Sometimes, a wall of kitchen cabinets needs to be broken up. Not only that, but sometimes an accent color is necessary to create interest in the space, especially when you have a wall of pure white or extremely dark cabinets. If you have a window over your kitchen sink, adding a unique custom valance over the kitchen sink is a perfect opportunity to introduce some color and pattern to your kitchen.
Gathered Valance Under Wood Valance
Soft valance meets hard valance. Here, an arched wood valance that’s connecting two upper cabinets is softened up with a gathered linen valance underneath. The valance looks nice because it has ample fabric to be gathered. If you’re recreating this in your own kitchen, make sure the valance is at least two to three times as wide as your actual window.
Custom Window Treatment on Kitchen Bay Windows
Bay windows can sometimes appear to be hard to dress, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The best custom solution for a bay window is a board-mounted valance. Take a look at the two valances below for examples.
This kitchen window was dressed with three arched sections that were used together to create a single board-mounted valance.
Balloon valances are great for bay windows, especially when they’re made with inverted box pleats like this one was. This way, the valance can be specially designed so that each pleat is placed at the exact spot where the windows meet.
Inverted Box Pleat Valance
Now that you’ve seen the inverted box pleat balloon valance, let me show you a few more valances that use this popular pleat.
This flat valance only used a few inverted box pleats. That’s all it needed since the red ikat fabric was already adding interest on the window.
To give your window a soft, inviting look (especially when your kitchen window provides a boring view like this one does or is facing a cold concrete jungle), you may wish to introduce a scalloped or shaped valance to your window. Chunky vertical stripes like this add height to a kitchen’s low ceiling and make it look bigger in scale.
Empire Pole Swag Valance
Here, the empire pole swag valance is a versatile choice for a double wide window over a sink. The terracotta color on the walls works perfectly with an orange and blue paisley print on the valance. The valance has a few features that make it quite unique:
- tab-top pole installation allows the width to be slightly adjusted, as needed;
- trumpets are doubled, making a valance that features more depth and volume;
- swags are evenly folded, making the fabric on the swags evenly spaced out;
- available up to 180 inches wide, allowing you to dress all the windows in your kitchen.
Arched Valance
In case you’d like a simple valance for your kitchen, this arched valance hangs flat on a drapery pole without any gathering whatsoever. This allows the fabric to become the focal point and serves more as a display for beautiful fabric artwork, like the fun chicken and rooster country print shown in the white kitchen here.
A beautiful close-up of this deep red fabric (Free Range, by P Kaufmann):
This arched valance needed a double arch to cover a double wide window over a kitchen sink. Black and white toile fabric is very popular in kitchens nowadays.
Medallion Swag Valance with Bells
The medallion swag valance is a casual valance that’s installed on knobs, or drapery tie-backs. It has simple horns in between the flat swags. This adorable window treatment is available up to 142 inches wide.
Here are a few knob styles that it could be installed on:
TRADITIONAL IN GOLD: Solid brass floral style curtain tieback, available at Antique Hardware Supply.
MODERN IN LUCITE: Chiaro designer decor crystal drapery medallion holdback, available at Urbanest.
Faux Shade Valances
Faux shade valances look like a Roman shade, but are stationary. Here are a few ideas.
Flat Shade Valance
These valances have the same horizontal folds that a Roman shade forms naturally. This style works perfectly with modern farmhouse kitchens.
Aaron in French Grey
Find it here.
Anderson in French Grey
Find it here.
Check out our faux shade valances here, or even fully functional Roman shades!
London Shade Valance
A London valance is a popular choice for kitchen windows. You may have seen them already but probably didn’t know what they were called. These valances can also be left a little longer if your kitchen needs more privacy. However, they’re best for windows up to about 48 inches wide.
Once the window gets wider, London valances require a lot of fabric to maintain their beautiful shape (otherwise they become too flat and too dull). It usually isn’t a problem, but it can be if you’re not aware of the required yardage for the project. Here are a few photos of this gorgeous window treatment style.
As you can hopefully see, this valance can either be traditional or modern just by the type of fabric you select.
Board-Mounted Bellamy Valance
In case you want a board-mounted valance that will last for years, then the Bellamy custom valance might be of interest. The fabric chosen was a ruby red faux silk with embroidered fleur-de-lis designs in gold. The fabric itself was rich enough, so we opted for a small trim. A small 2-inch ball tassel trim in alternating colors of red, gold and green was the final touch on this valance.
Since this was a local Atlanta client, the same valance was recreated over a sliding glass door in the adjacent breakfast area. Notice how the deep 6-inch return on the lumber board makes the pleated jabot look clean and finished when viewed from the side (which happens to be the kitchen island area of the kitchen). The look was finished with pinch pleat draperies in double widths. That’s a lot of fabric yardage but it was well worth it in the end.
I hope I’ve shown you a few ideas to get you in the mood to tackle your own kitchen decorating project. So, which one of these window valances might you see over your own kitchen sink?
