Best in class 1
Voile curtains allow light through but also give you a little privacy as the days lengthen. Designers Guild’s new summer Lauziere collection, a range of warm-coloured, wool/linen mixes that are soft to handle and have superb drape, come in a delicious pastel colour palette, making a welcome alternative to simple white. The soft rainbow effect here is the result of two colourway widths – blossom pink and leaf green – being hung together. These cost €119 per metre to order from Brian S. Nolan and also from other stockists listed on the fabric firm’s website. If you prefer something more classic, check out Carlotta, its sheer damask linen in cool contemporary neutrals, €210 per metre, or Benedetto, a tumbled striped linen, €168 per metre. Both of these are machine washable.
Briansnolan.ie; Designersguild.com
Best in class 2
This gorgeous window treatment for a villa in Monaco shows how to successfully use voile in a period pile. Here the privacy sheer curtains are made of 100 per cent pure silk chiffon, classically French pleated. Framing the sheers are sets of shell pink pure silk-lined and interlined curtains, also French pleated, hung from solid bronze curtain rails with carved filials. This window took a total of four sets of curtains with each set, made to order, costing about €3,635, including VAT, to supply and install, from interiors firm Jonmar. The aged oak Empire Bergere chair, featuring marquetry and gold leaf detailing, upholstered in cotton velvet costs €3,800, from the Donnybrook-based store.
[ Jonmar.comOpens in new window ]
Best in class 3
Italian firm Studio Matteo Nunziati took inspiration from the Islamic art of pattern for much of the design of its Fraser Suite Hotel in Doha, Qatar. It’s a nice local touch that makes this lobby stand out from the international style favoured by many big hotel groups with the laser-cute metal window screens double jobbing to acting as a decorative element but to also shield the space from the extreme heat and light of the sun. Bushy Park Ironmongery can do something similar using a painted finish mild steel. A panel for a window of a similar height to those pictured, estimated to be 1.5 metres by four metres, will cost from about €5,500, plus VAT. For more laser cut metal ideas check out American site Artisan Panels which does a lot of this kind of work.
Bushyparkironworks.com; Fraser-suites-doha-hotel.rn.co; Artisanpanels.com
Best in class 4
Voile is often used on four-poster hotel beds to create an ethereal mood that conjures up beachy Caribbean and Indian Ocean getaways, but it’s a tricky look to replicate in the suburbs. Pictured is Pampero, a new marble-effect voile from Osborne & Little’s Sirocco sheer collection. At €170 per 310cm wide metre length, it is an altogether bolder option that will work really well in lofty period redbricks as well as country residences. The Paraggi wallpaper, from the same company, costs €89 per roll. Both can be ordered from Aughrim-based Collette Ward Interiors.
Collettewardinteriors.ie; Osborneandlittle.com
Best in class 5
Contemporary windows often need a sharper light-diffusing option like a fabric roller blind. The new Soft Screen range from Luxaflex is made using fabrics that allow light in while controlling glare but still letting you see out. The fabric comes in 10 cool Nordic colours, including the umber shade pictured and the woven polyester is 100 per cent flame retardant. A standard size blind, 120cm by 120cm, costs €106 through TM Blinds. Three blinds are used in the image shown, the largest of these costs €210, the two smaller ones cost €90 each, totalling €390 to dress this window. The blinds can be operated manually or can be motorised and even controlled remotely, handy if you’re on holidays, if you download the relevant app.
Best in class 6
The rise in glass extensions has created a need for blinds that fit the design of the windows so if you have unusual-shaped glazing and need unusual-shaped blinds, check out Grand Design Blinds custom-made solutions. It includes individual blinds for each window on an A-shaped gable-end wall and also sophisticated black-out blinds for dormer accommodation. Pictured is a black-out blind that pulls up from the floor rather than down from the roof, allowing you to screen out early morning light completely and when you wake and fancy lingering in bed it allows to let in a chink of light without exposing yourself to nearby neighbours. The UK-based company can work from architectural drawings on as-yet unrealised projects and has a slew of smart solutions. Prices start from about €1,700, ex VAT.
[ Granddesignblinds.comOpens in new window ]
Best in class 7
Custom-made curtains can transform a contemporary space, dialing down hard lines and surfaces and also dimming down sound. Création Baumann, available from Minima, stocks a 300cm wide, machine washable sheer linen called Lenta that costs €140 per metre. Maria, the linen cotton mix, 140cm wide fabric, in the opaque curtains, also pictured, costs €135 per metre. This room, designed by Iria Degen Interiors, is about 10 metres long, and to design, fabricate and fit the sheer design to such a large room will cost about €13,000. The heavier curtain will cost an additional €24,300 and built-in railings another €900, according to Minima. Création Baumann also sells a smart, semi-sheer acoustic fabric that helps dial down surrounding sounds in an open plan spaces.
