Along with your kitchen, the living room is the heart of your home - a place where you come together with your friends or family to relax, chat, play a game, watch a movie, or curl up with a good book.
Along with things like your couches, choice of paint, rugs and cushions, the curtains you choose play a key role in helping you create a living room that people love to spend time in. Curtains can help you make a decorative statement, or add a layer of depth, dimension and drama. They can also help you frame a window to create an illusion of light, or add a level of softness and warmth to an otherwise harsh space.
Here in Australia, we're lucky to have so many curtain options available to us. However, this also means it can sometimes be overwhelming and hard to know which one is the right choice.
When it comes to choosing curtains for your living room, here's a quick guide.
Before you start scouring the internet for options, or calling a curtain provider, it's important to have a relatively clear view of what you're looking for. This involves asking a few pertinent questions:
Your curtains can really help set the tone for the overall style of your living room.
While neutral tones are undoubtedly the most popular, we're also recently seeing a move in the market towards people choosing bold, happy colours for their living rooms - perhaps a response to the depressing events of 2020.
In this article, interior design expert, TV personality and Luxaflex® brand partner, Neale Whitaker, agrees that strong colours are dominating interior design this year.
"A palette of soft browns and beiges, from sand through to caramel, are replacing the greys that have been popular for several years. Many design experts are predicting strong colour and bold patterns will increase in popularity," he says.
At Luxaflex®, we have your personal style covered - with a broad and very carefully curated range of fabrics which have been hand selected by our dedicated in-house design team. This range brings a mix of local and international influences and has been motivated by a desire to be both on trend and original. It includes an extensive colour palette and a range of patterns, plains, and soft textural sheers.
While some people prefer their living room to be bright and filled with natural light, others prefer a softer, more filtered look. Some people want to create a darker and moodier room, whereas others want the option of completely blocking out the light - so they can more comfortably watch TV or movies.
To help you control light your way, the Luxaflex® Curtain range offers a range of options when it comes to fabric opacity and lining options.
For the ability to reduce light and darken a room, you can opt for coated fabrics or uncoated fabrics with a lining. To brighten up a room and softly filter natural light, you can opt for sheer curtain fabrics.
And if you're unsure which option is right for you, your Luxaflex consultant can help.
Your curtains can also play a role in helping you insulate your home's interior - to keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Pairing curtains with the right blind can also assist with energy efficiency year-round. If this is a key priority, be sure to opt for lined curtain fabrics for additional insulation.
Maintaining privacy, day and night, is an important consideration for many homeowners, particularly for bedrooms. However, if your living room overlooks other homes, you may require additional privacy.
There are endless mix-and-match window covering options which can help you achieve the perfect balance of view-through as well as day and night-time privacy.
Layering different types of window coverings is a great way to create a feeling of style and sophistication in your living room.
"Layering window coverings with a soft sheer curtain adds a beautiful softness, movement and texture to the room, " says Neale Whitaker.
You can achieve the Luxaflex signature layered look with Luxaflex® Curtains and any Luxaflex® window covering from the SoftShades collection. This perfect pairing is the ultimate window covering solution, balancing functionality, performance and style to meet your exact needs for every window, in every space.
We recommend using Pirouette® Shadings or Duette® Shades as the base layer at the window. Their patented designs and innovative operating options provide industry leading performance and benefits, including precise light control, privacy, insulation and energy efficiency. They're also available in a wide range of luxurious fabrics and colours, are easy to maintain, and have child-safety options.
Once you've selected your base window covering, it's time to configure the finishing layer. Luxaflex® Curtains give you the opportunity to expand your design options and create a finishing touch that brings a room together.
The Luxaflex curtain collection delivers both style and substance, with an array of fabrics, from plain to patterned and elegant linen looks and blends. You can select from sheer, uncoated, coated and lined fabrics to achieve the perfect combination of privacy, light control, insulation and designer appeal.
These soft, lightweight woven curtains elegantly filter and diffuse sunlight to deliver a soft warm glow to naturally brighten up a room while also retaining some daytime privacy. They are perfect for layering over blinds or shutters, and add a modern layer of softness.
This is a tightly woven fabric without any coating. This fabric provides a level of heat insulation and light absorption, but requires a lining fabric to be layered underneath to achieve high thermal and blockout capabilities.
Coated fabrics have one or three neutral coatings applied to the back of the fabric which helps to block out light and protect the fabric. A fabric lining isn't needed.
Curtain lining is a plain fabric with a durable coating applied to the back of the fabric. The curtain lining can be layered behind a sheer or uncoated fabric. It is available in three options; light filtering, thermal or blockout lining, and provides the added benefit of improved privacy, noise reduction and room darkening, as well as protect sheer or uncoated fabrics from UV damage.
As well as the look of your curtains, it's also wise to think about how you will use them on a day-to-day basis, and what options will be most suitable for you and your home.
For instance, with Luxaflex curtains, you can choose between a U Track, which offers a minimalist profile for a discreet and unobtrusive look, or a Rod Track, which is designed to be seen and add a finishing touch.
You can also choose from three different modes of operation:
While it's tempting to be on trend, it's also important to choose the curtains, or combination of window coverings and curtains, that will suit you and your home over time. Whether you would like to coordinate and complement an existing style, or create a dramatic statement using contrasting colour and styles, there is a fabric available to customise your own personal look and create a charming atmosphere in any room.
Interested in finding more about Luxaflex custom window coverings?
