Have you ever felt like your furnishings are making that small room feel even smaller?
Designing curtains in small rooms can be a little difficult. When every piece takes up limited space, ensuring design cohesion and making good use of the space is paramount, so your room looks and feels right.
1. Curtain Length
The length of your curtains can have a huge impact on how large the space feels. Often, the natural instinct is to opt for short curtains, since they take up less space. But short curtains can draw the eyes down and create a visual break in the middle of the wall, and risks interrupting design cohesion — something which can increase feelings of clutter.
Instead, opt for a floor-to-ceiling curtain (if you can). Curtains that run to the floor create an illusion of height. This can help a room feel bigger and provide a cohesive, intentional look.
2. Choosing a Fabric
When it comes to curtain fabrics, it’s important not to overwhelm a small space. Heavy fabrics, such as velvets, or interlined curtains can risk making a space feel dark and enclosed, due to the visual weight and blocking of natural light.
Opting for curtains made from lighter fabrics, such as sheer or voile, is ideal as these fabrics allow more natural light to flow through and create a light, airy feel to the space.
However, these fabrics aren’t for everyone. For those who might want a happy medium, fabrics such as cotton due to their durability and ease of movement, so you can tie them back during the day to maximise light inflow.
3. Colour
You may be able to guess this by now … just as lighter fabrics are best for small rooms, so are lighter colours.
The main issue with dark curtains is that they absorb light, so your room ends up feeling dark and enclosed. Dark coloured curtains can also add visual weight, further adding to this sense of an enclosed space.
Choosing light coloured fabrics creates a lighter feel and they often blend in with their surroundings, so they take up less visual space.
4. Patterns
Don’t worry — curtains don’t have to be plain to make a small room look bigger. However, there are ways that you can utilise patterns to play with visual proportions.
For example, stripes can create the illusion of height because they draw the eyes up and down, rather than across.
However, when using patterns, it’s important to consider how it blends in with the rest of the space. Bold patterns that don’t complement other furnishings lead to a cluttered, overwhelming look, whereas simpler, thoughtful patterns can add cohesion without losing personality.
5. Tracks & Poles
Opting for ceiling tracks or slim, less conspicuous poles will help take up less visual space.
Ideally, the closer to the ceiling, the better. This helps to maximise natural light during the day and make your room appear taller.
6. For Small Bedrooms
The tricky part of designing curtains for bedrooms is getting the right balance between a light space and a good night’s rest. And for some bedrooms (especially box rooms!) it’s worth considering whether curtains are the best choice.
For those who might want something more decorative with soft fabrics, roman blinds are a great way to inject the personality you’re looking for without overwhelming the space and ensuring a good night’s rest.
To Conclude
Size can have a significant effect on design choices, so understanding how certain fabrics and designs can affect the overall look and feel is critical to ensuring a space that works.
If you or a client of yours is looking for curtains in a small room, please get in touch. We will work with you to find the right type of product for your space and design vision.