Curtain across front door, touch ground or not?

[lljkk]

We want long curtains in our hallway, across the front door (insulate against draught).

DH says the curtains should touch the ground. I said stop curtains an inch short of the ground, and put down a fat sausage-shaped thing across doorway (does it have a name?) instead, that we will wash frequently... rather than large curtains having to be washed frequently.

Which is better, just curtains or curtains+sausage?

no no no - curtains no sausage!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could do we what we've done ... curtains down to the floor but very dark in colour so the dirt doesn't show!

curtains to the floor, and those sausage things are called 'draught excluders

Curtains should just skim the floor.

I should have said really - I made ours too short acidently and they lood stupid - TOO THE FLOOR`!!!

TO THE FLOOR!

Are you making them yourself??

I made ones for our french doors and nearly crippled myself pinning them so the just skimmed the floor.

To the floor in dark fabric as another post suggested, much more chic than sausage things...

at piles of sausages by front door.

Long curtains.

But we want bright light cheery curtains that will brighten up our mornings, be nice to look at (large doorway to cover) and don't make the world outside gloomy and foreboding.

How often do you need to wash the curtains if skimming the floor? I once washed some net curtains at 40 degrees and they shrunk badly, never washed any curtains before or since. Can you wash curtains at 40? How many days to air dry?

How do you get them precisely the right length so that they just skim the floor? What does "skim" mean, 1 mm away, 2mm away, 1 cm away or what? I always measure curtains too long. I live with it because it costs a fortune to get them altered. If I ask DH to measure them up I fear he'll get it wrong too, or more likely, it will never get done.

See why I thought a sausage was more sensible??

If you want bright and cheery you could do two things -
border with darker fabric so does not get direty around edges or buy a stripey materital. Front doors attract alot of dirt.

Right... well... you measure them. But you only tack them to the measured length. Then you hang them. Then you close them.

This is where you find your lovely levels floor is far from level.

Then you lie on your stomach with your pins to hand and you lick your fingers and ease the hems up just a molecule or so where they touch the floor. Where they are too short, you take out your tacks and ease them down slightly.

Then you take them back down and sew the hems. Then you hang them again and double check them.

Don't forget to mark which is left and right curtains, so you hang the right ones at the right sides LOL.

Then you spend the next few years being the only person to notice the minor imperfects!

Please dont forget to wash the fabric first, just in case it shrinks. Have just rented my house for 5 years and dread everyday the tennant calling to tell me none of the blinds or curtains fit properly. My friend and I in our effciency washed all of them before checking. It was only with lots of pulling and stretching that we managed to make them look halfway decent. I could have cried, in fact I did, it was the last straw at the time.

Just found this thread - we definately are going to need some curtains for this winter - 1930's stained glass door surround and wooden door brrrr......and I'm NOT making my own.

Where can I get some reasonably priced curtains on tinternet? anyone know a secret curtain retailer?

ta in great anticipation.