Dear Gerri: Wow – there are so many fabulous things you can do to windows, but first you have to ask yourself a few key questions:

   1. Is there a view that I want to be able to see or something that I would like to never have to see again?
   2. Does my window treatment have to be functional in the sense that it can be raised/lowered, opened, closed, or can I do something wonderful to the window without having to factor in practicality?
   3. Do I want something relatively conventional (i.e.: fabric, curtains, etc. but with a new twist) or do I want something totally different, something that treats my window more as a piece of wall art than a regular window?

Assuming you’ve answered the above, lets look at some options for all three.

Unwanted View
If you have a window that looks out on something less than inspiring, then view won’t be the issue, although light may still be. There are many materials that you can use to allow the natural light to enter, yet still screen out an undesirable sight. One of our personal favorites is to cover the window with semi transparent papers. You can use anything from inexpensive tissue paper to some really quite fabulous, textured handmade papers. Another material that we have used this way is something called Spun Silk. It looks like a sheet of very thin paper, but it is actually made of silk and poly fibers, with many of the silk fibers actually visible in the sheet. Any of these materials can easily be adhered to your window with a number of adhesives (spray and/or paint on types) available at craft stores, but our adhesive of choice is egg white! You simply brush it on your window, apply your paper and let dry (easier if you have a second set of helping hands since the egg white remains slippery for about 10 minutes and you will be working on a vertical surface). After allowing it to completely dry you can then seal this with another coat of egg white. The real advantage, in our estimation, of this over any commercial adhesive is the ease with which you can later wash it off if you get tired of the look, or just want to change the paper. This is an inexpensive, fun way to provide privacy, screen out the neighbor’s side wall, and even control the color of the light coming into your room.

Fabric
If you still want to work with fabric, but are bored silly by curtains, or, like me, you don’t like the effect of heavy drapes but have fallen in love with some fabric that you just HAVE to use, why not play with it at the top of your window, but instead of the conventional valance try swaging, looping, draping and knotting the fabric on an interesting drapery rod. I am personally a big fan of knotting fabric – it looks great, is incredibly easy to do, and you don’t have to be a master designer to pull off a fabulous look. And this treatment works equally well on an otherwise naked window or teamed up with very lightweight, simple curtains.

Rods
Don’t forget that a very quick and easy way to give your windows a bit of verve is to simply change what your everyday window treatment is already hanging on. Can that boring rod be exchanged for a bamboo pole, or maybe even some eccentric tree branch? A friend has simple café curtains hanging in a guest bath, but no one misses seeing them because they are suspended from a driftwood treasure she found on the beach.

Cool but not as functional
If functionality isn’t a big issue then you really open up the possibilities. For a kitchen window in a Country French environment we took a table runner made of coco twigs, cut it down in length and rolled it up to a little over ½ of the window’s height. We then took a great fabric in the client’s color scheme and made a strap that ran down the front and back of the runner and held the rolled twigs in place. This wasn’t totally non functional, but releasing the buckle and rolling the shade up or down a bit wasn’t something that you would want to have to do three or four times a day.
Another relatively easy and very interesting treatment is to take organic material that is fairly consistent in girth, such as Marsh Cane or very thin bamboo and anchor it into two end pieces of wood with holes drilled to accommodate the canes. The wood can be painted the same color as the window trim so that the framework disappears and all you see is the cane or bamboo ribbing.

No real rules
As I mentioned, I am not a big fan of conventional valances (or really much of anything too conventional), but sometimes a large picture window needs a little something. Even if it looks out on a terrific view, it can sometimes seem just a bit too “naked” if there is nothing there at all but the scenery. This is especially true with older homes; those that were built pre soaring ceilings and walls of glass. This is an ideal opportunity to add something that either reflects the style of the home or the particular tastes of the owner. For a home that had many Oriental touches we suggested simple banners made of raffia cloth with appropriate designs stenciled on. The three of these that centered in the windows were different lengths and added just enough presence to give the window a “dressed” look.

When it comes to the particular tastes of the owner, the rules really are nonexistent. We have a large picture window in our living room that has a bamboo pole across the top on which I have tied, knotted and festooned four or five silk scarves accumulated at art shows, a long 4” wide woven wool camel trapping picked up at auction years ago, and an antique fringed shawl from somewhere, sometime. Atop this perches a strange “duck doll” with a porcelain duck head and long, long, long striped porcelain legs. Nope, no rules at all.

If you think of your windows as big wall art, then it helps to free your mind up from the “window treatment” mentality, and then who knows what you may come up with!