July, 1916 
51 
SOLVING THE CURTAIN PROBLEM 
AGNES FOSTER 
Here are contained the general rules which any householder need follow 
for the successful curtaining of her home. Further information can be 
had by writing House & Garden Information Service, House & Garden, 
440 Fourth avenue, New York City. 
T HE decision as to how a 
. window should be draped 
deserves careful consid¬ 
eration from many standpoints. 
A brown stone front window 
requires formality. It should 
not be treated as a country cot¬ 
tage, either in the material of 
the curtain or in the making 
and the hanging. Dotted Swiss, 
which gives to the cottage the 
crisp, fresh look of informal¬ 
ity, would be quite out of 
place in a Tudor stone house, 
even in the country. Heavy 
Arabian lace under-curtains, 
which would be appropriate in 
a dining-room, would be ri¬ 
diculous in a small upstairs 
bedroom. Thus we have to 
consider the questions of the 
city or country house, the ar¬ 
chitecture of the house itself, 
and the use of th'e room. It is 
the not knowing when to put 
what, that leads us into mis¬ 
takes often accredited to a lack 
of good taste. 
Toning Sunlight 
There is still another vital 
point to consider, the question 
of the general light that we 
wish to tone over our rooms. 
A north room needs a warmth 
of color, easily attained by the 
use of an under-drape of a warm tone. A soft 
transparent material drawn full across a win¬ 
dow will transform a rather cheerless room 
into a colorful, pleasant interior. It gives to 
every object and every corner a different color 
value. We must avoid, though, getting too strong 
a light because, having chosen and keyed the 
room to a certain satisfactory tone, we may 
lose the entire good color relations in it by 
putting a rich yellowish glow over everything. 
For that reason deep cream or beige under- 
Jiangings. are. neutral enough and safe, and .leave 
our original general color scheme quite intact. 
Often householders will put up real yellow or 
orange or green or mulberry for the light to 
filter through, regardless of the fact that they 
should plan for this general tone in the room 
before they select the furnishings. 
In the south room we find the problem of 
transforming the general tone of excessive sun¬ 
light even more difficult. Green is rather unbecom¬ 
ing, and not only cools but makes a rather ghastly 
shadow tone. Blue is even more impossible 
unless it is a light, soft color. I find mulberry 
more satisfactory, as it is at once both cool and 
warm, and, combined with green as an over¬ 
drape, makes a hanging of great charm. I have 
in mind a south exposure dining-room. The 
paper has a combi- 
nation of grey 
browns, mulberry 
and bluish green. 
The over-drapes are 
of green taffeta and 
the under-curtains 
of mulberry gauze, 
which shimmers. 
There are no under¬ 
curtains of net or 
scrim to break the 
effect of the sun fil¬ 
tering through the 
gauze. The window 
is beautiful as a 
whole and the room 
charming in its dif¬ 
fusion of light. 
Another equally 
successful treatment 
for a country-house 
dining-room is a 
striped Shiki silk of 
bright blue and grey 
with a smaller line 
of black, and under¬ 
curtains of grey 
gauze. One imme¬ 
diately visualizes grey walls 
and old-fashioned silver. 
In a simple country cottage 
under-hangings of bleached 
cotton cloth edged with a 
small ruffle, may take the place 
of the prosaic window shade. 
A pair may be hung at the 
top sash and one at the lower 
on rings, and are thus easily 
adjusted. With narrow over¬ 
drapes of figured cretonne or 
some plain-colored material 
the window treatment would 
be as attractive as it is inex¬ 
pensive. Casement cloth cur¬ 
tains with a 1J4" binding of 
sunfast make a serviceable 
cottage window hanging. By 
repeating the color of tne room 
in the binding we do not need 
any over-drapes. Casement 
cloth or net, hung with a val¬ 
ance of figured linen, also 
makes a pretty summer hang¬ 
ing that is unusual and eco¬ 
nomical. The valance should 
be straight or shaped, like an 
old-fashioned lambrequin, the 
curtain hung full from under¬ 
neath. Choose for the uphol¬ 
stery of the room the same 
figured linen, preferably with a 
pattern of a repeat design 
that can be centered in the 
valance. The tone of the thin 
hangings should blend in with the background of 
the linen. Too sharp a contrast would not be 
pleasing and must be avoided. 
General Rules 
The general rule for length of curtains is: 
Over-drapes to the floor and under-drapes to 
the sill. The over-drapes should be hung on the 
trim 2" from the inside, just enough back to 
prevent a line of light showing. If the trim is 
ugly or if the window is small and we wish 
to have all the. light possible and give the sem¬ 
blance of a larger window, we can hang the 
curtain from the outside of the trim at the 
very top, entirely covering it. The window, how¬ 
ever, is an architectural feature and should be 
treated as such. Therefore, unless one of the 
foregoing conditions exists, leave the trim ex¬ 
posed and retaining its full value. 
The same width should be left all around, as a 
border. The under-curtains should be placed 
right next to the glass on the narrow moulding 
which holds the window casing. They should 
be placed high enough to prevent a streak of 
light showing at the top. 
Long curtains from the top to the sill are 
preferable to two pairs of sash curtains, except 
when one wants a 
rather “cottagey” 
effect. The long 
line is graceful and 
tidy in appearance. 
Cord and pulley 
attachments, al¬ 
though rather ex¬ 
pensive additions of 
the curtain-maker, 
can be bought at 
any retail store and 
are not difficult to 
apply. They are 
well worth the ini¬ 
tial outlay as they 
save on the wear 
and soil of the cur¬ 
tain. Also they give 
a distinctly profes¬ 
sional look that all 
home-makers desire. 
TranSom win¬ 
dows are always a 
problem. They may 
be covered entirely 
and as a group with A s h ap e d t box 
one long curtain at- pleated valance 
tached at the top * blends -with ite 
only. * dpneh of the curUrifi 
Thin under-hangings are edged with a 
color repeated in cretonne over-hangings 
Sketches by courtesy of Stern Brothers 
Here the transoms are treated separately with a thin underhanging and 
the valance of the over-drape is short enough to alloiv of much light 
shaped valance like an old-fashioned 
lambrequin tops the plain curtains 
A heavy fringe 
adds formality and 
a certain richness 
to this valance 
