade would be ideal.
The reason that the short curtains here look so bad is because of the fabric color. The cobalt blue is much darker than any other color in the bedroom and you get drawn to it, so it exaggerates the fact that the curtains just stop at the window sill, and they only have a few centimeters to get to the floor.
Short Curtains over a Radiator
This is one of the exceptions to short curtains, They are ok over radiators, I say that begrudgingly because I still think that they look stupid at this length, and who puts a radiator heater under a window so all the heat gets lost from the glazing and windows? Anyway, it is definitely ok to use short curtains over a radiator, otherwise they may become a fire hazard.
Short Curtains in a Bedroom
Lovely grommet top curtains in this bedroom, but do you think they look like they have bought them from a store and they are too short? You bet! Don’t they look terrible? I think so, just a few more centimeters and they would work really well.
Lesson one, if you are going to use tiebacks, you need to make the curtains slightly longer than you normally would because the tie backs pull them up slightly as you can see in this photograph, and what a shame because the thought was good.
Bedroom design not quite right
This bedroom design is frustrating because of the length of the curtains. Once again they are just a little bit too short.
Because the window is so close to the ground it seems ridiculous to only take the finished length to the window sill.
Never mind, I hope you are starting to see why I think short curtains are a no, no!
I think with this short curtain example that they have just made them too short! They look ridiculous. Once again, when you know you will be using tie backs, you need to allow a little bit more length so that they sit in the correct position at the floor level, not 10 centimeter above like these curtains.
Corner windows and short curtains
A waste of fabric, they should have used blinds for these windows, the pathetic piece of fabric called a curtain in this bedroom looks grossly out of proportion to the bedroom scale and detracts from the simple design and decoration of the room.
Find more curtain design pictures here
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