6 Best Summer Curtain Colors to Refresh Your Home this Season

You can refresh your home each season simply by changing the curtains. And knowing how to pick curtain colors for each season will help you make the right choice. Let’s look at the best summer curtain colors.

Childhood memories always seem to take place in an endless summer, with green lawns, billowing white curtains, and the smell of fresh cakes in the kitchen.

We didn’t often have cakes, nor were our curtains ever white, being a family of eight children and one dog. But memory plays tricks and presents an image of the ideal. White curtains aside, what are the ideal curtain colors for summer?

The best summer curtain colors are white, latte, blue, green, pink, and yellow. This summer, stripes, florals, layered curtains, and coastal style are trending. Choose light fabrics like voile, chiffon, lace, linen, or cotton for coolness, privacy, and light filtering, but not UV protection.

It’s always a relief to pack away heavy winter coats and woolens. Just as our wardrobes reflect the season, it’s also refreshing to dress our homes, storing the snuggly throws and plush cushions with the Christmas tree.

For your home to reflect the summer season, turn to lightweight fabrics and pale colors in your upholstery and curtains.

Top 6 Curtain Colors for Summer – Light and Airy Choices

Winter curtains’ functions include trapping the heat inside your home to keep it warm and snug.

In summer, we want the opposite—wide open windows to let air circulate and light curtains to allow as much precious sunlight as possible.

When you take down the heavy thermal curtains, what should you replace them with?

Summer curtains are usually made from translucent fabric, like chiffon, voile, or net, while slightly thicker ones are linen or cotton.

Note that these fabrics don’t protect your furniture from UV damage. So consider treating your windows or adding UV-protecting blinds.

#1. White

White is always associated with summer. It’s a light-reflecting color that radiates light when framing a window. White’s versatility means the color is appropriate for most color palettes and aesthetics, from farmhouse to industrial chic.

White voile curtains are a summer classic, charmingly calm and romantic in a gentle breeze. Voile is a sheer fabric that provides privacy while filtering harsh sunlight and allowing dappled sunlight into your home. Hang white voile curtains or layer with a second lightweight drop.

White curtains come into their own in a coastal aesthetic, where their billowing is reminiscent of a sailing ship or the foam on the crest of waves.

For authentic beach-house chic, combine white curtains with a blue color scheme, pale-washed wood, and natural textures like rattan and jute.

Aside from voile, white linen, and crisp cotton curtains look cool, elegant, and sophisticated in more formal settings.

Add period charm with a lace panel, hinting at pies set to cool in larders. Lace curtains are ideal for vintage and cottagecore styles, especially in the kitchen.

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Pairs to Go Victoria Voile Sheer Curtains NICETOWN White Linen Sheer Curtains

#2. Latte

The quiet luxury trend in fashion is appearing in our interiors, with layers of gorgeous neutrals like taupe, tan, camel, beige, and cream. You can get voile in most of these shades to tone with so-called latte decorating—the tone-on-tone expensive look.

Also, consider loosely woven fabrics in nubbly oatmeal, unbleached linen, or raw silk. The added texture is essential to a monochrome palette.

Add timeless appeal with minimalist stripes of white and taupe.

BGment Faux Linen Tan Curtains for Living Room Central Park Tan and White Stripe Sheer Curtains

#3. Blue

One of the season’s most popular colors, light blue, remains a classic—Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, and Valspar all chose delicate shades of blue as their colors of the year for 2024.

Reminiscent of summer skies and tropical oceans, blue is the quintessential summer color. It brings a touch of vacation magic to the dullest of rooms.

Refresh your gray palette with blue voile curtains and pick up the color in a statement artwork or other accent piece. You’ll be adding color and improving your family’s mood as well. Blue is known to increase creativity and reduce stress. (Watch me painting my whole house blue!)

Blue is perfect for the summery coastal aesthetic, whether you’re going for the blue grays of New England, tropical turquoise, or clear Aegean blue.

RAIN CITY Sky Blue Semi Sheer Curtains

Combine blue with another trend: stripes are back in our homes and work beautifully with coastal style.

Cheerful checks or ginghams are also perfect for a nautical-themed bedroom.

And where there are stripes and checks, there have to be dots! Polka dots add a touch of sheer (ha, ha) playfulness.

If you want something a little less translucent for the bedroom, a navy voile curtain will increase privacy but still allow filtered light and that summer wind.

jinchan Striped Linen Curtains Ronaldecor Blue Linen Sheer Curtains

#4. Green

Another of this summer’s on-trend colors, green, is nature’s neutral, infusing any space with life and energy. Green is particularly suitable for organic modern and Boho interiors, Pair with plenty of plants to add oxygen to the summer breeze.

One of the best ways to introduce green to a color palette is through botanical and floral prints. Delicate red, pink, and white prints are ideal for a farmhouse, cottagecore, or vintage aesthetic and look charming in bedrooms.

Florals needn’t be 1980s Laura Ashley, though. (Does anyone remember those puffy-sleeved frocks?) Consider a more tropical floral, with the bright blues and greens of an island getaway.

If florals aren’t your thing, try a fresh green and white print as a summery refresh.

DWCN Olive Green Sheer Curtains Lazzzy Linen Farmhouse Green Floral Print Curtains

#5. Pink

I used to dream of a ballerina pink bedroom. But having an older brother, blue was generally the hand-me-down curtain shade. But pink is no longer limited to girly bedrooms or Art Deco dressing rooms: interior designers are embracing pink in all its gorgeous shades.

This season’s pinks are building on the previous seasons’ delicate blush and rose shades, adding fruity peach apricot and earthy terracotta.

Pink drapes are a fantastic way to elevate a sophisticated black-and-white palette with summer charm.

My adult room fantasy is now a reading room, and this one with pink voile curtains is my ideal romantic attic reading room. It’s on my mood board already.

FMFUNCTEX Semi-Sheer Coral Pink Curtains

Pink doesn’t have to be romantic, though. Go Boho with inky magenta ombre sheers.

Another way to add pink to your home without committing to all-pink curtains is through florals. Look out for Liberty and vintage William Morris prints with their delicate florals if you love a summery, cottagecore vibe.

Instead of all-out florals, layer your florals with a block of a solid color to add texture and interest to a room. Keep both curtains light for summer elegance.

For lovers of maximalist window treatments, layer floral sheers over dramatic silk or satin curtains.

Tollpiz Sheer Curtain Pink Flower Leaf Printed Floral Central Park Ombre Window Curtain

#6. Yellow

Yellow is another one of those typically summer colors, adding sunshine wherever you place it in your home.

This year’s yellows are earthy, clay, and mustard rather than lemon. However, any yellow you choose will infuse your home with warmth.

Sunlight filtering through yellow sheers is particularly beautiful throughout the day, particularly in the hot afternoon and evening.

SHINELAND Mustard Yellow Window Curtain Panels

Maintenance Tips for Summer Curtains

Summer curtains are designed for privacy but still to allow light to diffuse through them. The fabrics used to make the curtains are, therefore, thin and fragile and require careful maintenance.

After a long summer, your curtains will likely be dusty and faded. Dust can be washed off, but if your sheers have suffered sun damage, you should discard them.
Sheers made from synthetic fabrics, like voile, chiffon, and polyester, can be washed in a cold machine and dried on a washing line.
Linen and cotton curtains are less delicate but can suffer shrinkage. So check their care labels before washing. You may need to have them professionally cleaned.

Final Thoughts

Refreshing your home with summer curtains will increase the amount of sunlight you enjoy and improve your family’s mood. Choose white, beige, blue, green, pink, or yellow sheers, and be on-trend with striped and floral patterns.

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