Curtains or no curtains?

[letsnotIRL]

Recently bought a new house and we're between our rented and bought at the moment trying to get everything transferred over, 2 small DC hindering this lol. I have always had curtains up at the windows but I've took my living room and dining room ones down to pack and I love the look of the naked window!! It looks so open and fresh? But I equally love curtains. What have you got? What would you do?
I'm definitely putting curtains in all the bedrooms. Just unsure what to do with living space downstairs now. For context the new house has a large living room, window with blinds on one side and French doors on the other.
Thanks !!

Curtains. I hate the black hole that a window is at nighttime, I don’t like people staring in when it’s darker, and curtains help to absorb sound.

Hate not having curtains. Paid a silly amount to have them made and installed across the 4.5 metre back wall of our old house which was one big set of French doors. Doesn't look fresh at all to me, just unfinished and cold.

How private is each room at night when someone is looking in from the darkness?

No curtains would give me the heebie-jeebies at night !

When I've been thinking most of my friends don't have curtains and I've never even noticed/thought about it before!

@Ddakjii never thought about the sound proofing thanks!

@AnSolasblinds at the front of the house. French doors lead to back garden but zero blinds and they're very large 😕

Didn't think about that 😬 we like to close them once it gets dark x

I don’t like not having curtains. In our current rented flat there are no curtain poles so we hung bedroom curtains with command hooks. Curtains make me feel safer when it’s dark.

We don't have curtains on our downstairs rooms that have windows looking onto our enclosed, not overlooked garden. We don't mind when it's dark out, but we do feel safe, and we have in door light switches to the outdoor garden lights, should we ever want to check!

For my office, street facing. I love the look of the widow without curtains. It looks fresh, the beauty of the front garden can be seen. But! The sunlight is overwhelming. It's the brightest room in the house. It's impossible to work there in the day when the sun is beaming in!

Our back room only had blinds up when we moved out and it felt odd feels so much better now I’ve put curtains up.

I have curtains in every room except the kitchen. Helps keeps the house warm in winter and reduces the heating bill.

(My spare bedroom curtains don't meet in the middle though as got confused with tape measure 😆)

Maybe you could get some voiles from IKEA as an interim solution while you have a think about your options. I couldn’t have nothing as it gets baking hot and the light blares through my living room window in summer. In winter it feels cold at night and not at all cosy with nothing up. I’ve had Ikea light filtering voiles up since I moved in, and when I’ve decorated will think about something more substantial. Even though I’m at tree canopy level so have a nice view, I’d not want a black void in winter.

We have shutters downstairs and curtains upstairs. I get that they help keep the heat in but find them dated except for the lightweight sheer ones.

Have curtains that are never closed in sitting room , dining room or study
No blinds or curtains in kitchen or bathroom ( though bathroom obviously has etched glass )
Curtains are only closed in bedroom ( though we do live in the middle of nowhere )

Like these

https://www.grahamandgreen.co.uk/antiqued-floral-block-printed-single-curtains?

Our living room and kitchen diner both have French doors opening onto the back of our property which looks out onto farmers fields. Neither have curtains to maximise the light coming in.

If and when the farmer sells to a housing developer, curtains would be straight up. People live at the front of their properties / are overlooked at the back but have lights on and no curtains in an evening allowing the world to gaup in are mad.

Curtains definitely. Save up for exactly what you want, it will be expensive but worth it. I finally got round to putting curtains up in my living room after just having blinds for year. Big bay window so they were expensive. The room looks so much better and it is noticeably warmer. My heating bill is £200 less than this time last year.

Can't stand looking out to black and people looking in!

We have shutters in living room as the sun is too bright

I hate curtains when drawn. It just looks incredibly dated and fusty.

Our sitting room windows spent years without adornments but looked bare, so we now have white curtains that are fixed and not able to be drawn, and voile blinds on the windows for evening.

Roman blinds in living room,
put 3 narrow ones instead of one long one.
It looks great and makes the room look bigger too.

Ha, I love having the curtains drawn. I dont like that I cant really justify doing it till after 9pm at the height of summer. I like it being dark earlier so I can get them closed!

I only have blinds in the study and the bathroom. Don't like them anywhere else.

window dressings do make a difference heat wise & often finish a room.

I remember watching a programme as a teen that said to always shut your curtains when changing as stalkers can see it as communication/a performance.

I did invest in my curtains a few years ago, hence why I'm taking them with me instead of buying new. My living room ones were extortionate and I love them. I'm just concerned with them looking "dated" in the new home, as others have said.
But the heating bill is definitely a motivating factor, anything to reduce cost right now is a win! Just hesitant to drill holes in walls for curtain poles if I'm not 100% on the curtains 🙈

I say all of this, my mam would have a cow if I didn't dress my windows correctly 😅

We don't have curtains downstairs except in our front room where there is a street light right outside. Much prefer not to.

We have curtains upstairs and down but never close the downstairs ones.