Choosing A Fabric For Your Custom Roman Blinds
The choice of fabric for custom Roman blind is more significant than most realise. In fact, this choice is an exciting part of getting bespoke Roman blinds. This choice is however a function of a person’s personal preference. We will consider in this article, some of the most important things that contribute to making a decision about what fabric to use for your Roman blinds.
photo/ Michael Jarmoluk via pixabay.com
The Colour-Pattern-Texture (CPT) tripod
Roman blinds are flat by nature. This simply implies that a fabric flush with patterns lend a conspicuous feature point within the room or apartment at large. It is quite akin to having a vivid piece of fine art adorn your wall.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that dark colours give the impression of a much smaller room, whereas light tones make the room appear larger. On the other hand, choose the perfect shade of dark fabric to provide an alluring contrast with the light-coloured walls – opposites play well together.
To keep your colour scheme from running riot and appearing garish, coordinate it by moving step-wise tone on tone. This refers to choosing one colour and proceeding to layer various shades of it all around the room. This process can be carried out by using a colour wheel, and matching up colours with their complementary or contrasting partners.
You also need to understand the room the blinds will be in. This will be a key parameter in your decision-making. Let’s illustrate this with a bedroom – it is a room like any other, but it is often designed to enhance good sleep and relaxation. Colours that are exceedingly bold or bright can have just the opposite over-stimulating effect.
Roman blinds excel with vertical stripes. These elongate windows, visually. Horizontal stripes, can be difficult to rein in. The same goes for chequered patterns. A pattern that rolls off the fabric can give the illusion that it is on a diagonal. The blind maker will be unable to control this, as this is often a decision that happens at the mill that manufactured the fabric. Therefore, avoid such patterns for your Roman blinds.
Incorporating elements of nature through botanical patterns like trees, branches, leaves, and flowers works salient wonders. These botanical themed fabrics are available in feminine vintage, opulent Victorian, retro influenced, and modern abstract designs. Your taste regardless, make sure you are attentive to the scale of the pattern with especial respect to the window and room size. A pattern that is too large for a small space could easily loom too large over the rest of the décor. This is undesirable, except in situations where it is intended to be the defining feature of the room.
To convey a soft appearance or a bold statement respectively, textured fabrics can do the trick. It all depends on if your goal is intricate and minimalist décor or large and conspicuous décor. Certain delicate embroidered velvets and fabrics will inevitably rub when the blind is raised or lowered. This will ultimately damage the fabric.
There are countless geometric patterns you can select from; you’re truly spoilt for choice. A geometric pattern highlights shapes like lines, triangles, squares, rectangles, polygons, circles, and arabesque prints too. The pattern merely repeats them all over the fabric. There is surely a fitting geometric pattern, no matter the look you are aiming for – traditional or contemporary.
Type of fabric
In addition to the colour and pattern, the fabric itself will influence how you Roman blinds turn out. Here’s what you should know:
- Acrylic – lightweight fabric, wool-like in texture, decent insulation quality, resistant to mould and mildew, and hypoallergenic.
- Brocade – elaborately woven fabric that creates a sophisticated and lush tone.
- Cotton – sits snugly within traditional and modern styles due to its surpassing versatility.
- Linen – woven from natural fibre, affording a well-aired, casual, relaxed environment.
- Rayon – woven with natural fibres to achieve various breathtaking textures that are strong, breathable, and soft.
- Silk – sophisticated and luxurious, sprinkling a tinge of romance and elegance to any bedroom or formal dining area.
Lining
When considering function and sensibility, linings are important additions to your Roman blinds. Lining can be achieved in several ways. Each however, has a meaning outlined below:
- Thermal coated fabrics – available as light filtering (one pass), dim out (two pass), block-out (three pass). It is advised to include an additional thermal lining to improve thermal efficiency.
- Thermal coated linings – a separate lining to the face fabric. This is also available in all thermal coated fabrics.
- Block-out – this defines the number of passes on a lining that guarantees no light through the fabric. Our recommendation is to add a layer of coated lining that provides the necessary stability to keep the Roman blinds structured.
- Woven or triple weave linings – widely adopted to simply dim the light path and block out only on the rarest occasions. This soft falling fabric is less structured than using a coated fabric.
- Interlining – these fabrics come in baby weight (bumph), mid-weight (interline), and duvet-thick (bumph micro) variants. It is important for you to note that interlining will increase the bulk of folds, and deeper folds (stack) are needed with thicker interlining.
To ensure every benefit from the fabric you choose for your Roman blinds, fit your blinds to the outside of the window frame (not inside). Go wider and longer than the frame so that influx of light and cold air is diminished as much as possible.
Smart Blinds delivers exquisite custom-made Roman blinds using an exceptional range of fabrics diverse in colours, patterns, textures, and fabric types to match your needs and go the extra mile. Schedule a consultation today, and our highly experienced in-house style consultants will ensure our fabric samples get to you so you get a look and feel before making any commitment. Your ideas matter, and as professionals, we will listen and advise on a solution that surely works for your situation.
Author: James Cummings
