A question for those of you who know about portieres

[ColdWinterMorning]

I'm hoping I've got the word right, I mean those special curtain poles that go over the front door.

I want one, but the space around our front door is really limited, and I don't know if it would be suitable, so, as always, I'm turning to mn.

The bit of hallway that our front door is in is narrow, basically the width of the door itself (one side has the siting room wall-e the other the cloakroom wall). I know one end of the portiere fits to the door, but does the other end go on a wall at the side of the door, or, could it go on a wall at 90° to the door?

The bit of wall above the door is also awkward, as it isn't flush with the door, but sticks out into the hallway (there might be a beam there?).
We can't just use a normal curtain pole, because there's no space above or to the sides of the door to fix it to.

Do you think we could fit a portiere to the side wall? If not, any ideas for minimising heat loss? (we've already got those brush things in the letterbox, E strips at the side of the door. It's a wooden door, if that makes any difference.
Thanks

We have just a normal short white metal curtain track bent into a L shape, so when the door curtain is open it draws round the corner onto the side wall about six inches. I think the rail is screwed to the door frame, or you could fix it to the wall above so there's a gap between curtain and door. It's not the prettiest fixture but not as if it's in full view all day.

Door curtain is very effective if you can get it to work.

Thanks fossil, does the curtain move out of the way when the door is opened? Or do you always need to manually move it? What I mean is, say I get home and close the curtain behind me, when dh arrives home and opens the door, would the curtain pull back itself, our would it get all tangled and dh would need rescuing?

Ah I see, yes it would get tangled. We use it to cover the front door that's rarely opened from outside.

The fixed end of portieres is meant to fix to the door frame at the hinge side, they are very slim if you look at the pictures. You might have to fit it carefully so the rising arm doesn't foul the "ceiling" of the door opening. You could just fit it slightly lower on the door? I'm speculating here, maybe someone who owns one could clarify!

When we had a door curtain we had it on one of those plastic tracks but over time opening the door it used to pull off and it was a hassle to get it all back together, plus it collapsed on the cat one day as he pushed past it and frightened the life out of him.

If I had to do it again I would buy a tension rod (our hall was very narrow, only the width of the door) and put the door curtain up high with a bit of it draping on the floor to stop draughts, on curtain rings, all the cold air will naturally fall to the bottom anyway so a gap at the top wont matter really.

I have a portiere rod from Jim Lawrence.

One end attaches to the hinge side of the door. The other attaches to the door frame. My hall is only the width of the door.

I think they usually go for about £25, you could ask a knowledgable supplier or a curtain-merchant. I think they're great, my aunt used to have several.

I believe they are called Portier Rods.

Very useful. Made of metal usually to take the weight of a heavy curtain.
As you open the door the rod rises up enough for the curtain to clear the floor.

I looked at drapery arm ads, they seem cheaper than portiere rods, and one of the ads said "suitable for ordinary light curtains, for heavy velvet curtains, you need a portière rod"

I couldn't work out what the difference is, but the drapery arm looks as if it doesn't lift when you open the door.

Thanks everyone, it's more the fixings of them that I'm confused about. I definitely think a portiere would be more suitable than the drapers rod, as I'd like quite a heavy curtain there, it's just because of the lack of space beside and above the door, I don't know if it would work.

Jacaqueen, you said yours fits to the door frame. How wide is it? Ours is only about 2 cm wide, before a curved corner bit, then the wall at right-angles to the door.

My door frame is fairly chunky.

If you go onto the Jim Lawrence website you can see a picture.

His are expensive because they are hand forged, made to measure with finials etc. I think they all work in the same way though.