Interior Design Ideas

Sheer Draperies for Your Modern Interior

June 7, 2026

You can move furniture into a space and even put down a rug, but until something is hung at the windows a room just doesn’t look finished. And with all of the currently popular skirt less, sleek furniture designs, yards of fabric covering the windows serve to absorb sound and provide some necessary visual warmth. Sheer or semi sheer casement fabrics give the added benefit of filtering the direct sun while offering a diffused view outdoors. At night when the room is illuminated they take on a more flat, solid appearance, but dim the lights and enjoy romantic city light views in an urban setting.

New techniques in fabric weaving are enabling the fabric manufacturers to produce some exciting casement fabrics incorporating metallic threads, applied ornamentation like sequins or buttons, burn out fabrics and fabulous open weaves in stripes and grid patterns. And my favorite fabric continues to be a Belgium linen scrim in a natural oyster color (Calvin Fabrics #2780) which looks at home with country antiques as well as contemporary tapestry and cut velvet upholstery fabrics.

There are some ready made sheer draperies from stores such as Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn and online vendors such as Smith and Noble, but frequently the narrow panel widths limit their utility. If you need to cover a wall of windows, you probably don’t want six or eight separate panels! More likely, having sheers custom sewn is the only way to cover windows of that scale. So now that a drapery workroom is involved, order them exactly how you want them. Typically sheers are made to a triple fullness and with a three layered hem. And many casement fabrics are woven 118″ wide so they can be railroaded (run sideways) for a seamless installation. Professional drapery workrooms also can suggest some custom sewing techniques such as applying a contrast hem, or piecing panels together with a solid tape or trim for a huge scale stripe.

You may be tempted to hang these creations yourself. Don’t! A drapery installer can make ready made curtains look pretty darn good, but an inexperienced homeowner can hang custom made panels and they look like rags. The pros have tools, steamers, and pins to work with the fabric, and the measuring experience to get the hem level.

Sometime the sheers cover a wall and not just the windows and sometimes they’re not even fabric!

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Posted in: Walls, Ceilings, Floors and Windows, Window Treatments