Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When she was a child, interior designer Octavia Dickinson would clamber into her parents\u2019 four-poster bed and draw the curtains. There, cocooned by layers of muslin, she learnt how drapery can transform the atmosphere of a space: diffusing the light, softening corners and evoking \u201can indulgent, all-enveloping feel\u201d.\u00a0Curtains have been a staple of interiors since the 1500s. Now, though, they\u2019re having a moment in the spotlight as designers look beyond window dressing to deploy fabric drapery for theatrical and practical effect on wardrobes and around book nooks, under counters and over doors. Their references are broad: tented boudoirs, swaggering Victorian room dividers, Arts and Crafts porti\u00e8res, and the demure, under-shelf ruffles of an Edwardian scullery are some of the influences shaping today\u2019s curtain renaissance.\u00a0For London-based designer Tiffany Duggan, it is all about the vista. She compares the curtain to an architectural device; a draped doorway is like a \u201cbeautiful arch\u201d tempting your gaze from one room to the next, says Duggan, who began her career as a scenic painter for plays at London\u2019s New End Theatre and Trafalgar Studios. \u201cFabric adds a sense of intrigue \u2014 and mystery,\u201d she says.Spanish designer Marta de la Rica agrees: \u201cit conjures a mood.\u201d For her own home in Biarritz, she looked to the famous \u201cTent Room\u201d at the 19th-century Charlottenhof Palace, Potsdam. In a top-floor bedroom, checked curtains flutter across wardrobes and a pair of whimsical tents conceals more storage, the \u201ccocooning vibe\u201d a foil to the vaulted, beamed ceiling.\u00a0In fractious times, a fabric-lined retreat has added appeal. It is the grown-up equivalent of a childhood denThe return of the curtain mirrors the shift to tactile, textured interiors. But perhaps there is more to it. In fractious times, a fabric-lined retreat has added appeal. It is the grown-up equivalent of a childhood den. Fabric designer Tori Murphy recalls her grandparents\u2019 drape-strewn home in Ireland. \u201cThe curtains were an authentic solution to everyday life, used to keep in the heat from fires,\u201d she says. But they also brought a sense of \u201cenvelopment\u201d, turning ordinary rooms into \u201csomething theatrical \u2014 and exciting\u201d.\u00a0But there is an argument for restraint. Designer Benedict Foley is not a fan of the \u201ccurtains everywhere\u201d approach, especially within splashing distance of saucepans. (The tented cat\u2019s retreat complete with scratching post, which I spotted online, is equally debatable.)Interior designer Tom Morris offers another perspective: \u201cCurtains are a structurally non-committal way of doing something different.\u201d In a Victorian London terrace, he hung curtains in bold, contrasting colours to separate the bedroom from the dressing room and bathroom. They can be opened to flaunt 19th-century proportions or closed for privacy. \u201cIt was about bringing in a sense of theatrics that didn\u2019t intrude on the architecture,\u201d he says.This versatility stretches to materials. Morris advocates \u201cbog-standard\u201d oilcloth. Duggan draped a cottage door in an embroidered Suzani. Dickinson\u2019s Harlequinesque room divider is made using strips of plain fabric. And on the landing space of\u00a0a north London cottage Foley indulged theatrical leanings with a \u201cglazed cotton tricked into billowing folds\u201d to resemble \u201ca Venetian marble baldachin\u201d canopy, but also to summon up a feeling of \u201cMarlene Dietrich coming on stage\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Textile designer Lucy Bathurst is similarly resourceful. Her custom-sewn panels, embellished with appliqu\u00e9d motifs on linens or floor-swishing voiles, blur the line between \u201cuseful\u201d upholstery and textile art. At her London studio she encourages clients to rifle through a \u201csweet shop\u201d of remnants \u2014 milliner\u2019s velvets, scraps of silk, lace and tweed.\u00a0\u00a0No two designs are alike. One featured the client\u2019s star signs scattered among modernist shapes; a reference to the art of Ben Nicholson, whose work Bathurst grew to love through her art-dealer father. For another, to disguise a utility room, a panel of black wool used in theatres was studded with slivers of translucent fabrics to scatter light like stained glass.\u00a0At historic interior decorating firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, the late co-founder John Fowler would study historical costumes for ideas, smuggling details, such as the slash of silk in a doublet or a ruched shepherdess\u2019s skirt, into upholstery. That tradition of imaginative borrowing continues. Managing director Emma Burns has turned antique crewelwork into a porti\u00e8re for a wood-panelled new-build in rural Wisconsin, inspired by an embroidered hanging at William Morris\u2019s Kelmscott Manor.\u00a0For Burns, curtains provide solutions to awkward spaces. She cites a compact London bedroom that she wrapped in jauntily-striped drapery to conceal storage. Gilded paintings hang from chains in a nod to the splendour of Napoleon\u2019s campaign tent, which sparked the craze for fabric-wrapped rooms.\u00a0In the one-bedroom London apartment Benedict Foley shares with fellow designer Daniel Slowik, linen curtaining divides the sitting room from the bedroom. Pulled back, the tailored folds frame the space like a pair of \u201cfluted columns\u201d. When closed, they provide \u201cwelcome comfort, like being in a curtained tester bed\u201d, he says. This is drapery at its most judicious: practical, elegant \u2014 and beautiful.\u00a0Find out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.When she was a child, interior designer Octavia Dickinson would clamber into her parents\u2019 four-poster bed and draw the curtains. There, cocooned by layers of muslin,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":291500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-291499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291501,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291499\/revisions\/291501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}