Dining Room Roman Shades: Top Styling Tips & Ideas
Whether your dining room hums with the daily rhythm of family meals or glimmers on occasions that bring friends and neighbors together, it deserves to be every bit as inviting as the tablescape it frames. After all, this room is not just about meals, but about soulful moments. So it naturally deserves thoughtfully curated window dressings, serving as picture-perfect backdrops to every heartwarming memory and family meal snapshot. And that’s precisely why custom roman shades are favored in dining rooms for their homey charm of their colors, prints, and soft folds.
Blending the elegance of drapery with the crisp functionality of blinds, roman shades serve up both personality and practicality in equal parts, making them charming suitors to dining rooms where function and style must strike a delicate balance. Think petite windows where heavy curtains may overwhelm, banquettes and bay windows where coverings must tuck in neatly, and compact dining rooms where every inch spared means more room to pull out a chair. Roman shades are also especially loved in minimalist homes where details are pared down meticulously, and kid-proofed dining spaces where long drapes are turned down for being notorious entanglers. If any of these sound like your dining room scene, stay with us as we share the best design tips for dining room roman shades that plate style and function in a single scoop:
The Main Ingredient: Choose a Fabric that Sets the Mood
Roman shades don’t simply dress a window; they curate the mood. They can tilt the dining room toward polished formal or laid-back ease, all while tailoring the ambient light to lean bright and sunny, or dim and moody.
Just like the ingredients define the dish, the fabric’s composition, weight and weave sets the flavor of your dining space. For a dining room that often shimmers with the lights of festive gatherings, silk and velvet are the natural suitors, dialling up the grandeur with their sheen. Where casual livability is tangible in hand-sewn runners, rustic napkins and everyday meals, think cotton, linen, and their blends.
The delicacy of the weave itself deserves special attention. For a sun-kissed dining nook where breezes hum alongside daily chatter, look for sheer fabrics or loose-woven linen. Non-sheer fabrics, on the other hand, are suited where you need more privacy and shading from hot noon glare. And when the intent lingers somewhere in between, turn to semi-sheer fabrics or unlined roman shades that’ll soften the light, tame the winds, and yet keep the space feeling bright and airy.
HAUL 'EM HOME: Silk Roman Shades | Linen Roman Shades | Sheer Roman Shades
The Seasonings: Anchor your Aesthetic with Palette, Pattern & Trims
If the fabric is the main ingredient, the colors, patterns and border trims are the seasonings that bring the dish together. And this is where custom roman shades truly shine. At Sewn, with over 2000 fabrics, even the most adventurous ideas can take shape. So decide on the aesthetic you want, and serve through your choices.
Like a crisp white tablecloth - grounding, versatile, and quietly elegant - a soft, plain neutral roman shade anchors a minimalist dining room, highlights the showstoppers, and allows the cuisine to shine. Bold tones and lively prints, on the other hand, act like spice, transforming the everyday into gourmet in an instant.
Think of palette and pattern as mood-setters and decor style mouthpieces of your dining room. Light palettes bring a summery ease, while dark colors bring a moody depth. Patterns follow suit: gingham and country checks evoke cottage charm, nestling comfortably against farm-style trestle tables, damask and paisley ring in vintage-style opulence, while modern abstract and geo prints serve up a playful modern edge.
The finishing touch lies in the trims. Much like the final flourish of herbs and drizzles of sauce on a well-plated dish, trimmings complete the design story of a shade: tassels for a classical indulgence, fringes for a bohemian touch, and ribbon trims for a subtle refinement. Together, they serve a roman shade that’s all flavor and finesse, a five-star dish that earns a chef’s kiss!
HAUL 'EM HOME: Roman Shade Trims | White & Cream Roman Shades | Damask Roman Shades
Plating the Look: Shape the Shades with an Apt Fold Style
Much like an elegant serveware turns the simplest spread into a festive moment, the fold style of a roman shade has the power to turn a fabric into a statement. And so, it deserves the same thoughtful attention as the fabric itself.
