Curtains - help a girl out!?

[adogisforlife91]

I've never had to buy curtains before. Where do I start?

Do I buy fabric and get someone to make them? Do I go to a high street retailer? What sort of pole do I get? Wood to match the wood floors or black iron to match the door handle latch things (it's an old cottage)

How on EARTH do you decide which fabric? help!

Hi Op it all depends what you want if you want a specific design pattern etc then you could have the specially made for you.

Or if your just after your run of the mill retail shops will do all you need to do is measure the width and the length for size of curtains you need.

You can get blackout curtains for bedrooms you can even have blinds made to measure and then decorative curtains.

Have you tired looking on websites like dunelm for inspiration?

Poles are the same as well it depends what you would prefer

Also I personally prefer the metal poles than wooden but that's my own preference.

I'd start off by measuring your windows. If you're lucky and they're standard size buying ready made is so much cheaper.
I'd second Dunelm and if you get to a store you can see the quality of the fabric for yourself.
www.dunelm.com/info/buying-guides/how-to-measure-for-curtains

The first thing I would decided is if you want interlined ( i.e. extra lining between curtain material and lining which usually makes them hang better and makes them better insulated.) curtains - as most ready made curtains are just lined. If you do I would then get a quote to have a set made in any fabric in the price range you are looking for & compare it to a set of ready made ones & see if the difference is worth it to you.

What's your budget? I'd recommend dunelm. You can always get them altered if they are not quite the right size.

Having curtains made can work out extremely expensive (although it isn't difficult if you can sew)

The main difference between having custom made curtains and ready made ones (apart from the cost) is that readymades tend to have either an eyelet heading or pencil pleat. If you go for custom made ones you can choose from a wider range of effects e.g. pinch pleats, cartridge pleat, goblets etc.

Had to buy curtains recently and it's a pain in the backside! We visited 3 department stores and none of them had a single curtain to see. This was debenhams, house of fraser and M&S. Ended up in Dunelm and finding a nice set but it does depend on what you want and the size of window

Another vote for Dunelm here. We’ve got narrow windows in our house & Dunelm were the only place we could get very narrow curtains! You can physically see all the curtains too which helps! They are good quality & a really large variety of styles & colours. I’m very into Scandi & prefer a plain, neutral curtain in keeping with my white walls. But that’s just my vibe.

If you go for custom made ones you can choose from a wider range of effects e.g. pinch pleats, cartridge pleat, goblets etc.

But you can do most of these using the correct curtain hooks on pencil pleat curtains

John Lewis seem to have a good range of ready made curtains if you can get to one nearby

Another one speaking well of Dunelm, but Terry's fabrics on line and John Lewis are quite good as well. JL definately send out samples of the fabric.
Definately recommend lined curtains.
I am not a fan of poles and tend to go for curtain track,especially for bedrooms as I always find that poles let in light, especially when used with eyelet curtains.
Make sure you use a metal measure and not a fabric one!

Forgot to say that both Terrys fabrics and Argos of all people have useful advice on measure for a track or pole and how to put them up.
Dunelm and JL have useful info on measuring curtains, eg as a rule of thumb each curtain should be the same as the total length of the window , or there abouts. I go generous as I hate skimpy curtains.

sorry each curtain width should be the same as the width of window not length.

I have been so much happier with eyelet rather than pencil pleats--- so much easier and neater to hang IMO.

@ByTheSea - yes - pencil pleat curtains don't stack back neatly - too bunchy.

@HasaDigaEebowai - Never tried that. Think I would remove the pencil pleat header and replace with a different one. But when you buy custom made curtains they will use buckram instead of tape giving the pleats a much better look - only my opinion though.

You can remove the header but you can also get hooks that will create the pleats for you. My bedroom curtains are french pleated using four pronged hooks which was a very quick and easy way to do it.

You can either by ready made in standard sizes or get made to measure curtains. Ready made are a fraction of the price.

I would measure windows first of all - this is a guide:

www.dunelm.com/info/buying-guides/how-to-measure-for-curtains?gclsrc=aw.ds&gclid=CjwKCAjww5r8BRB6EiwArcckC0op4qMYlHKJaDiFQKm3A0nc0al1Nb3t68nzZjl0CwM1lWBxFEuHxRoCyAsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I've used both made to measure and ready made standard size. The made to measure were about £600 (large bay window), the ready made about £50-£100. I normally get the silver metal ones.

Whether you have a wooden or iron pole is personal taste, same with pencil pleat or eyelet. I prefer metal poles and pencil pleat. Fabric I just look online - again its personal taste though some are washable, some not.

Thanks all - looks like its a trip to Dunelm at the weekend for me! We have one 2 minutes away don't know why I didn't even think of it.

@KoalaRabbit thanks for the link, thats super helpful. Living room is a standard size. excellent!