It’s week 5 of the One Room Challenge. I can’t believe that next week is the final reveal!! The room is almost complete… but I still have some finishing touches before the BIG reveal.

Now that the bedroom has been painted, we can finally move the furniture into the room according to the design plan and hang the window treatments.

Here is the furniture layout that I shared in Week 2, just in case you missed it.

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This week we are adding the finishing touches to the room: the window treatments. When designing a space, dressing the windows is one of the most important details to consider and can’t be overlooked. Window treatments not only control lighting and privacy but enhance architectural features, elongate a room, and add to the rooms ambiance.

Window treatment shopping can also be very tricky: terminology, size, style, privacy settings, light filtered or black-out, inside mounted vs outside mounted, tiebacks and hardware details etc. Especially in older homes where the windows aren’t standard or located in strange locations. For example, the window in our bedroom is justified all the way to the left and the window trim is chopped off. Therefore, I don’t have room for a decorative finial on that side.

With all those details in mind, where do we start?

How to Shop for Window Treatments

Select your Style: Modern or Traditional — For my bedroom, the design is modern so I will be going with more of a streamlined look when dressing the windows
Select your Privacy Level - Curtains, Shades, or Blinds? — All are classic options and very versatile but it depends on your privacy needs. You may even find that you would prefer a mixture and layer your window treatments. Do you live on a first floor? Do you have a view of your neighbors or a private landscape? For my bedroom, I opted to layer faux wood blinds and curtains so I could control the levels of privacy and lighting at different times of day. Mixing allows me more customization, I also like the look too! The curtains draw the eyes upward to highlight the rooms crown molding and elongate the room while the blinds are functional yet textural.
Select the Light control — Do you want sheer and light-filtered, room darkening, or Vegas dark black-out? Depending on where you live and how the light enters the room, your preferences to control light will vary. For my bedroom, we get indirect light but live in a urban area where cars drive past at night. To prevent headlights shining into the bedroom while we’re sleeping, room darkening was the best option for us.
Inside Mount or Outside Mount — Blinds and shades are often mounted inside the window frame and can also be mounted outside. While curtains, cornices, and valances are mounted outside the window. Depending on what your needs, this step will vary. In my case, I have the blinds inside mounted and the curtains outside mounted to cover light leaks at night.
Select Hardware & Accessories: Hardware varies by window style but there are poles, curtain rings, brackets, traverse rods, finials, tiebacks, and more. The decorative hardware you choose and material finish color, puts the finishing touch on your window. For my bedroom, I went with a brushed nickel rod with a round glass finial for a touch of elegance.

Basic Measuring Guide

Of course, you will also need to measure your windows to determine what size and length is needed. You will always need the length, width, and height of the window. Depending on what your needs are and what type of treatment you are buying, you may need a few extra details.

When measuring for blinds that will be inside mounted, measure the inside width and height, plus the depth (to determine what size headrail will fit inside the window). For outside mount blind, measure the width and height of the window including the trim.

For curtains, measure from the floor to the top of the window with trim because curtains should kiss the floor not float like a bad pair of culotte jeans. I also measure from the top of the window to the ceiling or bottom of the crown molding if applicable. The rod should be placed somewhere in the middle of the top of the window and ceiling or as close to the ceiling as possible. The width of the window is also needed to determine how many curtain panels are needed and what size rod you will need. I like a fuller look because it feels more luxurious. When you skimp on panels, it looks incomplete and cheap, and both of those looks are never good.

About the Window Treatments I Selected

For this home project, I did not go with custom window treatments. Of course, the look of custom window treatments cannot be duplicated but for certain projects in-store options is doable. I went with an ombre sheer curtain panel to filter in natural light but also draw the eyes upward to make the room feel larger. I also layered underneath a driftwood faux wood blind to control the lighting at night and for more privacy. For the hardware, I purchased adjustable rods with a glass ball finial. Custom rods are easier to slide the curtains because it is one continuous piece, but for this project I went with something in-stock. This is not our forever home, so adjustable rods are fine.