You need a made to measure roman blind – possibly for your drawing room, or bedroom. You want to achieve an opulent look and so you’re thinking about silk. You don’t want to go for a bold pattern but you want to do something special with the roman blind to create a bit of wow factor – or maybe to complement a certain colour in the room. What do you do?

Contrasting borders down the sides and bottom edge of your roman blind are a great way to achieve this. A border allows you to opt for a plain silk for the main part of the blind, but then to introduce an accent colour, perhaps to pick out other soft furnishings in the room, or simply to create a slightly opulent look.

If you’re still undecided about whether to go for curtains or blinds, here are a few additional tips, to help you make your decision:

Roman blinds cost less than curtains: the amount of fabric used to make curtains (the face fabric, the lining and interlining) is far greater than that used for roman blinds. The result is that a lined and interlined roman blind will be much more reasonably priced than lined and interlined curtains in the same fabric. So if budget is the driving force in the decision then consider roman blinds as an alternative to curtains.

Aesthetic issues: consider the room and the look that you are trying to achieve in that room.  It may well be the case that a roman blind is the most appropriate (as well as the least costly) option. Here are a few reasons why:

• Floor to ceiling curtains will often dominate the room and make it look smaller, so if space is limited or the room is small, consider the roman blind option. Putting the roman blind inside (as opposed to outside) a recess will maximise the effect of making the room look bigger.
• Although roman blinds don’t tend to give quite such a warm cosy feeling, they often work well when you are trying to achieve a simpler, open, light and airy look. However roman blinds placed outside the window architrave can have a similar effect to curtains in making the room look cosy, but at a fraction of the cost.

Practical issues:

• Roman blinds are a practical choice for kitchen and bathroom windows and also work well in small windows or where there isn’t sufficient draw back space at either side of the window for a curtain.
• If you have a radiator below your window, floor to ceiling curtains are not a good idea from an energy saving perspective. In these circumstances a roman blind might be the best option – particularly if, like so many people, you don’t like sill length curtains. Make sure your blind has interlining, and to maximise the thermal effect of the blind, go for blackout lining – which, with it’s additional, acrylic layer has in-built thermal properties.