Formal dining room with bay window

It’s called a formal dining room for a reason, but it doesn’t only mean that this is where formal dinners take place in your home. A formal dining room is also a great opportunity to dress your windows in rich, traditional custom window treatments. In this room, we often see double wide draperies that have been swept off to one side and are held in place with a heavy tassel tieback.

We also see generous swag valances and ample use of fabrics and tassel fringes. To go along with the luxurious window treatments, thick drapery poles in either a dark mahogany wood stain or brushed gold (brass) are often seen, too. This is the room where luxury lives and where using a lot of fabric isn’t a shame.

So let’s see how all these ideas look in pictures of traditional dining rooms.

Striped Scarf Curtain Over A Double Patio Door

It’s a shame that so many patio doors are left bare, without any window treatments whatsoever. There are countless solutions for patio and French doors and frankly, there is no excuse to leave them as is. In this example, two criss-crossing swags were hung over matching pleated drapes. Notice how the valance was installed right under the ceiling, with the tip of the swags falling right on the wooden trim around the doors.

This allows the doors to keep their functionality. In other words, the doors can be opened in high-traffic kitchen and dining areas while the window treatment still stays secured in place. And I can’t let this window treatment go without mentioning the beautiful striped fabric. One of the stripes is picking up the beige in the faux textured walls.

The rest of the stripes make this a traditional dining room with wine, gold, and light blue. If you’re inspired, you may want to read my blog post about some more color ideas for window treatments.

Layered Swag and Balloon Valances with Draperies

Here again, we see double French doors. But rather than being functional, the doors were treated as windows would be. First, gathered balloon valances were used in an old gold silk fabric. Silk fabric is great for balloon valances. Silk gives balloon valances a “crunchy” texture. But if you want to recreate this in your own room, be forewarned that you’ll need plenty of yardage and silk must be interlined.

Back to this window treatment, though.

The balloon valance was topped off with a board-mounted swag valance in a scroll embroidered fabric that matches the color of the balloon valance. To give the valance an outline (and to make sure it doesn’t get lost in the sea of beige), wide dark gold banding was used on its swag and jabots. Both the balloon and swag valances were topped off with the same onion ball trim.

And finally, a diamond check fabric was used in a matching beige color to frame the rest of the window. Here’s how all the details I mentioned look up close. Notice how each of the three types of window treatments was made in an entirely different fabric.

Yet, the fabrics are so precisely color-matched that it’s almost impossible to see these differences.

Casual Swag Valance Hidden Behind Brushed Gold Hardware

Typically, when draperies are used on two nearby windows in a single fashion like this, they’re installed on the far end of each window. Here, the draperies were installed immediately next to each other, with a grandfather clock separating them. The valances are simple, casual swags with brown tassel fringe.

Quite a clever trick indeed!

Solid Ivory Swag Valance with Sheer Curtains

Simple sheer curtains in white complete the window treatment.

Inside-Mounted Roman Shades on Curved Wall

Luckily, there’s no curved wall an inside-mounted window treatment hasn’t tackled. Inside-mounted window treatments are the standard go-to solution for walls and windows with unusual shapes.

Neutral Drapery with Attached Valance

The valance was finished with simple tassel fringe in a sandy gold. Finally, the valance and drapery combo was installed on drapery poles by only three drapery rings. Rather than have one extra wide drapery pole run across the entire width of the triple window (and having to worry about support brackets), the drapery pole was cut to size for each of the draperies individually.

Powder Blue Swags and Draperies with Bullion Fringe on Bay Window

The top of the custom valance was adorned by twist cord while the bottom hems of the swags and extra long jabots were adorned with bullion fringe. And to add more of this beautiful powder blue color to the room, two double-wide draperies were added on each side of the bay window.

Pinch Pleat Drapery with Buttons over Woven Shades

First, double-wide pinch pleat draperies were used that covered more of the wall than the window. The draperies were adorned by buttons under the pinch pleats and brush fringe that ran along the entire length of the leading edge of the drapery.

Second, woven shades were mounted as inside mounts. That way, regardless of whether they are pulled up or down, some light would still be allowed through.

Vintage Gold Swag Valance Over Double Wide Transom Windows

To dress the transom windows, a board-mounted swag valance with short jabots was used. To frame the overall window, single width draperies in the same solid color fabric were used. Tassel fringe in a gold and brown was used to outline each swag and jabot on the window valance.

Board-Mounted Waterfall Draperies Over Flat Valance

In this formal dining room, we see an eclectic mix of patterns and textures, with an infusion of both Western and Eastern design elements. However, the room remains traditional and coherent because of its red and tan color scheme.

The custom window treatments were quite unusual. First, it’s evident that the waterfall effect on the draperies was achieved by mounting the entire window treatment on a wooden board. Second, a flat valance was used under the draperies.

Typically, valances are installed over draperies, but in this case the focus was on showing the waterfall effect of the draperies. And finally, with the busy print on the fabric, it was important to outline each piece of the window treatment with fringe. Brush fringe was added on the leading edge of each drapery. The valance only needed a center tassel to stand out in this case.

Silk Swag Valance Over Draperies

There is no centerpiece on the dining table and no wall art. The window treatment was kept simply by using a solid ivory fabric rather than patterns.

Blue and Green Taffeta Silk Draperies with Pinch Pleats and Brush Trim

Lastly, brush fringe in a powder blue was used on the leading edge of each drapery. The hardware used was a ridged drapery pole in a brushed silver. The draperies were installed using 2-inch drapery rings.

Euro Pleat Draperies in Stone Over Transom Windows

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get back to this gorgeous formal dining room. Here, we see double wide draperies that were used on single wide windows with transoms.

Now that you’ve seen all these examples of custom window treatments in a formal dining room, which one do you like the most? Are any of the ideas about to find their way into your home soon?