Why we love double sided curtains

The Room Divider

The most considered use of a double-sided curtain is as a room divider or internal draught excluder for older properties - separating a living from a dining space, a sleeping area from a dressing room, or simply creating a sense of enclosure in a larger open-plan room and even internal doors to prevent echo. Here, both faces of the curtain are on permanent display, and both need to earn their place.

This is where the fabric combination becomes a genuine design decision rather than a finishing detail. The two sides don't need to match, but they do need to relate. A floral face with a plain reverse in a pulled tone from the print. A textured linen on one side, a contrast colour on the other. The curtain becomes a piece of the room from whichever direction you're looking at it.

How It Works in Practice

The principle is simple: instead of a standard white or cream blackout lining, you select a complimentary fabric to use- a plain, a texture, or a contrast colour - that works visually in its own right

a coloured lining grounds a printed face fabric
a busy pattern can feel unanchored without something solid to sit against
blackout lining in a richer tone prevents that washed-out, slightly grey look you can get when light pushes through a patterned face. The warmth comes through instead.
the curtain reads well from the reverse
the finish is uniform, composed, intentional

Fabric moodboard for different lining options

Choosing Your Combination

The pairing is everything. Here's how we approach it:

Floral or pattern face + plain lining in a pulled tone

Take a dominant colour from the pattern - not the most obvious one, but the one that gives it its character - and find a linen or cotton in that shade. It ties the curtain together as a single piece rather than two separate fabrics sitting on top of each other.

Neutral face + contrast lining

A plain or textured face with a contrasting lining works particularly well with holdbacks; the contrast lining becomes a deliberate reveal when the curtain is dressed back. A barely-there oatmeal linen on one side; a deep inky navy on the other. You'd never know until the curtain moved.

Floral or pattern face + plain lining carried to the face

If you love the lining as much as the face fabric, consider bringing the lining to the front to create a narrow border - this works really well when carried across the heading as well as the leading edges.

Green pinstripe curtain lining seen from a garden

The Heading Question

When a curtain is used as a room divider, the position of the pole or track needs thinking about before anything else. If the track sits closer to one room, that side becomes the primary face - and the heading should be chosen to suit that space first. A more formal room might call for a pinch pleat or goblet; a relaxed living space might suit something altogether softer.

Where the track sits centrally and both sides carry equal weight, you have more freedom. A wave heading works well - the continuous fold sits neatly from both sides with nothing to hide. A deep, proper pencil pleat is another strong option, full and generous when drawn back. Or, depending on the style of your home, something softer and more relaxed - a cottage pleat has an unfussy, floppy quality that suits informal spaces beautifully.

What the heading shouldn't do is fight the fabric. The combination of face and lining is already doing a lot of work. The heading is there to carry it.

Floral curtains with brown linen blackout lining

A Note on Blackout

Blackout lining doesn't have to mean clinical. The assumption that blackout equals a stiff, plasticky, white-backed fabric is long out of date. There are now blackout linings woven in linen-look textures and warm, considered tones that drape well, press well, and look as good as any decorative fabric when the curtain is stacked back.

The brown linen blackout (above) is a case in point. It isn't compromising anything. It's contributing.

The Eyes of the House

An American colleague once asked us, while standing in Notting Hill: what is the accent colour of London houses? His answer was white. Window frames, sills, fanlights - the eyes of the home, as he put it, all picked out in white. And he was right. For generations, white frames have set the tone for what sits behind them. Pale linings, ivory interlinings, cream sheers - everything deferred to that bright white surround.

But window frames are changing. Black frames, anthracite, bronze, forest green - coloured frames are now as common in new builds and renovations as white ever was. And that changes everything about how a lining reads from outside. A crisp white lining behind a black frame looks stark, even unfinished. A warm stone, a soft sage, a dusty blush - suddenly the whole window becomes a considered thing, inside and out.

If your frames are anything other than white, your lining colour deserves the same thought as your face fabric. It's one of the simplest ways to make a house look intentional from the street - and one of the most overlooked.

A modern entrance hall with black frame doors and double sided curtains

Is It Right for Your Room?

The double-sided curtain works hardest where both sides of the fabric are in view — as a room divider, across a doorway, or in any space where the curtain is a feature.

It's also worth considering for any window visible from outside. A terrace, a garden, a street frontage. The exterior view is part of your home's design whether you've thought about it or not. You might as well make it deliberate.

If you'd like to explore fabric combinations, book a consultation and we’ll bring the options to you.

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