Choosing curtains for whole house...Your tips please!

[bounty007]

Our new house is nearly built and I now need to think about curtains and blinds....any advice on how to choose these things would be great! TIA

Neutral-ish colours, so if you change the colour scheme of a room, you don't have to fork out £££ for new curtains - just buy new tie backs.

Get heavy curtains - keep the light out at night in the summer, and keep the heat in during winter.

Don't get short curtains. They just look a bit :(

Anyone know of any good websites with advice/ pictures.. Are there any hard and fast rules that I should follow?

If you have the money, then paying a curtain company will give you amazing curtains, but they are pricey. Not long before I left home my DF had me sort them with a local company and they were just amazing, the choice of fabrics, the designs she could do, and the advice she could offer and then they came and hung them as well so they looked like they were meant to! Can't remember the cost but they were expensive.

If you are doing it yourself then I agree you want floor length curtains - if this is a standard new build you are most likely going to nedd the 90" drop, and then need them taking up, (cost me about £20 a pair to have taken up with a local seamstress).

Only exception is in the DC's rooms otherwise they will be dirty/pulled down etc in no time well if your's are anything like mine.

In the bathrooms and the kitchen window I would have a roman blind as curtains get splashed and dirty quickly.

I also think you need a blind at the windows where you have the fanciest curtains - living room etc so you can just pull the blind rather than closing the curtains and then having to rearrange them every day!

there are quite a lot of factors you need to consider as to what is feasible on any particular window - I specify window treatments and get them made as part of my job so if you want any advice feel free to pm me!