Curtains & blinds

Curtains & Blinds

Use a pelmet when you have a large space between the top of the window and the ceiling, called a deadlight. Don't feel like you have to have curtains that match in the room: having a blind on one window and a curtain on another works well. Be guided by functionality: in the city, if you want privacy use a delicate blind and then heavy curtains. When linen and wool are next to each other they hand very well together. Fabrics of this sort are available from the Cloth Shop on Portobello Road in West London. My curtains usually have sheer roller shades behind them so that one may have privacy without having to turn around in the dark to get dressed in the morning. It's a good idea to combine heavy clothes with delicate fabrics. Nicky Haslam's 'Shutter Stripe' linen, a reinterpretation of John Fowler's fabric by the same name, is truly amazing as blinds.

Prioritise the curtains, not the fabric. Better to have generous curtains in a cheaper fabric than skimpy curtains inexpensive fabric.

Cane Blinds

Cane blinds are also known as bamboo blinds. They are woven together with matchstick grasses, bamboo and wooden reeds, hard grasses, seagrasses and jute. Cane blinds combined with curtains work well, and cane blinds look nice from the outside.

North Farm and Window Dressings

At North Farm, I use my favourite Indian split-bamboo 'Chik' blinds from Joss Graham. When the lights are on, the bamboo becomes sheer, and I hate to see the darkness through it. I have added off-white Scottish Holland roller blinds by The SH Blind Company behind my bamboo blinds in rooms where they are the main blinds to prevent that from happening.

At almost all the windows, I wanted thick, heavy curtains. My chintz 'Hydrangea & Rose' comes from Stead McAlpin, a mill shop near Carlisle. My 'Bowness' linen comes from Fabulous Fabrics. To make curtains for my daughter's room, I bought a cheap cotton mattress ticking from The Cloth Shop on Portobello Road and edged it with an expensive red pom-pom trim from Samuel & Sons.

I have used slender metal rods and unlined drapes in Lee Jofa's 'Entoto Stripe.' I also acquired Décors Barbares 'Dans la Forêt' prints in addition to roller blinds. But I have left the windows on the stairwell bare since I despise the darkness at night.