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Blue and brown is quite a popular color combination when it comes to soft window treatments like valances or shades. For bathrooms and master suites, this combination can exude a spa-like ambiance, especially when a lighter blue is paired with a darker brown.
Not to get ahead of myself here, but let’s take a look at a few well-designed interiors and how they used this beautiful color combination on their windows.
Aqua Blue and Brown Toile Valance
Here, a brown toile was printed on a light blue fabric. The valance was made with a wide arch shape to accommodate a double wide window in a dining room. To frame the valance a bit so that it doesn’t get lost on the wall that’s also a light blue, darker tassel fringe and twist cord rope were added.
By the way, if you love toile and want to learn more about this specific design pattern, check out my blog post about toile valances.
Oversized Medallions on Bay Window
A faux window shade is perfect for a bay window with seating. A woven polyester fabric with a subtle satin sheen was used here to bring out the beautiful blue color. The fabric also had an oversized medallion pattern that was woven into the fabric.
Roman Shade with Abstract Floral Print in Blue and Brown
Now, this type of valance can be turned into a fully functioning shade. That way, the window treatment can be drawn up or down for privacy and light control. The design chosen for this master bedroom was a bit bolder, with contemporary floral prints in blue and brown. As you can see, the shade was installed as an inside mount, with its drawcord on the right side.
Micro-Pleated Valance with Stripes
Sometimes, simple valances are the best and most hassle-free solution for a window. For this master bedroom that has two standard-sized windows on both sides, a flat board-mounted valance was chosen. The valance has subtle, almost unnoticeable pleats that cover it entirely. A bit more fabric was left at the bottom of the valance by design to give it a few deeper pleats, which adds just a bit of interest.
Double-Layered Valance with Distressed Toile
This style of valance, known as the Houston valance, is a bit unusual because it’s both simplex and complex at the same time. For one, its four-layer construction and fringe give it plenty of weight. Not to mention just the weight that naturally comes from having a board-mounted valance like this one.
Yet, there are some details that simplify it a bit. Instead of rich, excessive swags, it still has a flat design. And instead of long, cascading jabots, the valance has short jabots that pleat just enough to allow the valance to frame the window and look nice when viewed from the side.
We used a golden brown for the bottom layer of the valance, as well as the onion ball fringe. For the top layer, a linen and viscose fabric was used, which gave it a sophisticated, yet almost barkcloth-like quality. The print of the fabric (Bosporus by Covington) features a toile that appears distressed (but isn’t).
(The fabric is a bit brighter when given sufficient natural light.)
Whimsical Fabric Shade with Scalloped Topper
I love the idea of adding banding to the sides of a fabric shade that’s in stark contrast to the wall color. This really allows the shade to become a focal point. For this apartment’s living room, an embroidered floral faux silk was chosen as the main fabric, while a solid brown fabric framed its edges in the form of banding.
Rich Empire Swag with Wooden Pelmet
With the white crown molding and dark, wooden wainscot pelmet underneath, it’s hard to install a window treatment below that can’t compete in terms of weight and volume. For “design situations” like these, the Empire swag is a great solution.
For the valance, a stripe in blue and brown was chosen. For the draperies that hang below, a coordinating damask fabric was used.
Here’s another picture of this window treatment on the nearby living room window in the open space. But unlike the dining room that only had a single window, the living room had a triple-wide window that required multiple swags to criss-cross each other.
It also has to be mentioned that the jabots were left deliberately long. In case you’re wondering, a jabot is the long section of a valance that cascades down on each side to frame the window.
By leaving the jabots longer, the illusion of height was created in the room. Considering that the wide crown molding and dark pelmets took away from this height, this was a smart design decision.
Tab Top Empire Swag Valance
Not every Empire swag valance needs to be mounted on a board, like the one I just mentioned. This style can also be made with tabs, allowing the valance to hang from a rich drapery pole. Here, a tropical fabric with a monkey print was used to create the feeling of being on vacation while soaking in the bathtub.
Swags Over Arched Window in Home Office
It’s hard to cover a beautiful arched window, especially when it has impressive architectural details. The solution for this black and white home office was to install a swag valance at the ceiling line. The window treatment didn’t cover the top of the beautiful arch of the window at all, with the exception of a few acrylic beads that were eager to play with the light.
Indigo Blue Kingston Valance Installed on Holdbacks
The window valance on this window has so many unique features that, quite frankly, I’m not sure where to start. First of all, we need to point out the indigo blue color of it. It’s a rarely used color in home design and even in the world of custom window treatments, it can be difficult to source a fabric like this.
The fabric used was also a velvet, another rare find when it comes to picking the one that will drape the proper way when it comes to valances and draperies.
Overall, the window was dressed with a consistent color scheme in indigo blue, medium brown, and gold. Each of these colors was used coherently in the room to bring it all together in a balanced way.
A touch of gold was added to the valance. The medallion holdbacks that the ties of the valance were attached to were in an antique brass, while the bottom hem of the valance was accessorized using long tassel fringe in gold.
A Soft Swag Valance to Break Up Marble Walls in a Bathroom
Sometimes, master bathrooms can be too luxurious for their own good. With this much marble tile on the walls, the design around the jacuzzi tub was left a bit too cold and uninviting. The two windows over the tub were the perfect opportunity to soften up this space.
To be able to really break up the heavy stone in the room, blue and brown were chosen for the fabric on the valance. This color combination is a potent contrast from the other side of the color wheel.
Adding dimension and flow to the valance was also important to break up the flatness and smoothness of the stone, so pleated swags were a good choice. If a flat valance or boxy cornice were chosen here instead of a flowy swag valance, the bathroom would still have remained cold and uninviting.
The only criticism that I have is that the valance is simply too wide and wasn’t fitted properly. Its jabots should be touching the marble frame around the window. However, it still serves to make for a good example.
Blue and Brown Swags on Brushed Gold Holdbacks
The style of valance seen in this idea is an eclectic mix of some of the other valances I’ve shown you so far in this post. Again, we see how important it is to introduce a valance over a garden tub in the master bathroom. Valances added to this window can add contrast and soften up the space.
This loosely draped swag valance was installed on drapery holdbacks with a brushed brass finish. It’s a great alternative to valances that are installed on boards and curtain rods.
Reading Nook Valance with Rope Detail and Tassel Fringe
Even though this particular valance is made of a fabric with beige and taupe as its base, it still serves as a great example of blue and brown valances. Here again, we see a pop up vibrant blue. Only this time, it isn’t indigo blue, but rather a deep royal blue. This gorgeous color was used for the tassel fringe and braided cording that roped around each of the bells of the valance.
I hope that these valances and shades have served as inspiration. But before I end this post, I’d like to share a few more resources with you.
Some of our color families feature blue and brown as their color scheme, so I thought you might find these valuable for your own room design.
