A pelmet is a piece of fabric over the top of a window and secured at the sides.
Adding a pelmet is ideally to hide curtain fixtures or window blinds and other curtain installation details. The fabric is often pleated or decorated with a pattern. Curtain pelmets come in many different types and shapes to match your interior design needs. You can choose from old fashioned renaissance period concepts, traditional or modern styles. Many contemporary houses have metal finishing on doors and windows. The best installation style to go along with that metal mullions is the metal curtain pelmets. You can also use fabric curtain pelmets to complement the colour of your doors, ceiling, crown moulding and furniture style.
A valance is a curtain hung from the pelmet, but a pelmet can be used alone. A valance is often made of the same fabric as the curtains, but this isn't always so. Valances are a great choice if you intend to enhance current inclusions such as cornices and window blinds with a plain finish.
Swags are bunches of fabric hanging on either side of a window. Jabots are like swags but pleated. Jabots can also hang over cabinets to create an elegant look. Pelmets are draped right across the top of a window.
A pelmet often features mounting brackets on which lights, lampshades, and other fixtures hang. The pelmet will be covered with fabric to match the rest of the window treatments. A valance hangs under or behind this part of the window treatment.
A curtain pelmet can add drama to an otherwise boring window and provide privacy without blocking out all light. They also aid air flow because of the way they open out. A curtain pelmet can also serve as a decorative element when no hanging lights or fixtures are in place. The curtain pelmet is also installed to conceal hardware details like curtain rods. When properly installed, curtain pelmets support your air conditioning efforts by keeping heated air inside the house. In the summer season, curtain pelmets keep the interior cooler by preventing hot air from outside.
Pelmets provide great functionality by covering up the ugly brackets and curtain fixtures that hold up your blinds and curtains. Decorative pelmets are can be built from wood and other materials. Decorative pelmets often feature embellishments such as moulding, carvings, or carving. Plainer ones are more likely to come with the mounting hardware already attached. The fancier ones might have an option for added lighting or even sound equipment integration at an additional cost. Depending on your taste, you have no shortage of choices, forms, and shapes. Examples you can pick from include straight curtain pelmets, curved ones, plain or embroidered styles. You can also get flat bottomed ones or varying degrees of arched designs.
The size of the finished pelmet will be about 2 inches larger than your window frame or curtain track on all sides of the frame. This is to ensure that the front edge of the pelmet covers up your mounting brackets and gives you room for comfortable movement. To determine how much fabric you'll need, multiply width times window height plus 10%. After ascertaining the width, you can choose different lengths depending on how long you want the curtain pelmet to go. Pelmets are great ways to decorate without blocking out too much light or adding a lot of additional weight into a window that might not already have enough support. Curtain pelmets can often make small windows look even smaller. Therefore, it is recommended to install short pelmet depth units in rooms with a low height.
It takes a few hours to install a pelmet. To install one, you'll need to prepare the wall by measuring, marking, and drilling holes for the mounting hardware. You should then measure, cut, and attach the wood pieces that form the frame of your pelmet. Once this is done, you can staple on fabric or attach other embellishments depending on what sort of window treatment you're creating.
Pelmets are great for smaller windows or older homes where full curtains aren't appropriate because they create enough shade. They're also great at blocking out light without closing up the room completely.
In some situations, a valance will work just as well. Valances hang from the pelmet and add a lot of colour to a room without blocking out light or adding much weight. In other cases, you might use nothing at all. These are known as "sheers" once they're hung, they allow light to shine through but don't provide any real decorations or cover for modesty, etc. If you do decide that curtains aren't right for your needs, consider a drape finish or blinds instead, although they'll block out more light than most other window treatments.
A pelmet covers up the brackets that support your curtains or blinds.
A cornice is the horizontal moulding above a window. It is more decorative and provides a base for other elements to rest upon. It may also provide an element of structural support, although this is unlikely in most cases.
Cornices are often found on the top of larger windows where they will span between two different window frames creating one continuous visual divider between rooms. Cornices are not always necessary but are often used to make the space look bigger than it actually is. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a mandatory guide to installing some curtains, blinds and fittings, which you can check out here.