Dressing a window is one of the most important things you can do in a decoration scheme, both for the aesthetic value that curtains and blinds have, but also for creating privacy, screening your interior from the outside world. There are plenty of situations where you might want that privacy without blocking out the daylight – if your bathroom or bedroom is overlooked, for example, and you want to get dressed in the morning without people peering in.
There are plenty of options to choose from in this scenario: many interior designers will use a semi-sheer blind alongside a curtain, so that the blind can be used to filter out harsh daylight or temporarily block the view in while the curtains are open. “I tend to have sheer roller blinds behind the curtains so that one can have privacy without having to grope around in the dark to get dressed in the morning,” explains Rita Konig. Other spaces are more suited to blinds alone, café curtains (which) cover the lower half of a window with a sheer fabric, or shutters. Here we consider the pros and cons of the various options, and where to find the best versions of each.
Sheer blinds and curtains
Sheer blinds can be incredibly helpful in many spaces, and can be used in addition to curtains or on their own. Their delicacy can be an intriguing element in an interior, and there are so many pretty styles out there, but of course they have the disadvantage that they won't create total privacy at night when the lights are on. For this reason, we frequently see them flying solo in kitchens, for example, where there's less of a need for privacy, and where swathes of curtain fabric would not be suitable, but they can be helpful for filtering daylight and blocking out the dark at night. Interior designer Virginia White often uses blinds made from book cloth by Marianna Kennedy, which she pairs with cream linen curtains in her own flat in Highgate. For an even more translucent effect, cotton voiles can be a pretty, understated addition to a scheme. Lots of designers also adore chik blinds, a style of bamboo blind originating in India, which can be used either by themselves or alongside a more opaque blind if more privacy is required at night.
Café curtains
Café curtains are a very pretty addition to any room and many interior designers use them regardless of whether privacy is needed or not. Suspended from a brass rail, they cover the bottom half of a window and the curtain itself can be gathered or taut, made from pretty antique embroidered French linen or a gauzy voile. Carlos Garcia has used voile café curtains in Robert Kime's ‘Marmara’ to great effect, though it's more common to see a plain fabric.
We see interior designers use a café curtain most often in a bathroom, where you may need a touch extra privacy if, for example, the bath is situated in a window, but you still want to be able to look out. They also work well for living rooms and the like which look out onto a road, so the café curtain comes up to about eye height of passersby and means they can't really see in. At night, you'd want a blind or curtain layered on top so that you can truly close the room off, but a café curtain is the perfect daytime option.
There is another benefit to a café curtain, especially for those on a budget: they are very easy to DIY. There are different ways to do it, from the most affordable route of using a taut bit of wire and threading your fabric onto it, to the more traditional route of buying a brass pole and hanging the curtain from there. We have a whole guide on how to make your own café curtain (and cupboard curtain). East London Cloth is a perennial favourite of interior designers when creating a café curtain, as are Rose Uniacke's sheer linens.
Shutters
Of all the options, shutters are the one that appear least in House & Garden projects, though they can work brilliantly in certain interiors. For example, where Sally Wilkinson has layered her rented flat in Chelsea with a lively collection of art, the simplicity of her white shutters allows for the art to take centre stage and not fight with a fabric for visual interest. The same is true of art curator and graphic designer Adam Ellis' London house, where shutters screen the interior from the street but do not remove any weight from the art that fills the room.
There was a moment in time about a decade ago where shutters were ubitiquous but as we've moved back to a more maximalist look and embraced our love of colour, they've fallen out of fashion and been sidelined by pretty curtains and blousy blinds. There can be something a little passé to a shutter and you need to approach them carefully. In a Stoke Newington house, Lonika Chande kept the original heavy wooden shutters (the type you would only close at night) and painted them a gloss red for a modern look, but it would not work for every interior. A word to the wise with slatted shutters? They are a nightmare to dust and require a lot of attention – but there are tools out there on Amazon specifically catering to this problem.
As for where to look for shutters, you'll want to go bespoke. Companies such as The London Shutter Company, The Shutter Shop, Plantation Shutters and The Traditional Shutter Company all come highly recommended.
