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Kitchen windows have always been an important part of home design. The sun shining through your kitchen windows can influence your entire kitchen experience.
The first rays of morning sunlight can literally brighten your day. The twinkle of stars (or street lights) can deepen the enjoyment of your midnight snack. Just as a glaring beam of afternoon sun in your eye can take away from your pot roast preparations.
Your kitchen window treatments are an important decision. Not only can they shape your comfort and enjoyment of kitchen sunshine, but your curtains are also one of the few opportunities to decorate in a room filled with cabinets.
1. Take Control of the Light
Start by deciding how you want the light to move through your kitchen.
- Rolling shades block light from the top down.
- Curtains block light from the sides inward
- Blinds block light in strips
- Gauze and Frost diffuse light without fully blocking it
- Valances decoratively block the upper portion of a window
Your home's location, floorplan, and the view from the kitchen windows will determine the best light control for your window treatments. Consider how you'd like your windows to be covered most of the time and the controls you'd like available throughout the day.
Don't forget that you can use two or three layers of window treatments if you want different types of light or decorative control.
2. Make a Stylish Statement
Your kitchen curtains are a unique opportunity to decorate. This is one part of your wall not covered in cabinetry. Will you hang modern rolling shades or traditional fluffy curtains? Many kitchen window treatments still include a cute valance, but your kitchen doesn't have to be kitchy. Make a style statement with your choice of window treatments. Want a bold splash of accent color? Cloth shades might be a perfect impression. Want cheerful floral patterns or geometric abstract shapes? Curtains can give you a beautiful way to frame functional works of art.
A kitchen in warm wood tones might be completed with slatted blinds or even folding shutters. A sleek modern kitchen might look best with bold automatic blinds.
3. Give Yourself Privacy
Another serious function of window treatments is to give you privacy. If your kitchen window faces the road or the neighbors, you may want to ensure that they provide the privacy you want when cooking or talking in the kitchen.
In order of privacy, heavy curtains are the best, blinds are the most versatile, and gauzy fabric provides diffuse sunlight while blocking the view into your kitchen. To help you plan for privacy, turn on the kitchen lights then go outside your house and walk around to the kitchen windows. Consider the directions you'd like to block. Then take the same walk when your window treatments are installed to ensure they really do provide the privacy you need.
4. The Washable Kitchen Rule
Don't forget to make sure your kitchen window treatments are washable. The number one rule of kitchen decor is that it must be mess-proof. Sauces boil and oil pop on the stove. Spills and sometimes truly spectacular accidents can throw food onto every surface - including the wall art and the window treatments. So make sure you choose something that can be wiped, stain-treated, and/or washed should that kind of mess occur.
5. Consider Seasonal Temperatures
The difference between winter and summer curtains can matter a lot, depending on where you live. In the summer, you may need gauzy curtains or blinds that diffuse light and minimize heat from the outside. In the winter, you may need heavier curtains or shades that create an insulating layer and block out the cold.
It's normal to have two different sets of kitchen window treatments and switch out when the weather changes each year.
6. Convenient Window Treatment Controls
Last but certainly not least, consider your curtain controls. Automatic shades are great fun and can be linked to your smart home voice/mobile commands. But in the kitchen, what you can do manually and without effort sometimes matters the most.
Would you prefer blinds with a rolling stick to open and close the slats? Do you prefer a long pull for shades or the circular kind of pull that cycles through a wheel? You may want an electric switch by the sink or well-oiled hardware so you can casually push your kitchen blinds where you want them to be.
Your preference for window treatment controls should be entirely personal, as the chef and homeowner who will be using them the most.
Using these guiding principles, you can easily narrow down your kitchen window preferences and priorities. When you're ready to perfect your kitchen window design and install the hardware, contact us today! Our team is built around bringing homeowner vision to reality through the kitchen and bathroom design.
