Curtains... Again!

[ireallyhavenoidea]

Hi

Sorry, I have another question for you wise Mumsnetters :)

I really struggle with light bedrooms. I need to get curtains for our new house and am struggling a bit with bedroom ones. The walls are Laura Ashley Pale Duck Egg and some of you recommended some nice curtain ideas. I am thinking cream... But, how to get blackout? I have tilt and turn windows so blinds aren't an option. My dh likes hotel style rails on the ceiling which won't let in any light - but that's also the wall that the radiator is on so he doesn't want to cover it and I think it will look silly with half height curtains!

So, what would you do?

Can anyone help please? Best idea I have is to place the curtain pole high up to try to block out as much light as possible.

Thanks

I made us blackout lined white curtains. I bought thermal blackout lining online. The white curtains are quite thin and floor length, the blackout lining however only goes to radiator height. This keeps the light out but the heat comes through the thinner part of the curtain at the bottom iykwim. The lining can tuck into the radiator to keep it extra toasty. They look lovely and thankfully they have huge enough hems that I can let them down when we move to fit the new windows.

Oooo, wonky legs, that's a fab idea! Thanks :)

Sorry, iPad separated your name!

Or have a black out blind that is a part of the window (I know you can get them for velux window, not sure if you can for tilt and turn ones), then you can have full length curtains that you pull or not as needed...

I've also grown up in a house where there were some full length curtains that were in front of radiators; the full length bit just got tucked on the window sill and top of radiator so the heat can come out.

From distant memories of heating lessons - I seem to remember that even having a thin covering over the radiator will stop quite a lot of the heat from coming out; different ways the heat comes out of the radiator but some of it is up and the convection currents created help to circulate the heat around the room. On the other hand some of the heat is radiant and heats up the first thing it hits (hopefully you or your family) so if it hits the curtain first, the curtain will feel nice and warm and may radiate out a little heat but not as much as the radiator would.

As I say - long time ago now, I'm sure others will have much better explanations!

The only other two things I remember from the lesson -

1. You don't heat a room to warm you up, you heat it to control your rate of heat loss (subtle difference I know, but actually quite interesting and useful when you start to think about it)
2. if you have a draft on your feet - even if it is the same temperature as the room temp - then the room will feel several degrees cooler than it actually is. And if it's a cold draft then it will feel even cooler. So a good reason to keep your feet warm - you will actually feel much warmer as a result!

It's also worth looking on ebay for fabric - especially if you know what you like and if you don't mind waiting for your fabric to pop up. I got some fab Sanderson fabric for ds's bedroom that should have been £65/metre (no way was I spending that!) but was £15/metre (very reasonable!). Once I had decided I liked it - I saved a search on ebay and it popped up in the colour I wanted within 3 or 4 weeks. Another fabric I got for our landing was £10 instead of £45/metre. Loads of stuff from nice fabric places like Romo, Sanderson, Designers Guild, harlequin, Scion, Osborne and Little, etc etc at about half price or even less. But so much on there it can take a while to browse through it all; easier to look at the fabric companies' websites and then search for specific stuff if you are in a hurry. And the brand new collections don't usually appear straight away - need time for there to be end of rolls or offcuts from other people that have paid full price and there's bits left...

I got all my fabric for my last lot of curtains from a fabric warehouse on an industrial estate near us. I googled fabric places near us and it's not somewhere I'd thought of looking.
It only sells roll ends but as long as you get all you need in one go it's fine.
I bought velvet for £2.99/m, and beautiful printed silk for £7.99/m.
I also got oilcloth for a tablecloth for £4.99/m. It's a bit overwhelming when you go as it's just a massive warehouse of rolls but if you've got time to search through it's worth it.

Thanks zigzag and wonky legs. Think blinds are the way to go (have googled them) and then curtains. LOVE the idea of high end fabric for less money. And, if we have blinds we are in less of a rush and can wait (as you suggest!)

Wonkylegs, off to google to see if we have anything like this round here. (Then just need to find someone to make the curtains!) Off to google how to measure how much I need too!