It’s no secret that we love the look and functionality of long draping curtains, but there’s also another way to dress your windows in a chic, useful way – enter the trusty roman blind! With crisp pleated folds whilst lifted, they provide proper shade when pulled down. They can be installed inside or outside of your window frames depending on the look you’re going for.

Roman blinds have been around since Ancient Roman times. Homeowners would hang damp towels in their windows to block out the dust and debris from the construction of the nearby Colosseum. Soon, the people of Rome began to use more colourful and ornate cloth to bring style and beauty. Join us and discover how we’ve used roman blinds in some of our designs.

In this children’s playroom we have used both curtains and roman blinds to frame the windows. The curtains add a powerful punch of colour and we opted for sheer roman blinds which are a soft and subtle way to create shade from the sun.

To ensure no light enters the room in the Suffolk Suite at Haymarket Hotel, we have used heavier fabrics. Here you’ll find our Hedgerow for Andrew Martin fabric used for the roman blinds and for the curtains, we have used our Friendly Folk for Andrew Martin design. When mounting blinds inside a window frame, light can often escape so it’s a good idea to double up with curtains when designing a bedroom. Explore the Suffolk Suite at Haymarket Hotel further with our ‘Sleeping Around’ blog post.

For this bathroom at one of our residential projects, we installed roman blinds outside of the frames for a full and bold look. You’ll quickly spot that we’ve adorned the walls with the same fabric to create a stunning spectrum of colour. Powder rooms and small toilets create a great opportunity to go wild with colourful patterns. See more ideas with 5 Top Tips to Transform Your Bathroom.

In Tiffany’s Library at Covent Garden Hotel, these curtains create a frame-like effect beside each of the roman blinds. The blinds’ red details of foliage pop against the complementing red of the curtain fabric.

Loft style windows are adorned with silk roller blinds, tied with ribbon at Ham Yard Bar. We have fixed these at varying heights to add a point of interest whilst the silk allows glowing light to shine through.

We hope you’ve enjoyed exploring some ways to bring roman blinds into your schemes. Find more ideas on dressing windows with our blog post Design Detail: Leading Edges.