Let’s talk about curtains.

More and more, I notice that houses in real estate listing photos almost never have curtains. Sometimes there are blinds, but often not. And of course, when I see that, the first thing I think is how expensive it is to buy a whole house-worth of window treatments. The house we’re buying has some kind of blind on almost all of the windows except for one rear-facing bay window. We will probably replace most of the window treatments eventually, but it’s nice to know we don’t have to do that right away.

There are exactly zero windows in our current rental house without some kind of window treatment. Same for the house we owned.

But there are all these houses being listed/photographed without any window treatments. Even in bathrooms, bedrooms, places where you would definitely want some privacy shield.

Any idea why? Is it just because it looks sleek that way? Is it because the sellers had god-awful 1970s curtains that the agent wisely said “burn those”?

Do you have any windows without window treatments?

I think they do that because it lets the most natural light in and makes the house look bright for the pictures. I have noticed that sometimes they will even take the window screens out for pictures again, I think because it darkens the window - when you get to the house, all the screens are shoved in a closet somewhere.

That said, I live on 5 acres and no one can really see in my windows unless they come right up to the house, so we have a number of windows in our kitchen and dining room that have no treatments at all. I have store-bought curtain panels on ring clips (very simple) in my living room for keeping sun off the piano and bamboo blinds in my family room and kitchen eating area only because the sun completely blinds us when at the table or watching tv during a few months of the year. And our bedrooms and bathrooms do have treatments - mainly for light control in the bedrooms and privacy in the bathrooms.

I do like the look of a treatment-less window so a lot of our bedrooms have just pulldown old-school roller shades that I keep rolled all the way up when I don't need the light control. The good news is that I think big heavy custom curtains are out and have been for a while so the days of dropping thousands of $$$ on fancy custom curtains in a trendy fabric that ends up looking dated 5 years later are over. Now I see mostly lighter-feeling things like blinds or thin curtains that are used mainly where privacy and light control are necessary.

I can't wait to see your new place! Is it one of the listings you told us about or something completely different?!

Lisa, I agree w you about the heavy curtains! I think in the right right, it can be nice, but in general I don't like a lot of fussy fabric happening. I also never understood the curtains pooling on the floor thing.

That said, we will need curtains in the piano room for sure. There are blinds there but I like to double up the window treatment for the piano room. We'll do that in the bedroom as well. The rest of the windows, well, we'll have to see when we get in there.

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Is it one of the listings you told us about or something completely different?!

Yes, it's the last one (I think?? I'll PM you

When they photographed our Door County house, the first set of photos they took all had the mini-blinds down. The house is in the middle of a cedar forest and the views out every window are very nice. I asked the agent to have the photos re-done with the blinds all pulled up completely. Much better.

That house had no visible neighbors. Despite the fact that no one but the nocturnal critters would have been looking into the windows, I always had to close the mini-blinds at night. For me, there is something unsettling about staring out into the abyss. Old Lithuanian saying, "Naktis turi dideles akis". "The night has big eyes"

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When they photographed our Door County house, the first set of photos they took all had the mini-blinds down. The house is in the middle of a cedar forest and the views out every window are very nice. I asked the agent to have the photos re-done with the blinds all pulled up completely. Much better.

I can imagine! The natural light makes a huge difference, but also being able to see a bit of what's outside makes for a more compelling presentation, esp. when it's a forest!

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For me, there is something unsettling about staring out into the abyss.

Same!

Guess we'd both make lousy campers.

I like light and bright. My bedroom has venetian blinds and heavy drapes. The rest of the place has blinds which are closed if the sun heats the room too much. The blinds on the big west facing window are usually closed due to the sun.
Have been in too many homes where the drapes and curtain cause a claustrophobic effect I liken to being in a coffin.
YMMV

We have left some of the windows (except for bedroom and bath) without curtains because those rooms are up on the third floor and no one can really see in anyway.

The main floor does have curtains but they are either sheers or are usually open. We opted for blackout curtains in the room with the TV because when too much sun comes in you can't see the TV picture well.

We may be looking at heavier curtains for the living room where the piano is because it's so loud.

I really like blinds that pull up and get hidden at the top of the window. I like all my window coverings open during the day, I really need the light. I have never understood why people always keep their blinds drawn - I need to see my gardens! We had some heavy curtains on rings in Maine = mostly to help with the cold. We have those in the window vertical blinds with a sheer fabric covering in some of our taller windows here, they are nice looking and you can twist them open and they let light in but still give you privacy (but I only do that when the sun is shining in on my paintings, otherwise they are fully open and to the side so I can see out. We have those sort of honeycomb blinds in the bedrooms and bathroom that let a little light in when they are closed - I want to change the one in the bathroom to one that I can draw up from the bottom - so I can leave it open halfway - nobody would be able to see in, but I could let more light in from the top.

Window by piano faces northeast. It’s gloomy today, but the windows are big enough that they let a lot of light in. I need light! On a sunny day (many of our days are sunny) I dont have to turn any lights on in the house, which is nice.



When the leaves are on the trees, nobody can see in our kitchen windows. I usually leave the blinds up on them even at night (unless we get to -48F like we did this winter!)

Our house had a greenhouse addition on the back when we bought it. Being beside the hiker biker path only eroded our privacy more. Doesn't really bother me. If someone gets a kick out of it, well, bless their poor little hearts. They must have a very dull life.

When we replaced it, I insisted it had to be mostly glass. I refuse to spend a few thousand on blinds when the view is so pleasant.

We have Venetian blinds on three bedroom windows, mainly to allow the room to be darkened during daytime. We had roll-up bamboo blinds on the two windows in the master bedroom, but seldom used them. When the cord broke on one, we never replaced them. The large windows in the living room and dining room had drapes and sheers that the previous owner left for us. They were seldom closed and when we replaced those windows with a box window and a bay window, we removed the drapes and almost never miss them except when the late western sun shines directly into the dining room. The bathrooms have privacy glass and don't need blinds. The kitchen had a curtain, but we removed it because we like the view to the back yard.

Our house has deep eaves so sun control is not a big issue. We live on an acre lot at the end of a dead-end road with one house across the street a couple hundred feet away and another on one side that's closer. We've never really had privacy worries.

Big Al

Yesterday I found out one reason I like a lot of light.
I have cataracts. Got my eyes examined and learned that.
The doc said when I get those off I will not need so much light.
Until the cataracts are removed I will consider my eyes to be tinted to keep out the harsh light.

My favorite window treatments are plantation shutters, but they take up a lot of room and really only look good, imo, on big windows. We had them in one of our houses.

The place we're staying in at the moment is super close to the sidewalk, and has rows of tall, narrow windows. There are accordion blinds that can open from the top or the bottom, which is great. We open them from the top to about halfway down, and get natural light without people staring directly into our front room.