It's a very old idea, and it works. Keep warm this winter and save a little energy by hanging heavy curtains over the windows.
More than most things in the home, curtains have a direct relation to the seasons. Dark, velvet drapes just feel wrong in summer, while airy sheers don't do much to insulate the windows in winter. If you have the money (or sewing skills) and storage space to stash seasonal drapes, keep your home in tune with the weather by switching out your curtains.
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I actually do this in my kitchen. I have wonderful light and airy grey green and teal cotton printed cafe curtains in the spring, summer and fall, but in the winter I switch to a heavier red and green woven Scandinavian print. It adds more colour too.
And this year, I chose to put up heavy lined dark chocolate brown drapes in the living room. You've just reminded me--I CAN take them down and put up the lighter ones I had had up come Spring. Thanks for that. I was beginning to think the brown may be a bit oppresive all year long.
Our windows are crap and find that using the shrink-wrap plastic over them in our frigid Canadian winters works like a charm. I like having what sun we do get coming in the windows.
I put cream velvet curtains up over my closet to help with the cold... my room is unfortunately above the not-heated stairwell so it gets incredibly cold in the winter, a lot of it coming out from my closet. My room stays warmer (although my clothes themselves are still freezing) with the heavy fabric. I don't have the $ or storage space to have seasonal drapery, so I opted for a lighter color that would still look O.K. during the summer months but keep me warm in the winter.
Our windows are freezing in the winter time. Out conundrum is that our radiators are directly below all our windows but we only like the look of floor-length curtains (not curtains that end above the radiators). So we haven't been able to figure out how to incorporate curtains for insulation yet not block the radiators.
Another advantage of the plastic film is that when you take it off in the spring it's like cleaning the windows inside. The winter's worth of dust and whatnot disappears with the plastic, especially if you heat with wood.
Krumpers Solar Solutions have come up with a solution to keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer with reversible, transparent and reflective blinds. So if heavy curtains don't suit your style, these solar blinds blend right in with the windows.
Canadian-made solar blinds that reduce heat loss by up to 71% and reduce solar heat gain by 68% in the summer. Simply reverse the blinds in the summer and winter months.