Summer curtains?

[summercurtains]

I have an acquaintance, (well, stretching it a bit, someone I see online through someone else) and they blithely said they were busy changing to their summer curtains.

And I was all agog. Is this a Thing? Is this yet another household activity I am behind with?

Some people have thicker curtains in a winter for extra insulation

I think it was more common decades ago, particularly when people had single glazing. With better insulated homes, the need to put up thicker curtains in winter has receded.

My nanna always changed her curtains. Red velvet in winter, floral cotton in summer.
No central heating back then, so obviously velvet curtains kept the house warmer and looked cosier. Summer curtains allowed a breeze through if the window was open. And they gave a psychological boost too, signalling summer was on its way

My mum. Drive me potty when DF was ill and it still had to be done.

My grandma used to change hers for pretty much every season. She was very house proud and loved to always move things around. She was a seamstress though so maybe that added to it. My mum got that habit from her I think and will change curtains during spring and fall clean. This habit has thankfully skipped me.

You've made me laugh OP! It's a funny thing- my wee mammy always did it in every room. Is it an Irish thing or just a her family thing I wonder? She also changed cushions in the living room to linens and light colours as opposed to velvets and dark colours.

It's had a bit of a hangover with me - I change my back room curtains (directly onto the garden) throws and cushions for a summery feel but nowhere else in the house. My sisters don't bother, neither do my friends, I often wondered if others did, though!

Where on earth would you store all this stuff! All the extra curtains and cushions. It is bad enough needing clothes for the different seasons let alone soft furnishings on top, far too much of a mare!

I've never heard of summer curtains, but if anything, they'd need to be just as thick in summer to keep the light out. There's barely about 5 hours darkness per day here, even less further north.

My mum used to. Was thinking it was a Scottish thing as no one I know in England has ever heard of it.

Oh god. The bloody summer curtains!
My mum used to do this.
She had heavy velvet curtains for winter and would swap them at the end of May and back at the end of Sept for "Chintz" cotton ones.
I remember many happy hours up a sodding stepladder swapping one pair of perfectly functional curtains for another!
And for PP, we're Cheshire born n bred so it's not just an Irish thing we also had summer cushion covers...

pickle I had to do them one year while my dad was dying in hospital as my mum was a short arse and too fat to get up the bloody ladder how I never told her where to stick the bloody curtains I'll never know.

maddening a bloody big cardboard box in the spare room.

ilove nope, it looks like it's all nations of the UK that were equally batshit for once

My nanas both did this - northern England.

I’m Scottish and I’ve never heard of such a thing.

I have summer curtains, rugs & cushion covers plus a few other things I change each season.

Now I feel really old, but it won't stop me doing it.

I do, because in the summer the afternoon sun is blinding in the living room, so we have light voile type curtains that we can close to block the glare, but not make the room dark.
In winter I prefer it to be cosier, and appreciate the effect thicker curtains have on blocking the chill from the windows.

I'm early 30s and I think all your mums had it right!

I have the solution - no curtains at all, not a single one.No need for a seasonal change.

My mum and grandma did it too; Cheshire born and bred here too.

Not curtains but I do change my throws and cushion covers.

Have to admit, the curtains have never occurred to me.
Hmmmm

Igiveup that's just cheating
Think of all the hours you could spend threading the sodding hooks into the header tape...or the expense of dry cleaning mahoosive and bloody heavy velvet curtains.

@IgiveupallthenamesIwantedareg0

I have the solution - no curtains at all, not a single one.No need for a seasonal change.

I'm with you.

A blind in one kitchen window because the neighbours security light shines straight in every time a cat crosses their drive

@pussycatinboots

Igiveup that's just cheating Think of all the hours you could spend threading the sodding hooks into the header tape...or the expense of dry cleaning mahoosive and bloody heavy velvet curtains.

I agree, it is cheating, but I have spent sooooo many hours of my life making seasonal changes - curtains, throws, cushion covers, piles of summer / winter towels ( you know, all the colours have to blend - a yellow towel in a "winter" bathroom, an absolute no go) Did it for my Mum.Now I have my own home, well that is just going to happen!

Pussycat snap! The stuff my mum insisted was necessary which someone else had to actually do! My poor poor dad. Now she's alone she's suddenly discovered quite a few things that can now go in the dishwasher. She rages about not having anyone to help her with all these really rather odd 'make work' type jobs that I don't have time to do in my own house and don't want to spend my annual leave doing in her house!

pickle
she's suddenly discovered quite a few things that can now go in the dishwasher
has she really?
I'll call her out for you - she knew very well they could go in all along!

Maybe the 1950s Housewife manuals have a lot to answer for?

My mum does this in her dining room.

The worst part of the seasonal change was the chair covers! Mum has two winged arm chairs (about 100 years old but super compfy). When she had her summer curtains made, she also had chair covers made in the same material, so that everything matched. When trying to get these covers on, I felt like calling the SAS for help.