Choosing living room curtains, drape, soft furnishings and window treatments can give a new look to your living room. An appropriate curtain design for the living room depends on your décor and color theme, your budget and your size and shape of the living room and its windows and doors. If you have a certain curtain design in mind, choose your material carefully as all fabrics and patterns do not go well with all curtain designs. An overhanging layered curtain will have to use a different fabric and material than a pleated simple curtain design. The windows and doors of the living room that open outside on the road or garden and have the possibility of public seeing your curtains from outside should use double-sided curtains, so that there is no wrong side to your window and door treatments and your curtain looks equally good from inside and outside.

To see whether the drape you chose really goes well with your living room decoration theme or not and how will it look at different times of the day, take a small piece of fabric and attach it to the place where you want to hang the curtain. This will help you to determine the look of the living room curtain depending on the amount of sunlight and other lightings at different times of the day and how well it goes with your décor. Most people ignore lining the curtains due to time and money constraints but lining the curtain, not only increases the life of the curtain and protects its colors and fabric from outside weather conditions but also improves the drape of the curtain and improve the insulation property of the curtain of keeping the cooling or the warmth of the room inside it.

Living room curtains do much more than blocking the sunlight and maintaining your privacy in beautifully designed living rooms. They are also useful as camouflaging tools for architectural defects and awkward windows in your living area. Hanging curtains in right fabrics and patterns in different ways can make your window look larger, smaller, wider or narrower than it really is, add height to the living room or give an oriental or romantic feel to the living room. There is no golden rule that says that you have to follow the exact shape of your window while hanging your draperies. Fix your pelmet near the ceiling and let the curtains extend from ceiling to the floor to add vertical height to your living room or extend the pelmets on both side of the windows to give your window a wider look.

Fancy tiebacks and tassels can make your present curtains look more attractive and draw attention to them. You can use net fabric and contrasting curtains to add liveliness and color to your living room or just change the look of your old and existing curtains by changing the curtain pole, making a new interesting pelmet for your curtain, hang them in a different manner or add swags and valances to your living room curtains in contrasting colors. Screens, shutters and blinds such as roller blinds or modern Venetian blinds in contemporary and modern living rooms often replace traditional curtains. Creative and artistic living room setups sometimes do away with curtains altogether and highlight their windows for making just one more artistic statement.

They use glass paints to make elaborate designs or abstract art on the window panels, install stained glass on their living room windows and doors to play with colorful patterns or put a leading or stencil on frosted window and door glass panels. You may also want to hang curtains in the living room to block the view from your seating area to straight inside your bedroom, bathroom or kitchen or to hide an open closet. For an oriental look, you can use beaded curtains or ethnic and decorative hangings made up of shells or acrylic shapes. If your windows get ample of sunlight, you may want to add potted plants on your window sill instead of adding living room drapes to block the sunlight. You can create creative and stunning window dressings and balance your curtain design in lieu of the overall living room look, if you keep the size, style, positioning and setting of the window in your living room and keep in mind its attributes and limitations.