As interior decorator Emma Burns has memorably remarked, i'f windows are the eyes of a room, pelmets are the mascara', and since we all know the effect a good mascara can have on a face, it's certainly worth considering the decorative potential of a pelmet. If they just seem a bit too granny-ish for you, think again! While we take delight in a traditional chintzy pelmet, there are plenty of styles that can work for contemporary houses, smart cottages and playful, youthful interiors.
‘Pelmets are not for everyone,’ says Lucy Hammond Giles, ‘and the proportions and structure should be carefully considered to avoid looking like an Eighties pastiche. But they can help you out of a tight spot.' If you have difficult proportions to a wall or window, pelmets can conceal the awkwardness. ‘We have worked on a glorious Victorian house in the Lakes,’ continues Lucy, 'in which the ceilings are high but sloped and the windows low. To correct these proportions, we fixed the sides of the curtains in place, which looked very strange until the beautiful pelmet was fitted over the top.’
The Australian designer Cameron Kimber, whose house in New South Wales is packed with pelmets, says it's best to use them “to add height to windows and soften a room. To me, they hint at luxury and give a very finished feel.” In general, pelmets work best in rooms with high ceilings and on vertical windows, though if you have a country cottage, they can be quite charming on a lower, more horizontal window as well.
Soft pelmets
Generally made from the same fabric as the curtains, this is a particularly traditional, English country house style. ‘I use a soft gathered pelmet to add a more feminine, traditional note,’ says Cameron Kimber. In his country house (above), he has used a wider pelmet in ‘Fern Stripe’ by Jean Monro to soften the architectural panelling of the room. Matching the fabric on the curtains and beds makes a strong country house statement as well. ‘When I do a bedroom in a print, I tend to use a fair bit of it, so I like the curtains to match in with the bed,’ explains Cameron. 'I don't want too many jumpy patterns. That's really the way you should use chintz. If you use a print carefully I don't think it says this is an old lady's room or a young man's room.'
Trims are often an important element of a pelmet, and fabrics can be trimmed with a contrasting ribbon or braid to help define the edge. In Elizabeth Hay's Devon cottage (above), she has used a gentle blue trim to contrast with the chintzy pattern of the curtains. For an even more maximalist look, a fringed trim (as Cameron Kimber has used at the top) suggests a formal country house aesthetic.
Box pelmets
More formal in style and easier to incorporate into a contemporary environment, a box pelmet consists of a panel of wood, or more likely MDF, covered in fabric. Philip Hooper includes this style in his recommendations for either a contemporary look in curtains. “Stick to the slim, ‘tailored’ look and, if using a pelmet, keep it as a flat, upholstered box with an interesting silhouette to the bottom line, maybe trimmed in a braid to match the curtains.” Veere Grenney often employs just such an interestingly shaped box pelmet in his projects, which walk a clever line between contemporary and traditional.
For a more whimsical look, try contrasting the pelmet with the curtain fabric, as Christopher Howe has done in his Bray project, above, where the pelmet, covered in Howe’s ‘Mr Men’ linen, has been contrasted with curtains made from antique mangle cloth. Behind the mangle cloth, a panel of ‘Mr Men’ linen peeks out, which ties the look together (and it also appears in a different scale on the wallpaper).
Decorative shaped pelmets
For a more decorative pelmet, you could either have a bespoke shape made from MDF and covered in fabric, as Beata Heuman has done in a London project (above), where simple white linen curtains are enlivened by a crimson decorative pelmet with swirls of white trim. Alternatively, a bespoke painted pelmet can add some serious glamour to a scheme. Edward Bulmer designed the tulip-wood pelmets in the bedroom at his country house (below) to complement the eighteenth-century Chinese wallpaper and four-poster bed. If you're looking for a similar, aesthetic, Jali has smart, customisable MDF pelmets from £50.
