February 06, 2010- Beaded curtains are essentially an Asian, particularly Oriental home decor style. The bead curtain first expanded to Europe and then became popular in America during 1960s. The retro bead curtains are once again in fashion and are used by more and more people to decorate their homes. In fact, bead manufacturers make special types of beads that have become famous by the name curtain beads.

What is a Beaded Curtain?

In common terms, a curtain is mainly used to create a private space by blocking off an area from sight. However, beaded curtains are not meant to fulfill this basic task of a curtain. A beads curtain is not capable of hiding a place fully. Beaded curtains are used for decorative purpose and for many other purposes but never for providing privacy to a space. A beaded curtain, in fact, is a curtain made from beads strands. These strands of beads are connected to each other in a variety of ways and extend down to the floor or to any desired length. For example, if it is a hanging door beads curtain, it will extend till the floor but if beaded window curtains, they will hang till where the window ends. Traditionally, the bead strands are typically used as doorway bead curtains

Types of Beaded Curtains

Beaded curtains are basically categorized on the basis of types of beads used for making them. There are beaded curtains made from metal beads, wooden beads, plastic beads, acrylic beads, silver plated beads, glass beads, crystal beads etc. Wooden beaded curtain and acrylic beaded curtains are very popular and commonly used for decorating homes. Such curtains as glass beaded curtains and crystal bead curtains are used rarely and by those who do not mind spending open handedly while decorating their homes. A bamboo beaded curtain (especially the painted bamboo curtains) is the latest craze among the mass. In such a curtain, the simple bamboo beads in the strands that are arranged in rows to make the curtain, are painted with colors to give an effect of beautiful painting on the curtain.

Apart from the materials used for making beaded curtains, the usage of these curtains is also an important criteria to define the types of bead curtains. A beaded doorway curtain is hung just a little inside of the entrance of a house to let the guests enter the home in style. They are sometimes made with varying lengths of bead strands to make it beautiful as well as convenient for people entering the house. Door bead curtains can be used as indoor curtains in any room of the house. They are made in full lengths that touch the floor. Sometimes these curtains, basically the strands of beads, are hung against the wall to decorate them and at other times they are attached flat to a door frame too.

Bead curtains are used more for doors though there are window bead curtains too that are made from shorter strands of beads. Then there is the latest beaded shower curtain that is used to make bathrooms beautiful. There are many varieties of such beaded curtains. Some of them are simply curtains with beads meaning beads are sewn into regular shower curtains to make beautiful patterns and designs. There are other shower curtains that are sold with matching beaded shower curtain and some of them are even finished with beaded curtain rings. A beaded room divider is also a very popular type of beaded curtain which is used to separate a part of any room for specific purpose. For example, a beaded curtain when hung wall to wall in order to separate the dining space from the drawing room, it becomes a beaded room divider.

How to Hang Beaded Curtains?

Hanging beaded curtains seems to be no big deal as the manufacturers include easy-to-install features due to the rising demand of these curtains. Most of the new style bead curtains come hanging on their own rod. Beads are already inserted into these rods and the buyer has to just hang them on two nails or hooks. Sometimes, the beaded curtain rod contains two metal eyelets at the top. Two hooks have to be screwed into the door frame and the curtain has to be slipped over the hooks. If someone wishes to hang the bead curtains against the wall or wants to attach them flat to the door frame, s/he just needs the regular nails for the purpose. They must put the nails in the wall and slip the hooks on the curtain rod over them.

How to Care for Beaded Curtains?

Beaded curtains are very beautiful but are prone to becoming dirty in no time. They have many gaps in them due to the small beads that are attached to each other in strings, the ideal place for dust and cobwebs to settle in. However, they are easy-to-clean too. Regular dusting with a soft cloth or a duster is enough for keeping the dust and cobwebs off. Once in a while, the beaded curtains can be cleaned with soapy water too. If anyone wishes to dry the bead strings with a blow dryer after washing them, they must set it on a low setting. The strings of the beaded curtains should be given a gentle tug periodically in order to see if the string is rotting or whether some beads have come off. Due to the inexpensive nature of beads, it is does not prove to be very costly to buy some matching beads and restring the damaged beaded curtains.