Sewn offers roman shades in three popular fold styles - the front-slatted plain fold, the back-slatted flat fold, and the European relaxed fold. Each fold style, described in detail in our Roman Shades Fold Style Guide, brings something unique to the table with its distinct combination of form and function.
Both the flat fold back-slatted roman shades and plain fold front-slatted roman shades feature straight hemmed bottoms and even folds. Both styles offer fuss-free operation; however, depending on your chosen fabric, one style might look better than the other.
Plain fold roman shades with front slats show the raised silhouettes of their slats on the frontage. This feature brings an architectural quality to shades in plain fabrics that may otherwise look too vanilla.
The back-slatted shades, in contrast, have their slats concealed behind the lining and show no sign of their presence on the front. Therefore, this style offers the perfect clean slate where a pattern can shine like a work of art. We especially recommend this style for all horizontal striped and plaid fabrics, and for patterned fabrics whose motifs are oversized or spaced far apart.
The European relaxed fold style, like a dollop of whipped cream, wears indulgence on its sleeve. Its gentle curves and scalloped bottom nod to Victorian swags when draped in silks and velvets. But when dressed in the lived-in textures of linen and cotton, it evokes the casual charm of a garden picnic. Whether used as decorative accents framed by curtain panels, or as standalone treatments, European relaxed shades are the perfect finishing touch for a dining room that’s looking for a dash of softness or glamor.
HAUL 'EM HOME: Striped Roman Shades | Plain Roman Shades | Patterned Roman Shades
Setting the Table: Mount the Shades Right to Maximize the Style
The final detail that needs attention is the placement of the dining room roman shades. They can be mounted in two ways: inside the window frame - known as inside-mounting, or outside the frame - the outside-mounting. Both mounting positions are suitable for dining rooms, but one might suit you better than the other based on your design intent. If you’d like to explore the perks and trade-offs of each mounting position in detail, refer to our blog on Inside Mount Vs Outside Mount Roman Shades. For a general understanding of which position will work best for you, carry on reading.
For a heritage home, the inside-mount position is helpful to keep the shades snug within the window and allow the ornate trims to shine. A dining room with small windows benefits from outside-mounting the shade high enough to accommodate its stack on the wall, so that when the shade is folded up, the window is left free for light and air to pass. This little hack also makes the window optically longer, efficiently masking its modest scale. In short, mount the shades right, and your windows will stand tall with the panache of a maître d'hôtel!
TIP IN A PIC!
Be Mindful of the Recess Space Available
Hardware for Sewn’s roman shades needs a minimum of two inches of flat, drillable surface to be mounted securely. If your window frame/recess is too shallow and does not offer this, inside-mounting a shade will not be viable. In these settings, outside-mounted shades become your default saviors.
Curating the Menu: Layer with Drapes and Valances
One-pot meals win for ease, but the magic of indulgence is only served by a multi-course feast—much like the layered elegance of roman shades paired with thoughtfully chosen drapes and valances. Layering lends an opportunity to mix solids, patterns and textures, creating a space that feels curated and considered. Each dressing offers something of its own, and together they sing the most harmonious melody. Shades bring a tailored beauty, while drapes bring fullness and drama, and valances lend an elegant crown.
Choose the combination that works best for your dining room. Pair roman shades and drapes if you love the contrast of straight lines with undulated silhouettes, or pair sheers with non-sheers for a more versatile control over light and privacy. Crown the shades with valances if you’re looking for a subtle refinement. Both combinations amplify the room’s height - drapes bring scale and grandeur with their pleats grazing the floor, and valances make the ceiling look higher by elongating the visual line upward.
HAUL 'EM HOME: Custom Curtains | Custom Valances
Shop Dining Room Roman Shades with Sewn
In the end, dressing a dining room window with roman shades is not very different from laying the table. From picking the right ingredients of fabric, palette and pattern to plating the dish enticingly with the right fold style and curated layers, each step brings the perfect dining room roman shade into shape. Whether you’re aiming for everyday ease or a celebratory opulence, at Sewn, your options stretch as far as your imagination. So, head to our catalog, and forage for the piece that will turn your dining room into a sumptuous visual feast, served daily with a chef’s kiss.
