Not long ago, homeowners could not pull the fussy fabric valances off their windows fast enough. Too frilly, too matched, too 1980s. Now they are asking to put them back up.
Project requests to install valances and cornices have doubled — up 100 percent — according to Yelp’s 2026 Summer Home Trends report, which is drawn from the home jobs people actually ask contractors to bid on.
Part of what may be driving it is the shade sitting underneath. Roman shades have been on trend for years now — searches for them are up 70 percent in the same report — but a mounted shade leaves something behind at the top of the window: the headrail, the brackets, the hardware that holds the whole thing up. Covering exactly that is the job a valance has always done.
A valance is just a short run of gathered or pleated fabric across the top of a window. It can crown a shade or a set of curtains, or hang on its own over a bare kitchen window. A cornice does the same job as a stiff box, wood or padded, instead of soft cloth. Either way it hides the mechanism and draws the eye upward, using a fraction of the fabric a full drapery panel would need — a way to work in an expensive textile without buying yards of it.
The version coming back is not the swagged, over-ruffled valance of 1985. It is flatter, cleaner, more tailored. Same idea, fewer flounces.
Allyson Good curates senior living, health, and family content. She is formerly the Managing Editor of Active Life, a print newspaper published in 2016-2017 for seniors, choosing practical articles on health, money, safety, and everyday living for older readers. She is also an avid gardener and offers up Garden Hints and Tips on a regular basis.
