If you have baseboard heating, what kind of window treatments do you have? I was planning to do long curtains plus blackout blinds if some sort, but I realized the curtains would interfere with heat and probably be a fire risk. Wondering if I'm limited to blinds or Roman blinds, or if curtains that end higher can look ok. Pictures welcome!
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I thought the same about the fire risk but then I learned that our baseboard heaters have water flowing through them, so while they do get warm and emit heat, they're not going to spontaneously start a fire because I happen to have curtains in front of some of them.
So in some rooms, I have drapes that puddle on the floor right next to the heaters. 4 years on and we have had no issue.
I personally think that a lot of people get curtains that are too short. If they don't end at the bottom frame of the window, and they're say, in the middle of the space between the floor and the bottom of the frame, they're too short.
A solution that looks decent if you don't want to do drapery is to do a roman shade with a valance on top.
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@looch: I'm not sure but I think ours are actu ally electric- so the bigger fire risk kind. And I'm thinking of them in my LOs room so not someplace I'll willing to take a risk really. But I'm also worried about them blocking the heat, you haven't had a problem in those rooms?
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@Foodnerd81: No, because they don't block the entire piece of the baseboard heater.
If they were the electric kind, then yeah, I would absolutely not do a drape over it.
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@looch: yes- I'm afraid of the too short thing. I want long almost on the ground... But don't want to have a cold room because all the heat is behind the curtains or a fire... I just like curtains so much better than Roman shades or blinds.
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@Foodnerd81: I hear you! I didn't really like Roman blinds that much, but I've gotten used to them. I have the roman shade/valance combo thing going on in 3 of the 4 bedrooms.
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We have baseboard hearing throughout our house. I hemmed all of our curtains so they're completely away from the baseboards. Our are electric, so there's definitely a risk of fire. We have also been careful to not put furniture in front of them, because it does block the heat. We temporarily had a pack n play set up as a changing station in front of the heater in the baby's room, and it did affect the heat flow.
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@Foodnerd81: I wonder this exact thing with our baseboard heat and long curtains. My contractor said it would never get hot enough to light it on fire and to not worry. They are only 3 inches above the baseboard heater.
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We are finishing our basement and did put long curtains and there are electric baseboards in there. One room is a guest room that rarely gets used, so I make a point to say "if you use the heater, please leave the curtains open". The other room will be our daughters, but I am thinking of asking my husband to just disconnect it or shut off the circuit to it (if that is possible). We have in floor heat, so the chances of ever needing these things are minimal. I am actually annoyed that he put them in there in the first place (we built the house).
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@looch: on further investigation they are the hot water kind so less fire risk- I just don't want to trap too much heat. But if they are decorative and always open I'm cautiously optimistic.
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Someone just recently posted about this issue in my local mommy group. The suggestions were:
-Roman shades in bedrooms, blinds in other areas and no curtains at all.
-Long curtains to the floor in formal areas or living/dining rooms, with a combination of some kind of blinds. Then you close the blinds for privacy, and the long curtains are basically just decorative.
-one woman had custom double drapes made. The inside layer was room darkening and short and just covered the window. The outside layer was basically decorative and long to the floor. When it was nighttime, she would just close the inside curtain. Basically like a hotel room. -
@Foodnerd81: I think it really comes down to furniture placement. In my home, the baseboards tend to cover a large area. In my son's room, they're basically in an L shape covering one half of each of the walls. My son's bed happens to be in that corner as well, just not pushed all the way to the wall. The bed "covers" the entire baseboard, but his room is plenty warm in the winter.
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I actually have curtains to the floor over my baseboard heating - my husbands best friend is a firefighter and said they won't catch on fire because they are likely treated. It also probably won't get hot enough. We haven't had an issue in 3.5 years!
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We have hot water baseboard heating and we have sheers and long curtains to the floor.
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So glad to see so many people haven't had a problem with long curtains and baseboard heaters! As lovely as the busted roller shades that came with the house are, I'd like to move on. (We won't discuss the black trash bag covering the baby's window...)
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