Forget Chocolate Brown Sofas – Molly Kidd’s New Everhem Collection Takes Fall’s Favorite Color to the Windows
Brown curtains can go very wrong. Molly’s ethereal 'window wardrobe' indulges the art of double dressing
‘I’m never going to be the person who tells you there’s such a thing as too much brown, but there is definitely such a thing as the wrong brown,’ Salem-based interior designer Molly Kidd tells Homes & Gardens. Her custom window treatment collection for Everhem, for all its floaty embroidery and fanciful tassels, is grounded in earthy chocolate brown. From furniture to sneakers, it's a shade we’ve seen seemingly everywhere in the past year – except, strangely, for window treatments.
But why? Perhaps a little too imposing? Molly says it comes down to the fabric. ‘On a window, it’s all about the material and what’s around it. I love our chocolate linen because of how the specific weave lets the light move through it – it feels earthy and almost sun-faded rather than heavy.' The rich, 'Le Café' shade joins two more lightweight linens in Au Lait, a warm, milky ivory, and Classique, a classic stripe, alongside two sheers: embroidered lace Fleur and Voile Blanche.
‘I also like giving a darker curtain a little breathing room: warm plaster walls, lighter upholstery, something with age and patina. Brown is basically a neutral in my book. Treat it like one, and it becomes surprisingly easy to live with.’
The secret to all that Le Café decadence without the weight? Light-filtering linen.
And, be it chocolate or otherwise, a great curtain, especially one that hangs solo, hinges on the drape. Musing the layered, theatrical windows Molly observed during her travels to France and Italy, soft valances are another standout of the lacy, piped-to-perfection collection.
‘Think wardrobe, not matching set,’ Molly continues. Café curtains offer privacy without blocking the outside’s natural beauty in kitchens and bathrooms; Roman shades gather neatly at the bottom, lending bedrooms an enveloping softness without feeling too formal. Each can exist, or even be double-dressed, alongside the collection’s full-length drapery. ‘If I’m layering, I want the pieces to do different jobs – a sheer for softness and filtered light, then a linen with more weight and structure. The trick is making sure they aren’t competing for attention.’
The view is as important as the window dressing. À la Molly’s organic ethos, café curtains in sheer Voile Blanc fabric cover only a portion of the glass, letting the landscape and natural light become part of the room.
For Molly, that means separating church and state: chocolate gets its window, ivory gets another. The nuance comes from the fabrics themselves, which might not surprise fans of her earthy minimalist DNA.
‘I usually keep the palette tonal and let the contrast come from texture, transparency, and weight. It’s the same reason a linen shirt under a great jacket works: similar language, completely different jobs. And I always go higher and wider when the architecture allows. Give all that fabric somewhere to breathe.’
Molly Kidd calls her Everhem collaboration ‘an entire window wardrobe – pieces that could dress a whole home and feel meant to live together without ever feeling overly matched.’
Maybe chocolate brown curtains aren't actually the winter coat we think they are. In a light-filtering weave, with thoughtful layers and a generous drape, even the most bundling, satiating shade carries a certain levity. Ahead, a few ways to indulge in chocolate this fall, plus the supporting pieces for an airy, earthy window wardrobe of your own.
Chocolate isn’t the only curtain trend we’re craving for 2026. From generous folds to barely-there details, see how else designers are dressing their windows this year.
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