We’ve blogged before about the challenges presented by square bay windows.
Curtains are the obvious solution to get round the problem of how to dress the tricky right angles between the side and back windows in the bay. But there are two problems here.
Firstly, there often isn’t enough stacking space for the curtain to draw back into – resulting in valuable window space being lost to the curtains.
Secondly, the curtains, when drawn back, will be directly facing the sun – a major problem for south facing bays, as, no matter how resilient a fabric is to fading, no fabric can withstand direct contact with the sun’s rays for long (and we speak from bitter experience here, having once had to replace a pair of silk curtains that horribly faded in exactly these circumstances).
So Roman blinds offer a favourable alternative. More often than not, for the reasons given above, curtains are dismissed as an option, and roman blinds are so often the obvious alternative. Because the blind stacks above the window, window space is normally much less impaired than it is with curtains. Even when there is limited space above the windows a tight stack on the blind can minimise the amount of window space taken up by each blind.
But avoid the square bay pitfalls! There are a couple of problems that you need to plan around when opting for roman blinds for your square bay window.
The most obvious problem is that the folds of the side blinds will, without careful positioning, clash with those of the central blind when fully raised. If you leave a gap between the blinds to counteract this, the chances are there will be window pane showing through the gap in the blinds – a privacy issue in the day time, and a problem for bedroom blackout at night.
Similarly, the side blinds will be at 90 degrees to the room, which can also give you privacy problems (or in bedrooms diminish the blackout effect of the blinds) because the gap between blind and window will be clearly visible as you walk into the room.
The solution – position your blinds carefully: There are a number of tricks we employ when dressing bay windows with roman blinds, but the most obvious of these involves placement of the blinds.
Position the blinds that are located at the back of the window behind the side blinds. This prevents there being any significant gaps on show between each blind on the right angle, and helps to stop the blinds clashing in these tricky corners.
