Five window dressing tips from Sophie Robinson

We had the pleasure of catching up with the vibrant and talented Sophie Robinson, the interior designer and podcast host known as the 'Queen of Colour', following her recent collaboration with luxury fabric brand Harlequin. Sophie shared her invaluable insights on transforming your home with some of her top window dressing tips.

Whether you're dealing with a radiator beneath your window or seeking the secret to maintaining perfectly neat curtain folds, Sophie shares her expert knowledge below.

1. If you want to maximise the sense of space in a small room, go for a tailored roman blind that sits outside the recess and above the window to ensure you keep the room as light as possible. If you have a small window, this is a great opportunity to splash out on some absolutely fabulous fabric as you won’t need too much.

2. If you have a radiator under the window and you don’t want to block out the heat, combine a recessed roman blind with beautiful floor length curtains either side. When the radiator is on, you can just pull the roman blind down, and in the warmer months when you’re not using the radiator, you can pull your curtains across to help your space feel more cosy. If your windows are really large and you don’t have the budget for blinds and full curtains, you can always use roman blinds as normal, then hang floor length dress curtains either side. Traditionally these will look like regular curtains but are just there to make your window dressing feel fuller and cosier (as just having roman blinds on a large window can feel a little sparse) but as they are not as wide as normal curtains, you won’t be able to draw them fully to meet in the middle. 

3. To make your ceilings appear taller, using floor length vertical stripes can help elongate the room. I absolutely love my Paper Straw fabric from the Sophie Robinson X Harlequin collection which is a fun take on a stripe and helps give the same effect. 

4. If your budget is tight, go for a simple plain fabric and embellish it with a lovely trim. This will really elevate the look and is a great opportunity to pull out an accent colour from your room's colour scheme.

5. Set your curtains to keep them looking neat. Once your curtains are hung, you may find they don’t look quite as neat as you imagined due to being packaged or transported.  A tip from professional curtain makers that I love is to play with each pleat and fold so they look uniform and then use an old tie or a scrap of fabric to tie around the middle, or if floor length, at the top and the bottom of the curtain, keeping all the folds in place as they hang. You can either steam them at this point too if you like, but keeping them tied in those folds for 2-3 days will help ‘set’ the curtains and then as you begin to open and close them the folds and curves of the curtain should still look lovely and uniform.  

Made to measure curtains   |   Made to measure blinds