I feel your pain. I, too, agonized over drapery fabrics, going through hundreds of books. I ended up with a textured fabric, which provides enough interest to keep the wall of drapes from being boring. If you are going to go with a color similar to your wall color, I strongly urge you to consider a textured fabric.

How about tone on tone pattern?

Here is a link that might be useful:

If the room is small, wall colored drapes can be a plus, but I personally still want to see some variation on the wall color in that case (ie a tone on tone stripe or print). If the space is ultra streamlined and modern the drapes matching the walls works well. But in any other case, I think a good designer is going to pick a fabric that compliments the space verses blends in.

I like drapery panels that do not contrast heavily with the walls, so I would probably like what you have chosen. My personal preference would be to skip the valance altogether and use the pattern on the panels in the dining room.

I spent a lot of time looking at tone on tone but I think it looks a little busy with a patterned valence. I was going to do a plain pattern with a heavy fringe element but I just don't love the look. In my family room, I am taking a huge risk and doing a paisley patterned valence. I'm afraid it is too much with my floral rug (the patterns coordinate) so I am adding a solid color element to tone down the paisley. The problem is I chose a solid that also matches the wall color, so I have the same problem in that room too. It's very frustrating...

I would also skip the valances and just do panels. Are you doing valances because that's where you want to add pattern instead of full panels of pattern, or because you like the look?

I like both looks of panel blending into wall and also panel contrasting with wall. It really depends on what else you have going on in the room.

My prefernce is actually panels that blend with the walls or even a pattern with a color tying into the wall color rather than a solid contrasting panel.

As others have said, it does depend on what else is going on in them room. (ie. upholstery on dining chairs...)

Having bought both PB and RH panels, I do think the RH ones are better quality. they have some beautiful linen panels that would add some texture...

I too would skip the valences to accentuate height. If after looking at so many fabrics, you still gravitate towards sth similar to your wall color, then I say go for it! But, I would suggest to go with something similar but not exactly the same color.

I have always gravitated to drapes that blend with the wall color rather then drapes that make a statement. They can have color but nothing severe. The eye should look to the furnishings as the statment not the drapes.

We have custom drapes also. They cost a considerable amount of $$. When we were choosing fabrics, I kept in mind the cost so I wanted to make sure I would use them for a considerable amount of years without getting tired of them. One set is close in color to our walls. Another set has light color to them is embroidered vines. All pleated and transitional in style.

Have you thought about a cornice instead of a valance?

Hi. Thanks for all of your help. I decided that there was a slight difference in the drapes from the wall color and I am just going to go with it. I'm happy to finally make a decision.

Happy with my dining room decision, I decided to really look at my family room. I've got problems. I originally just wanted simple pinch pleat drapes but my decorator talked me out of it. I have a sectional in front of the drapes plus an end table. The sectional has to be against the wall. My decorator thinks we won't see the full effect of the drapes because of the furniture and suggested a long valence instead. I wasn't thrilled with any of the fabrics she suggested. For the fun of it, I hung up fabric from a paisley pillow that was going in my adjoining living room. I loved the fabric and decided that I wanted to use this for the valence. I have a busy floral rug but I think the fabrics coordinate well together.

It was a very bright snowy day today and my room was flooded with light. While the rug and the valence are both mostly made up of browns, tans and blues, there is a definite green element in the rug. Normally, the green looks more olive/brown but today it was really green and the brown background in the rug was more grey/mushroom versus the chocolate brown background of the valence. The valence works very well with my dark brown sectional but I am worried that there is no green in the valence.

Do you think it is o.k. to miss a major color element from the rug? The paatterns don't clash but it is not as perfect a match as I had hoped. I would post pictures but the colors will never come out right on the screen.

I haven't read all of the posts here. Are you in a hurry? If not, don't be rushed into something because of what a decorator said. Over the years, I've found very few decorators who share my taste. They may be great for others, but I'm usually a little old-fashioned compared to what they want me to do. If something doesn't feel right to you, try to wait and think about it some more.

I tried putting up several different mostly unpatterned drapery panels I brought home from BB&Beyond, and they just looked BLAH. So I spent some time really analyzing pictures.

