If your radiator is below a window , what do you do ?

[WinterBerry40]

In the spring / summer we don't draw the curtains as our garden is long,enough for people not to see in .
Come Autumn / winter and when the heating gets turned , what do you do when you draw the curtains ?
To keep as much heat coming into the room we lift / tuck up the curtains so they rest on the window sill .
What do you do ?

I tuck the curtains behind the radiators - they are just long enough that they will tuck between the radiator and the wall.
In the summer they just hang over the radiator but in the winter I want the heat coming into the room.
They are like that because they were ready made,and the wrong length but I don't care enough about curtains to pay more to have them fit perfectly!
But if the curtains did come down just to the window sill top surely more heat would escape??

Not a fan of short curtains, they often look cheap. Roman blinds here.

We have lined, short curtains that just rest on our bay window sill. I know people don’t like them but our house is cold and it’s really made a difference having the radiator uncovered. Sometimes you have to be practical.

I made myself an 18 inch cardboard piece, covered with reflective foil to put behind the radiator, resting on the brackets with the curtains behind it, it directs the heat very well.

I just close them over the radiators. They’re very long, heavy velvet, so too bulky to tuck and would look daft.

I’d rather they look cheap than long ones covering a radiator.

Long curtains are for long windows. They look silly if a radiator is there. And curtains can look cheap long or short. It’s the fabric that counts.

The curtains come just below the top of the radiator so they can tuck behind. I think when you have a radiator you have to forgo fashion for practicality

Most of my radiators are below the window. I only have curtains in the livingroom and they are never closed. I have perfect fit blinds on all windows and in the bedrooms I have additional Roman blinds to block out more light

We have blinds at the window and curtains either side of the radiator.

I have full length curtains as the windows are very draughty downstairs

A lot of hotels I’ve stayed in had long “effect” curtains that didn’t close, with short, blackout curtains that pulled out from behind them. So they still looked like luxurious, long curtains, but didn’t block the radiator.

I was going to ask about this.

You can buy reflective material to put behind radiators and I wondered if they work?

We have curtains that come to just above radiator, not really an issue as we rarely have the heating on anyway 😂

This^

Shutters

Just here to wave a pitchfork at short curtains

Thigght when I wrote that that someone wouldn't like it! Note I said 'often' not 'all'. Blinds generally look far better though, personal opinion and all that.

Do thye go inside the windowo and who makes them? I've got long curtains juts made, but I know I now need to add blinds too as I donr want to cover radiator in winter. These sound like good solution.... buy maybe expensive???

We’ve got sash windows so can’t have perfect fit blinds but have these top down / bottom up ones and keep the curtains open. The blinds are great because you can match the opening to how you’ve got the windows open, or have them open at the top to let daylight in but keep privacy whether the windows are open or not. In the bedroom once the radiator is off at night we have the bottom sash cracked open and the blind open a tiny bit to match, lets fresh air in without getting too cold.

www.blinds-2go.co.uk/top-down-bottom-up-duo/30902/duolight-anthracite.html

We have the perfect fit blinds on our patio doors (the sort that adhere directly onto the glass rather than clip in) and think they are brilliant and would totally recommend those if you don’t have sash windows.

We tuck ours behind the radiator to keep heat in

This …always have done.
I also push the bottom on the curtain on the windowsill in colder months if no radiator below.

We just don't think about it. The layout of the room means our sofa has to go in front of the radiator anyway, unfortunately. So the curtains over the radiator too don't seem to make a huge difference.

I actually think it would look silly in our room to have short curtains despite the radiator, because directly opposite are French doors and side panels which need full length curtains. So we have full length on both sides of the room to match. I think it would look off balance to have short one side and long on the other.

A Roman blind to the sill and curtains either side to ‘dress’ the window but never closed.

Curtains either finish just above the radiators or slightly below, in which case we tuck them behind.

I can only think this fashion for long curtains is imported from somewhere (the US?) that doesn't have such an ingrained habit of putting radiators under windows. In my house it would be style over substance so I just ignore it.