Curtains first?

[cuthbertthecat]

I am redecorating my bedroom next year and I suck at this stuff.

I would like a kind of sage/olive green I think. Probably natural wood bedside drawers and chest of drawers.

What I always get wrong is the soft furnishings/finishing touches like light fittings etc. so this time I thought I would start with the curtains and work backwards.

But I am already stuck. I can't picture the whole room so I am bamboozled by choice. I found some William morris print curtains I quite liked (I like a stylised botanical) but then I am worried they will look old fashioned. We like quite plain stuff in general but then it will look bland if I go too plain (I am aiming for calm and restful).

For context dh hates decorating and I only get a limited window to coax him into the disruption. I still have the awful emergency Argos curtains I got 10 years ago when we moved in and worked out the neighbours out the back could see me naked....

You need to get your curtains and duvet sorted, then go from there.
Personally I go for plain curtains as it’s easier and cheaper to swap the duvet cover around to change the look.

I've just been having a nose around Pinterest and I think I may go for a neutral but textured curtain. Have ordered some samples.

And agree re duvets being the easy way to add a bit of interest. I should be able to smuggle in an old lady botanical set there. Plus maybe a colour pop set and a plain one to keep him happy.

I'm different insofar as I prefer duvet covers to be plain, so usually choose my curtain fabric, rug and/or wallpaper first.

I'm also a William Morris fan and over the years have incorporated his designs into many a room scheme whether it be wallpaper (we have Strawberry Thief in indigo on our upstairs landing), curtains or cushions (loads of those here!) To avoid the old granny look I've mixed in plenty of contemporary patterns too.

In our main bedroom the scheme developed around my favourite rug (a teal/turquoise/terracotta/taupe Voysey style from Liberty bought with a small inheritance years ago). I made curtains using a Clarke & Clarke fabric which has duck egg embroidery on a taupe linen background. The walls are Little Greene Roman Plaster which is a bit neutral for me - but to add interest I painted a colourful peacock mural on the chimney breast which picks up many of the colours from elsewhere in the room.

The floorboards beneath the large rug are painted Lamp Black (Little Greene floor paint) same as elsewhere in the house.

To add further interest/colour/pattern I added a bed throw from Doing Goods which has a boho William Morris feel in turquoise and pink plus a few textured cushions in similar colours. The duvet sets in this room are timeless plain taupe linen and I made a frilled valance to match in the same fabric. We have red vintage lamps with pink/red fabric shades from Pooky. Our furniture is oak Art Nouveau plus a pink painted bedside table one side, a floor to ceiling built in bookshelf is crammed full and there's space for a small antique dusky pink sofa with original Arts & Crafts embroidery in red. The art in this room is mainly vintage stuff - a mix of botanical and old Pre-Raphaelite prints - in addition to several mirrors as it's a fairly dark room, being a 400 year old cottage.

It's one of my favourite spaces as it feels so warm and cosy!

Curtains can be very expensive especially if it’s a large window. So personally I’d go for plain rather than patterned for longevity.

I also keep looking at botanical prints for cushions etc & worry that they will look too old fashioned.

Have you looked at Timorous Beastie? M&S have some quilt covers etc by them.

After years of trying and failing to match duvet covers to patterned curtains I have finally given in and changed my bedroom curtains to a plain style. Unless you only plan to have plain duvet covers only I wouldn't recommend a patterned curtain in a bedroom. I say this as someone who adores patterns and colours.

I think you can get away with it if the patterns are of different scales/types, so mixing up large, blousy florals with geometric/stripes for example.

The bed throw I chose for our room is a small scale, block print, contemporary floral in an almost William Morris style. Whereas the curtain fabric has a larger scale, embroidered, undulating 'stripe'.

What I wouldn't do is mix two floral patterns on curtains and bedding.

@Decorhate I love Timorous Beasties and have a couple of their cushions as well as a velvet door curtain from them. They do some gorgeous designs!

Choose the curtains first as it's easier to match paint to soft furnishings than the other way around. We normally go to a Dulux decorator centre, where they have one of those paint swatch things with about a thousand colours and then get it mixed for us.
The other thing I have learned is about proportions of colours. 60% main colour, 30% secondary colour and 10% highlight colour. This can be for anything in the room.