1920s Curtains: What They Actually Were and How to Get Them Right

1920s interior style has gotten flattened into Art Deco geometric prints and speakeasy aesthetics by enough television that most people have completely lost track of what most homes of that decade actually looked like. As someone who has furnished and researched homes from this period specifically, I learned everything there is to know about 1920s curtains — across the full range of homes, not just the glamorous exceptions. Today, I will share it all with you.

The Two Worlds of 1920s Windows

The 1920s were genuinely divided between two aesthetic camps with very different window treatment approaches. Craftsman bungalows, which represented the dominant middle-class housing form through the early part of the decade, continued the Arts and Crafts approach: natural cotton or linen in earthy tones, simple construction, minimal ornamentation. The Art Deco wave hit later in the decade and primarily affected upper-middle and wealthy households: geometric patterns, richer fabrics, more dramatic arrangements. Most homes of the period were in the first camp, not the second.

Craftsman Era Curtains

That is what makes 1920s bungalow window treatments endearing to us period restoration people — the simplicity is the point. Short café curtains covering the lower half of kitchen windows. Straight-hanging cotton panels in living rooms. Minimal hardware: simple wooden or wrought iron rods, plain rings. Fabrics in warm earth tones — cream, tan, sage, dusty rose — that complemented the woodwork throughout. I’m apparently someone who gets genuinely bothered by period rooms with anachronistic curtain hardware, and wrought iron rings on a simple rod works for me while anything contemporary never does in this context.

Fabric Choices

Probably should have led with this section, honestly. Cotton muslin and linen were the everyday fabrics. Slightly heavier cotton or cotton-linen blends for living and dining room curtains where some privacy and light control were needed. Silk and heavier drapery fabrics were reserved for formal rooms in wealthier homes. Nothing synthetic — rayon was new in the 1920s and associated with budget imitation rather than quality. Natural fibers throughout, in weights appropriate to the room’s function.

Lace and Sheers

White lace curtains were extremely common across all economic levels in the 1920s — they provided privacy without blocking light and had a clean, traditional appearance that required little design thinking. Machine-made lace had become affordable and widely available by this period. Lace curtains under heavier side panels was a very standard combination, giving both daytime privacy and evening privacy through the heavier drapes when drawn. This layered approach appears repeatedly in period photographs of actual homes.

Art Deco Treatments

The more dramatic window treatments of the period appeared in apartments, hotels, and wealthy homes where the new aesthetic had taken hold by the mid-to-late 1920s. Geometric patterns in bolder colors. Velvet and heavier woven fabrics. Floor-length drapery with proper tailoring. Hardware with decorative finials and rods in gilded or polished metal finishes. These are the curtains that appear in period films and that most people associate with the decade as a whole, but they represent a small fraction of actual 1920s windows.

Getting It Right Today

For a Craftsman bungalow, linen or cotton panels in natural or earth-toned colors on simple wooden rods are exactly right. Lace café curtains in kitchen windows. Nothing with a pattern that postdates the period or references a different design tradition. For an Art Deco interior, geometric patterns, richer colors, and more substantial hardware are all appropriate. The key in both cases is deciding which 1920s aesthetic you are actually working with rather than combining both.

Sources

Reproduction period fabric is widely available from specialty suppliers. Scalamandré, Schumacher, and several smaller companies produce patterns that are historically accurate for the period. Vintage lace panels appear regularly in antique shops and estate sales and are often remarkably affordable. Simple natural fiber curtains in appropriate colors can be sourced from current manufacturers without difficulty — the Craftsman approach requires nothing exotic, just the right materials in the right palette.