Curtains for a Small Apartment: Length, Color and Hanging Height

A window is often the largest single feature in a compact room, so the way you dress it changes how the whole wall reads. Choosing curtains for a small apartment comes down to five decisions: where the rod sits, how long the fabric falls, how much light it lets through, what color it is and how full it hangs.

Take those decisions in that order. Position and length do most of the visual work and are the hardest to change afterward, while color and fabric are easy to adjust once the proportions are right.

Step 1: Place the rod higher and wider than the frame

A rod fixed right on top of the window frame draws a line at frame height and stops the eye there. Raise it and the fabric becomes one long vertical shape, which helps the wall read as taller. A common starting point is roughly 4 to 6 in (10 to 15 cm) above the frame. Where there is a lot of wall above the window, about halfway between the frame and the ceiling often looks better still.

Width matters just as much. Let the rod run past the frame by about 6 to 10 in (15 to 25 cm) on each side, so the open curtains stack against the wall instead of over the glass. The window looks wider, and you keep every bit of daylight.

Curtains hung this way are one of several ways to draw the eye up and use the height of a room, and they work especially well next to low furniture.

Step 2: Decide on the length

Floor length

For most living rooms and bedrooms, fabric that just touches the floor, or hovers a finger-width above it, gives the cleanest line. Curtains that stop a hand-width short look like they shrank, and fabric that pools on the floor collects dust and takes up visual space a small room cannot spare.

Sill length

Shorter curtains are the practical choice in a few situations: a radiator or heater under the window, a desk, sofa or bed pushed against that wall, or a kitchen window above a counter. In those spots, end the fabric just below the sill so it looks deliberate. Keep curtains clear of any heat source and follow the heater maker’s guidance on clearance.

Step 3: Match the fabric to the light you need

Weight decides how the curtain hangs and how the room feels at noon and at night. The three common types compare like this.

In a small room, light-filtering linen or cotton blends are an easy default because they look relaxed and do not form a dark block when closed. If you need darkness to sleep, a lined pair in a pale color keeps the wall light while still doing the job.

Step 4: Choose a color

There are two honest routes, and both work.

• Close to the wall color. Curtains a shade or two away from the wall almost disappear, so the wall stays calm and continuous. This suits rooms that already have plenty going on.
• Contrast as a feature. A deeper color or a simple stripe turns the window into the main event. It works best when the rest of the room is quiet and the color already appears somewhere else, such as a cushion or a print.

If you are unsure which accent to repeat, settle your overall color palette first and pull the curtain color from it. Large-scale patterns can overwhelm a short wall, so keep patterns small or tonal.

Step 5: Get the fullness right

Skimpy panels are the detail that most often makes curtains look unfinished. As a rule of thumb, the combined width of the panels should be about one and a half to two times the width of the window, so the fabric still falls in soft folds when it is closed. Sheers can take even more.

If you cannot drill

Start with what is already there. Many apartments have an existing track or rod that only needs better fabric, and new curtains on old hardware are often enough.

A tension rod is the usual no-drill option. It presses between the two sides of a window recess, so it can only sit inside the frame. That means you give up the higher-and-wider placement, and it is best kept for sheers and light fabrics within the limits its maker states. Pressure pads can also leave marks on some paint, so check the spot after a few days.

Curtains are among the easiest things to pack up and rehang, which is why they appear in most lists of decor you can take with you.

Measure before you shop

1. Mark the planned rod height lightly in pencil, then measure from that mark to the floor or to just below the sill.
2. Measure the window width and add the extra you want on each side to get the rod length.
3. Multiply the window width by one and a half to two to find the total panel width.
4. Note how the curtain attaches, since rings, tabs and rod pockets each change where the top of the fabric sits.

Write the three numbers down and take them with you. Ready-made panels come in a limited set of lengths, so when you fall between two, the longer one hung slightly higher usually looks better than the shorter one hung low.