Bu88er me! Ouch! Just had a quote for Bay window curtain poles..there has to be a cheaper way?

[FishfingersAreOK]

£620 each. Not including fitting. Buggering hell!. Silent Gliss maybe the dogs bollux but come on! £620 each.....

Any thoughts/experiences? Cannot bear the thought of just plain white tracks - do want that "pole" look.

Anywhere else I can go before I commit to yet another £1200 for my money pit house? Not that I think DH would agree. £620 each FFS!

We had a blacksmith make us some poles that were bent in the right places to the fit angles, IYSWIM, and got brackets to fit from a DIY shop, was a fraction of the price of the bay window kits from JLP etc.

That's excessive.

I bought a posh bendy pole for about £100 odd, it was stupidly heavy though and because our walls are old and made from shite, and our curtains are necessarily long and heavy, it pulled off the wall eventually leaving a big hole.

So I bought fineline tracks from Paul Simon - they fix directly to the wooden frame, are close to it so the gravity doesn't have such an effect, and they work perfectly, in fact much much better than the pole ever did.

I got them in an sort of antique bronzey colour.

John Lewis do bay bends that fit to ready made curtain poles? I don't know what style you're after but these people gave me a decent quote as well: www.northdownsironcraft.co.uk for made to measure.

X posts, I like the blacksmith idea!

I should add our windows are 10ft tall and the same wide, so even with a big window like that you can do it effectively for under about £100.

You can get them with knuckle joints in for about £100. I think I ordered one from Terry's Fabrics.

Worked really well, as it looked substantial and professional.

We got some in Argos for about £30 until we could find something nice but not extortionate. They've been there a year so far.

Wow - thanks. Will have to look into an alternative as just had bill for kitchen and woodburning stove....ouch and bugger for that too!

The trouble/lovely thing about out bay is that it is fully curved - so the 3 sided poles will not work. The Northdown iron thing could be a good option - and checking out a quick price calculation is half the price!

£600 odd for the two I can swallow - but not each.

Darn, darn - any further suggestions for fully curved bays really appreciated too. I was hoping this was going to be easier than this....[sob]

I got mine made by a local blacksmith its perfect and cost £120.
just google blacksmiths in your area.

I got mine made by a local blacksmith its perfect and cost £120.
just google blacksmiths in your area.

No-one's mentioned Laura Ashley bay curtain pole system yet - maybe they don't still sell them. Which would be a good thing, cos they're dreadful. Don't buy them!

My wallet has just recovered from curtaining a bay window !

The pole was around £350 for quite a big bay in a lovely high quality brushed steel finish but there was a selection ! I had a wrought iron one but there was a gap at the top as you couldnt fit it flush to the ceiling. Have you looked into the actual curtains yet ? Thats the painful bit !

Try www.curtainpoles.co.uk we have used them to make a 5 sided bay pole and they are very reasonable

www.curtainpoles.co.uk similar name to previous post but different company

Thank you lovely MN-ers. Am going to measure up a la wrought iron poles and do it that way - looks like that may be a £200 option. Have emailed to check will work with my size bay and the ceiling hung brackets.

I love MNet!

Along the same lines, we have just used www.blacksmithcollection.com who were also excellent - when we came to fit it we found we'd measured one of the bracket lengths wrong and they sent us a specially-made longer bracket free of charge. I think it was about 230 quid for a 3-sided bay, so that does seem about the going rate.

On the other hand, we've been searching for curtains for FOUR months now!!!

thepolescompany.co.uk have supplied us twice with lovely posh bay window poles, very very good, under £90 each.

£600 each? They are having a laugh!

We used this company about 4 years ago. Before that we had a bendy pole that looked rubbish. This was a much cheaper solution and has been much more stable, and was cheaper than all the other solutions I looked at. The woman that makes my curtains now uses them for all her clients. They're called Celtic Dreams ironworks which is a pretty cheesy name, but the product is very good. You have to take detailed measurements, but happily ours fitted without issue. www.curtainpoles.co.uk/index3.htm

Thank you everyone... measured up tonight with DH and are going for the Celtic curtain pole people - I sent them an email on Sunday with a few questions and they were really helpful. This has been so helpful. And will be saving me about £800!

I luffs MN!

Just to update in case anyone searches for advise.... www.curtainpoles.co.uk/ is who we used...Celtic Ironworks in Wales. They were amazingly helpful, great service and friendly. We put them up today. They fit perfectly and look amazing. £200 each for totally made to measure poles. Brilliant. Thank you MN.

good result
I am slowly converting all our windows to Celtic Dreams - what finials did you get?

If you put a little silicone lubricant along the top of the pole, they glide beautifully.

Brill! Glad to be of help