I was having a hard time deciding what to use, so I spent a lot of time looking at books (some from library, bought some) that showed window treatments. I finally decided that in the pictures (and therefore for my LR), I like the look of drapery panels (floor to 9' ceiling) that had a background color similar to the walls, but had multiple colors in a pattern to draw together my disparate rug and upholstery colors and patterns. I didn't like the look of valances here, because they'd make too horizontal a statement since the windows are wide.

For the kitchen and large eating area, there is not enough room for panels. So I'm going with valances with a background color similar to the walls, and again, colors in the pattern to pull out the colors of the rug and granites. Otherwise, those rooms would look too bland with the wood and cork floors, neutral wall paint, cherry cabs, quiet granites, and blendy fireplace slate floor-to-ceiling. I tend to get too blendy in most of my projects, so I really have to work to figure out what will provide enough contrast to be attractive, but still make me feel comfortable.

Good luck--it's not easy!

Anne

I have mentioned before in other threads that I am a monochromatic kind of gal. LOL When I had my custom drapes made the decorator tried to get me out of my comfort zone but I just couldn't. He suggested stripes - what? Stripes, me??? No way!! The dupioni silk drapes had a very subtle tone on tone stripe but to me it screamed prison stripe. He said once the drapes are made they will look beautiful and I wouldn't notice the stripes. Well, he was right - I didn't notice the subtle striping but I did notice the shimmer. Go with your gut but listen with an open mind.

NIGHT SHIMMER

DAYTIME

I love it when the drapes are the same color or nearly the same color as the walls. I did pottery barn velvet drapes in a muted yellow (wheat) and it was nearly the same color as the walls. I loved it!

I think the biggest problem is that I am doing 3 rooms at once. The decorator and I have spent hours upon hours looking at fabrics. I've actually been pretty quick when you consider it's 3 rooms at once. I'm not very good at articulating my thoughts but I do know what I like when I see it. For instance, my living room drapes were picked out in a matter of minutes. It worked, I loved it and we moved on. The family room and dining room have been much harder. My decorator is talented, well recommended and reasonably priced, so I don't want to get another consultation. She's decorator number 2. The problem is decorators flip through a book, look at 5 fabrics and conclude that two of them will work. Which they do but my brain just doesn't process things like that. I need to hem and haw and agonize for months. Annoying but true.

The decorator listened to what I had to say, picked a fabric that worked great with the room and for whatever reason, I didn't like it. She has since sent me dozens of samples that meet my specifications and I was unmoved by them all. I have since gone back to her original recommendation and decided that it does indeed work best for the room. It's a floral (not my first choice) but I am confident that it will work in the room.

My family room we wanted a stripe but I just didn't like what she had to show me. On my own, I decided to use a paisley that was meant for a different room. It's not what the decorator would have recommended but she is trying to please her client. I hope that she would have tried harder to discourage me if it was that wrong for the room but I am kind of out there on my own. It's scary because if it doesn't work there is no one to blame but myself!

Oh, I know I shouldn't be doing all the rooms at once but I can't help it. I did my whole first floor at the same time too! I'm actually restraining myself from adding my kitchen to the mix - probably because I don't want to look at more fabrics!

I can hem and haw with the best of them, and I've been trying to overcome that in many areas of my life. Questions you may want to ask yourself...are you afraid there's a better/prettier/more perfect fabric out there, and you'll find it as soon as these drapes are made? Do you really NOT know what you like? Are you chosing fabrics to go in rooms that you otherwise don't really love, so it's hard to make that commitment (if I choose x, then I'm stuck with y, because they go together)? Do you feel like you just haven't been shown enough choices?

Hoyamom- I love your room and the richness & the shimmer in the drapes. The color scheme is lovely and I think that the dupioni fabric is a stunning look!

Jamaraz, I feel your pain. I'm stuck in paint color hell right now, I just can't find the right color. I would love to see your bay window, we'll be on that task soon enough. BTW, I agree with the other posters that I'm unsure of the valance and I like an interesting but solid fabric. Perhaps border it in a contrasting color.

I like the images by Hoyamom. I have same kind of drapery at my place. Actually i was tired and confused selecting all these but finally i got solution from Ironartbyorion.com people and they had help me choose the right things which suits with the wall color and the theme.

Thanks for this wonderful post.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drapery Hardware

I guess I am one of those "safe" decorators. My curtains are all white or off white....goes with most every paint color that I choose. If you get drapes to match your paint color, what do you do when you re-paint? Same color or do you get new drapes AND new paint color?