Curtains are an essential part of any home, and for good reason. They’re a great way to add fun colors and patterns to any space, but they also serve an important function or two. Drapes provide privacy and can block out natural and artificial light.
Blackout curtains are made to block 100% of the light entering through your windows. That makes these curtains ideal for certain rooms like bedrooms and nurseries, where you want to promote healthy sleep.
Today, we’ll delve into the ins and outs of how to select the perfect custom curtains for your room.
What Do Custom Blackout Window Curtains Do?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to select custom blackout curtains, we should talk about what they do for you. There’s actually a lot more that they have to offer than you probably realize!
They Block Out More Light Than Other Window Treatments
Room-darkeningblackout lining blocks out more light than your typical drapery panels. While privacy curtains offer around 70% light control, blackout curtains keep all light out of a room.
These room-darkening curtains are ideal for spaces where you would want total darkness at certain points of the day or night, like your kids’ rooms or your home theater. You might want to use our high-quality privacy curtains as home decor in your living room, dining room, or any spaces that need some natural light.
They Come in Custom Sizes
We know that not all windows are the same, so that’s why we made sure that you can customize the size of your blackout drapes.
This is perfect for those oddly-sized windows, like small kitchen windows or historically-popular porthole windows. We recommend measuring all windows before ordering your curtain panels to ensure you install the correct size.
Light-Blocking Curtains Come in Multiple Materials
Blackout drapes aren’t too different from our cordless privacy curtains when it comes to diversity. These window treatments come in a variety of materials, including linen, cotton, and velvet.
Our velvet curtains offer a dramatic and elegant twist to any room through their interesting texture and high durability. They can even be paired on top of sheer curtains for a dual-function window treatment, allowing both full light blockage and partial light blockage (for those afternoons when you want both privacy and natural light).
You can never go wrong with textured tweed-like linen curtains either. A light color like oat is perfect for keeping a room bright, and the tweed-like fabric gives any room an airy feel.
If you want to stick to the classics, look no further than our 100% cotton blackout curtains for a neutral texture perfect for any pattern or room aesthetic.
How Do You Choose Custom Blackout Curtains for Your Home?
Now on to the good stuff: How do you choose the right custom blackout curtains for your home? We’ve created a list of five steps to take. By the end, you should be able to arrive at the right window treatments for your home.
1. Take Window Frame Measurements First
The first step to customizing any window treatment is to take measurements of your windows. Since these curtains are custom-made to hand, you don’t want to end up with drapes that don’t fit your window.
The easiest way to ensure that your curtain panels fit your window is to use our handy curtain calculator.
2. Choose the Perfect Material
The next step is choosing the material for your curtains. There are many pros to each type of material, so it’s important to narrow down your top preference.
Velvet is always a good choice if you’re looking for a striking curtain. Velvet curtains in dark colors serve as great moody statement pieces, but you can also use pastel velvet options to brighten a room.
Linen is a great material to give a room a light, breezy feeling. We love to layer linen blackout curtains over sheer light-filtering curtains. As we mentioned above, this means you can enjoy the natural sunlight but retain some privacy by opening your blackout curtains and keeping the light-filtering curtains closed.
Cotton is a great practical material for custom blackout curtains. If you have pets or children who will be frequenting the room you’re decorating, cotton is a sturdy material that will work perfectly.
3. Find a Color That Matches Your Room Decor
Once you’ve decided on the right material for the window liners in your room, you want to focus on what color or colors you plan to incorporate into your custom blackout curtains. The best way to narrow this down is to take an inventory of your room's color scheme.
Do you have light trending pastels or earthy colors like rusty red or olive green? Do you have bright neons or muted whites and grays?
Once you’ve figured out your room's color scheme, you also want to ask yourself what style you’re going for. Do you want your curtains to be a bright feature piece in your room, or do you want them to blend in with the wall?
To help you find complementary colors in your space, Pepper has put together an easy-to-use paint guide to find hues that perfectly pair with your curtain fabric, no matter the design.
4. Choose Between a Pattern and a Solid Color
Now that you have a material in mind and a color scheme going, you can make the next big decision in this process: choosing between a pattern and a solid color. There are pros to each, so it really just depends on the space this curtain will inhabit.
Do you already have a lot of patterns in your room? If so, a solid curtain may be the best choice for you. Picking a solid curtain in a color that blends well into the rest of your furnishings will ensure that your window treatments don’t distract from your other eye-catching pieces.
Consider if you have more of a minimalist style in your room. If so, you might benefit from a patterned curtain. You don’t even have to have a complicated pattern if you want to keep the minimalist vibe going. A light pattern in colors that match your room will do the job perfectly.
Instead of guessing at what will look wonderful with your existing colorscape, try before you buy with Pepper Home’s fabric swatches to see how a pattern (or color!) will look in person.
5. Decide If You’d Like To Add a Trim
Whether you choose a solid or patterned curtain, sometimes a finishing touch is needed to really tie your look together. Pepper Home offers a variety of trim options to complete your custom curtain design.
Choose between pom poms, tassels, rick rack, and bands in a variety of complementary colors, such as peony pink or fern velvet. Not only can this add a little extra texture to your custom curtain, but it can also help you incorporate additional colors from your room’s general color scheme.
If you’re not sure which trim option is right for your space, our in-house design experts are more than happy to provide you with complementary design assistance. Just email us at design@pepper-home.com, and we’ll get back to you within two business days with personalized recommendations for your needs.
6. Choose Your Curtain Construction Method
Lastly, you will want to choose your curtain construction method. We have so many options to choose from and they each offer a different benefit to your overall window treatments.
If you have curtains that won’t be opened or closed often, we recommend the rod pocket construction. This is a great construction method for curtains that serve as statement pieces, such as velvet curtains, as the curtain rod pocket adds to the dramatic edge.
If you’re planning on going with a construction method that involves rings, you can choose from three different options: ring top, pinch pleat, and tailored pleat.
The ring top is great for practical curtains that will be used often. Pinch pleat and tailored pleat add an interesting element to your curtains through texture.
Our newest construction method is the grommet. This style is also great for curtains that will be used functionally often, but it also adds an interesting wavy texture to your window treatments that aren’t as prominent in other construction methods.
Our curtain hardware recommendations are always available if you’re stuck between two styles and looking for some guidance.
Lastly, you’ll want to decide how far your want your curtains to drape. Do you want them to end right at the floor, or do you want them to puddle for a dramatic effect?
We recommend puddling curtains that are statement pieces and won’t be opened and closed as often. In contrast, for those curtains that will be used often and likely exposed to pets and children, we recommend floor-length.
If you’re worried about installing your curtains in a way that aligns with your dream curtain design, our Curtain Measurement and Installment Guide has all of the information you need to hang your curtains like a pro.
Find the Perfect Custom Drapery for You
When picking out custom blackout curtains, there’s a lot you want to consider. Once you realize how important blackout drapes can be for a home, it’s not hard to get started in that process.
Taking the right measurements for custom window treatments is important, but so is picking out colors and patterns as well as a construction method. Once you’ve designed your ideal curtains, Pepper Home will ship your one-of-a-kind creation within seven business days. Our curtains are sustainably made in the United States, so you can feel good about your custom curtains for more reasons than one.
We hope this guide has prepared you to pick out the perfect custom blackout drapes for your home.
Sources:
What Happens To Your Body When You Sleep With Blackout Curtains | Health Digest
The not-so-watery history of the porthole | ABC Radio National