Window Gazing

There are plenty of practical reasons to bring window treatments into your home's design: They afford shade on sunny afternoons and privacy any time, and they easily help control room temperatures in every season. But - thanks to a variety of styles, applications, prints, and colors - there are plenty of pretty, playful, or otherwise personality-filled reasons to treat your windows to treatments, too. Take a look at your options. We're sure you'll find your windows' perfect look.

Behind the Curtain First things first: There's a slight-but-important difference between curtains and drapes. Both are full-coverage options well-designed to control light, sound, and temperature, but drapes are the best choice if you're looking for total privacy. They're typically crafted with heavier fabric than curtains and, because they operate on a traverse rod with a string, stay more firmly in place. Curtains, on the other hand, are lighter weight and attach to a rod by way of tabs, rings, or rod pockets. You can still control light and privacy by sliding curtains the along the rod or by tying them back, but they're designed to have a little flow - to be a delicate frame for windows and their scenes both inside and out. Whichever you choose, full-length window treatments are an easy way to add design drama. They can accentuate raised ceilings and tall windows or carry a pattern throughout a space. They can become soft elements amid hard modern lines or, in a neutral tone, unobtrusive elements in already-busy rooms. And off the windows, they can quickly create two spaces in one, an ideal solution for studio apartments, dressing areas, or shared bedrooms.

In the Shade

With clean edges and a slim profile, shades are a sleek choice for contemporary rooms - one that also offers the ultimate in light control. Different types of shades let you decide just how much shade you get:

• Blackout shades provide total sun-blockage. They're good insulators as well.

The Beauty of Blinds

Whether they have wide or slim slats in wood, aluminum, or vinyl, blinds put a little tactile style in light and privacy control. They're a popular choice for door window coverings - small-slat blinds add an interesting textural element to French doors, and full-length vertical blinds are a natural partner to sliding patio doors. In rooms subject to high humidity, such as bathrooms and kitchens, vinyl blinds will resist warping, weathering, and mold.

Valances Top It Off

Valances can provide partial shade, depending on their size, but these above-window treatments are really crowning touches. They can be straight-edged and mounted to a bar or threaded onto a rod with loops or pockets, both of which create different effects. And to that end, the drape of a valance can really set the mood of an entire room.

Gentle, voluminous draping - including that of swag-style valances - creates traditional romance, especially when paired with sheer curtains or a light shade. Scallop-edged valances in pale or bright colors make kids' rooms even more playful. And slim, flat valances are simple finishes to kitchen and entryway windows.

It's true that any window treatment is going to help determine the light and warmth of your home, but not in ways only utilitarian. Wispy curtains, afternoon-diffusing shades, hand-rubbed wooden blinds, brightly striped valences - they all speak to the particular character of your home, the individuals in it. When you don't want everything in the spotlight, let your window treatments do the talking.