If you have a bay window…

[MyCatHatesWhiskas]

….how do you dress yours?!

We have an upstairs bay in a bedroom with the world’s most awkward curtain pole, and a downstairs bay with some horrendously ancient curtains that are falling apart and a surprisingly useful roller blind. The bottom one is the priority to sort out but am generally interested in answers as we would like to do the upstairs bay as well. Photos would be even better!

I can’t decide whether we should go for plantation shutters, Roman blinds or something else. I’m keen to maximise the light but to have options to stop us being blinded by the sun in the morning (it’s south facing).

We have an armchair in the bay and are likely to for the foreseeable future so ease of opening/closing is fairly important.

Do plantation shutters make it all feel a bit dim?

Are roller blinds really dated?

Should we stick with curtains for winter insulation?

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Plantation shutters were the best thing we ever did after so many tried and failed solutions! Definitely recommend them!

We had plastic swish track but with heavy lined curtains and a long drop they basically started to fall down. We've now got the dunelm bendable pole, it's really good. Get lined curtains rings and it's really quiet too, we've replaced both bays with them now. We have the brushed brass finish because that just goes more with other furniture etc than Chrome.

www.dunelm.com/product/ashton-4m-eyelet-metal-bay-pole-dia-28mm-1000155336?defaultSkuId=30654639&branchCode=0965&ds_c=Curtains_Poles_%5BGOO-LIA+PSB-CURTPOLE-POLES%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5JSLBhCxARIsAHgO2ScWx7BBkZhO9EasAFTFY7JL4JFgkPaN-KYOcorIS_2LlD2XuFLtud8aAjHOEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

This one, get hinged curtain rings to make your life easier we got ours on Amazon

Do you have wooden sash windows? If so plantation shutters are great. They do look naff with plastic glazing though - akin to mock Tudor and fake lead! For other style windows, the bendy tracks work well. If it’s an angular bay you can use three straight tracks if there are brickwork piers between the panes.

We have bay windows - beautiful heavy curtains left in place by our vendors, hung on shitty cheap tracks. So we threw money at replacing the tracks with custom built German steel things, painted to match walls/architraves, and a pulley system to open and close. It was quite spendy, but since you use it at least twice a day, every day, it was worth the money for the smooth glide.

Plantation shutters are good for bathrooms and beach houses. I think they've been so over done now - they're a bit net curtains of our day. (Would not tell my mother or my brother this, though, as they've had them installed).

We have horizontal wooden blinds and a curved curtain rail. My only gripe is that the curtains aren't floor length but the room's only radiator sits below the bay window and having floor length curtains would have blocked it. I think it looks a bit stupid with the half length curtains. Better than no curtains though IMO.

Individual roman blinds in each window in the bay here, I've got pillars in between each windows in two square bays (8 windows) so each window has a roman blind, interlined - cosy and no condensation issues.

We have two square bays on a 30's house and have plantation shutters. I love them! They are clean, fresh and neat. So pleased to have binned off awkward poles and curtains.

Also 1930’s semi with two bays upstairs and downstairs. We have some professionally made blinds I think they are maybe called roman blinds (like neutral linen cream fabric) for both (with black out linings upstairs). These maybe a bit dated as over 10 years old (but look ok). Although I do admit to miss drawing the curtains in autumn winter. Prior to the blinds we had ancient metal tracks which came with the house and pelmets which hid the tracks (which were functional but weren’t the prettiest to look at).

I have a square bay and have a brass curtain rail from Dunelm that goes around the corners. The curtains get stuck sometimes though and I have to stand on the sofa to get the curtain rings to pass over the fittings. I have patterned film over the bottom part of the windows to stop people staring in. I used to have Roman blinds but curtains feel much more cosy.

Throw money at it and get a decent bespoke pole, either metropole (track within a pole), or a Gliderpole or a metal pole from the Bradley collection. These cost several hundred pounds and can be as much as £1500 but totally worth it. Don’t get a pole with elbow bends, curtains won’t draw properly and plastic tracks are dreadful.

Half shutters( at the bottom) and Roman blinds

Have a look here - Tracks for Curved Windows . I can recommend Cameron Fuller. They are good for any window shape, can bend both ways and can be cut at home. There are wall or ceiling options

I’ve got individual Roman blinds and then a curtain over the whole bay.

I have wooden venetians with linen ticking which I love, they are very versatile you can have them open, closed, all pulled up for light or all down for privacy. They fit neatly on each window and I much prefer them to shutters which take up too much space and arent as flexible. I also have a fitted rail for the curtains which only get drawn at night for warmth.

We have plantation shutters downstairs, put in 10 years ago when we moved in. If I were doing it again now I'd have cafe curtains (sheers) on the bottom half and Roman blinds for the top. We barely ever close out shutters on the top half, only when it's really freezing.

Upstairs we have a bay curtain rail (the brass version of this one which seems to be discontinued now, but there's a similar one in John Lewis), with H&M home velvet curtains (the only ones long enough!) in winter and linen ones in summer. We also have plain white rollers for blackout purposes, the curtains are more decorative as we have a radiator under the window, but they do look lovely when closed.