Let There Be Light

The first thing I discovered on my foray into interior design is that you need to let light into your home.  Every house can benefit from an abundance of natural light coming in through the windows.  Window treatments are an easy way to introduce softness and pattern in a room, but it is very easy to overdo it and cover up the beautiful natural light with all the fabric.  Clearly I have learned this the hard way.  See Exhibit A:


This is our front room circa 2006.  I am sure I will revisit this disaster several times so just for now ignore the flower border and paint color and furniture craziness and all that.  Look just at the windows.  The windows are very small to begin with and all of the heavy layered fabric is allowing only a small bit of light to shine through the bottom halves of the windows.  The curtain rod is hanging just outside of, and at the same height as, the window frame.  On top of that, the flowery pattern and scarves are just way too formal and fussy for our casual kid-filled house.  With a few small changes I opened up just about the whole window and filled our front room with sunshine.  First I took down the curtain rods and re-hung them 3 inches higher and 6 inches wider than the window frame.  I would have liked to hang them even higher, but then my curtains wouldn't be long enough so I compromised here.  Even just a little extra height helps.  The curtains should be hanging mostly over wall, which makes it seem like your windows are much wider than they actually are.  Hanging the curtains high and wide, so that your fabric is just covering up the window frame and no actual window, not only lets in more light but makes the whole room look larger and more grand.
I took down the panels, balloon shades, and scarves and changed to one simple panel on each window.  I think that using only one panel per window here creates a sort-of illusion that the whole wall is filled with windows, instead of two dinky ones with drywall in between.  I chose a favorite color (brick red) and something with a little texture to it, it's a waffle weave.  I considered having no treatments at all on the windows, but we do need the privacy at night and it was a little too stark without the extra fabric in the room.
Here is the room as of this morning:

Let the sun shine! 
I will post more photos of window makeovers around our home tomorrow.