Curtains
November 2, 2019I need curtains. Yes need. We have 2 rooms with masses of windows and that means as the temperature drops massive heat loss. They are double glazed but they are older windows and even the best double glazing isn’t as good as a well made wall. So yes I need curtains. The problem is I don’t like the amount I have to spend to get curtains. Despite my love of textiles curtains just don’t excite me. I did think I would make the curtains for the bedroom. Which has 4 windows, 2 of them huge. After measuring up I calculated I would need about 25m of fabric, and the same of lining. My massive quilts suddenly look very reasonable.
Cue several weeks of looking for curtain fabric. I managed to fine one that I thought was OK, and it seemed to be giving the price for a bolt which was reasonable. Nope, I had found fabric 179 pounds per meter. It’s a talent honest. I did eventually find some we could live with at 15 pounds per meter. That’s a lot better but still 375 pounds just for the main fabric, add another 200 pounds for the thermal lining and 50 for the header tape, and that’s a serious outlay before my time.
Just as I came to terms with this we saw some off the peg curtains that while not anything we would have searched for were perfectly acceptable. On our first estimate they would be about 750 pounds which with the time saving seemed a pretty good deal. Making curtains would take me away from paid work so my time does have to be costed. When we actually measured exactly and fiddled with the possible premade options we managed to get the cost down to 530 for all 3 windows. It still feels a lot to spend to me but it’s clearly a good deal having shopped around.
Now you may have gathered I am not conviced of the need to dress windows. Or perhaps I should say I wasn’t convinced of the need. However the curtains arrived and I took before and after photos. I have to admit, the curtains do add to the window. The photos do make the hems look very uneaven, they are better in real life but I am finding premade curtains aren’t terribly accurate, nor are custom made ones but that’s a whole other story.
So here is one of the windows before, yes it is a patio door, it goes to a balcony. The french maid effect of the sheers was entirely accidental and at some point the little white frill will be replaced with a black one. The cats accelerated the replacement of the white sheers with the black linen sheers. Here is the after, the curtains are pretty much the only colour we found that was something we might like, the style though is very much what I would choose. I like woven patterns and textures. In fact most of the house is decorated in texture, for my Dresden reading followers I did it first, and I approve his taste.
