Curtains - am I stupid or is this confusing?!

[NotableI]

Ordered a pair of made to measure curtains from Dunelm. I had to choose between ordering a pair or curtains or a single curtain.

The online form asked me to measure the curtain track/ pole, which I did; it’s a big bay window at 295cm. And then the drop, which was 220cm.

They’ve sent me both curtains with a width of 295cm, so way too big! I thought the fact that I had to confirm both that I wanted a pair for the track/pole; and the length of the pole itself meant they would know to divide the width in two!

I did tick something to say I knew this was a bespoke product so can’t return it but was my assumption unreasonable or am I deluded?

I’ve attached a screenshot of the form but it might take some time to be approved by Mumsnet.

I did think it was crazy expensive but I thought that was just how much curtains cost 😫

The curtains need to be twice the width of the pole generally or they don’t hang in folds properly once you gather the pleats.

The curtains ( each curtain ) needs to be gathered , so the width of the pole is doubled , when pulled back the curtains will look nice and full and when pulled across will hang nicely with no gaps

It is usually recommended that for a ‘full’ look, ie sufficient material, each curtain should be the full width of the window. If you didn’t size up at all, when closed the curtains would be completely flat and may not meet the ends of the window. Doubling the width is standard.

Maybe hang them up and see if you’re happy with them?

okay that’s good to know! They seem enormous

Thanks all 😄 I’ll stand down now

width of curtains should be 2-2.5 times the width of your window, they're not flat like blinds!

What header style does it have? Normally you gather the excess material so they are not taut when closed.

Came to say the same. I once made par of curtains and didn’t realise for years why they didn’t look quite right - I only made them just over the width of the window!

However, over £800 for curtains 😳

They will be fine when you have pulled up the gathers and they've hung for a while to settle into their folds.
If the fabric was the width of the window, they would just be flat like a sheet when closed which isn't a good look.

Standard practice for each curtain to be the full width of the window. Then they are gathered up. Would look silly if they were stretched right over the window with no material to spare.

However, over £800 for curtains 😳

Easily done.
Will hear nothing but good words for the Dunelm M2M curtain & blind service.
Bought a few pairs for our previous house and were very impressed so when we moved, we ordered all our curtains & blinds from them. Excellent choice, lovely materials, nicely made and look stunning.
We always go for a heavier material matched with a blackout lining so a decent chunk of cloth. We time our ordering to coincide with the 20% sale (held twice a year).

When we finished our new house I worked out we had spent over £10k in curtains & blinds........ 😲
They are lovely though.

It's correct and now you need to pull them in with the strings.

This confused me as well, op, but yes, the curtains have to be double the width of the window to hang nicely.

so sounds like your curtains are the right size

Oh wow I never knew this-I was also confused but thought that was just how they were measured. But I’ve always wondered why my curtains look a bit shit when drawn 😂.
We gave a lot of wide windows so won’t be replacing them all in a hurry but at least now o know for next time!
Thank you!

@NotableI Don't forget to make sure one end of the set of strings in the header is tied together before you pull the other ends to gather up. Loosely tie those once gathered so you can untie them and ungather if you want to clean the curtains. Don't cut them off! You can usually tuck the long bits into the back of the header tape.

I think I now need to rethink the other (off the shelf) curtains I have in the house which are definitely not double width 😂

If anyone from the PR team at Dunelm is reading this, sorry for sullying your good name, I will leave a good review to make up for it!

@NotableI
Just one more tip re curtains. When you have gathered the folds using the header tape - as per @TheSmallAssassin - what professional curtain hangers do ( I watched the John Lewis chap with an eagle eye so I didn't have to pay for the service again 😊) run down each fold from the top by hand to make the folds hang nicely ( when they are not drawn) Then tie something very soft loosely around the middle of the drop on each curtain - so a folded up single sheet or if they came in the thin clear plastic wrapping that would do , anything soft which won't make a crease of its own - and leave them for a day or two like that. This settles the creases nicely. 💐

Thank you for the tips @BasiliskStare and @TheSmallAssassin I may have to find some YouTube videos to follow along with (or ask my MIL when she’s next here as I expect she will definitely have this under her belt)

Thanks for Dunelm tip. Roughly when which months are the 20% of sale twice a year.

Same here!

Usually the sales are in the new year and mid-summer (6-months apart).

It was a sales assistant who first put us onto it.
Quoted for a pair of M2M curtains but advised us to come back the following week before placing the order as we would save a couple of hundred £.
Glad we did and have done it every time since.

I'll ask here as well, since there's a lot of great advice already. What is one curtain is longer than the width of the pole? In my case the curtain track is 210 cm, and one curtain is 280 ungathered. When gathered maximally, it will be half that. Will that work, or is it just too much?

It should be fine - ideally at least one and a half x the width up to two and a half x for a very full look.

Thank you @PrincessofWells !