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A Cozy Yet Chic Style Upgrade: Modern Portière Curtains

Taryn Williford
Taryn Williford
Taryn is a writer, editor, content strategist, and homebody from Atlanta. I might have helped you declutter your apartment through the magic of a well-paced email newsletter. Or maybe you know me from The Pickle Factory Loft on Instagram.
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updated May 4, 2019
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Anyone looking for a natural way to warm up their home this winter might want to take a tip from the Victorian era. A portière–a hanging curtain placed over a door or entranceway–is an elegant way to stop drafts and keep warm air contained in a room. While they were probably the most popular more than 100 years ago, we’ve found a few examples of portières styled in a more modern way.

Above: Lauren Santo Domingo’s Paris apartment, featured on Vogue

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Designer Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Long Island farmhouse featured on One Kings Lane (Image credit: One Kings Lane)

If you’d like to try out a portière at home, start with simple window curtain hardware and fabrics. You can install the portière either inside the door jamb, or on the outside wall above the door opening–the latter is more dramatic and gives your room some extra height (just like with windows!). There is also portière hardware out there that fastens right onto the door.

A narrow opening can be covered with a single panel tied back to one side for an asymmetrical portière, while a wider opening is a better fit with two curtains both tied back to each side.

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