Do you need inspiration for your window treatments? Are you looking for creative ideas for your curtains and blinds? If your windows are looking bare and need the elegant finishing touch of beautifully draped curtains, or you need extra thermal insulation to reduce your heating bills and increase the comfort and cosiness in your sitting room, then curtains in London from PRÊT À VIVRE could be the answer!
How to Measure For Drapes Correctly
How to measure for drapes and get it right the first time. Just by following these simple steps, you will avoid the most common measuring mistakes people make.
- Use a wide blade steel tape measure because it will be easier to see the larger numbers and it won’t bend as easily when measuring wide windows. Especially if doing this job on your own.
Use a wide blade steel tape measure because it will be easier to see the larger numbers and it won’t bend as easily when measuring wide windows. Especially if doing this job on your own.
2. Try and have someone help you when you measure up. You can measure and they can write down the sizes on a pad. The width first and the length (drop) second. Then swap over and repeat the measure and check the sizes again.
3. Decide on your curtain style before you measure for curtains. This is so important if you want your curtains to fit exactly right. For example, are the curtains hanging from under the curtain rod (pole) from rings? Maybe the curtains are to hang from the top of the rod. As with rod pocket curtains, tab top drapes.
Then you have grommet drapes that finish about an inch above the rod. So as you see you need to decide on your drapery style first.
4. In most cases, it will be so much easier to get accurate width and length measurements with your chosen curtain hardware already fitted in place over your window.
You may end up fitting the window treatment hardware slightly higher or lower. Often this is because the wall fixings are not secure enough, or because of an obstruction not noticed earlier.
Installing Your Curtains For Windows
So you are thinking about new curtains for windows around your home. It’s always a good feeling improving the look of your home.
After all, it’s the place you spend most of your time other than possible work.
However, there is some boring stuff that I need to bring to your attention. The articles below all have a few tips that will hold you in good stead for when you start installing your curtain hardware. Or when you are out shopping for stuff you need to get started.
Other than measuring correctly for drapes, these areas have caused the most headaches for my customers over the years. There is no rocket science involved here. just some basic tips and advice that I have picked up over many years.
Tips to Buy Fabrics for Curtain
Discover some really important stuff about curtain fabrics you really need to know about before you commit your hard-earned money.
Just following some basic rules will save you a lot of heartache and disappointment.
To start with there is no such thing as a perfect piece of drapery fabric!
If you study any piece of fabric hard enough you will find a flaw of some kind. Either in the weave of the fabric or the dye used. Even the way the fabric makes up into curtains and hangs.
What you should be looking for is a good piece of fabric. One that has no obvious flaws or blemishes. No small holes or big problems with the weave of the fabric. Also no dye problems with printed pattern fabrics.
Some important point to keep in mind while buying curtain fabrics online.
1. If you see some brand name fabrics online that are selling for a very low price. Then I would check with the seller that the fabric is being sold as “perfect”. This is that it is not being sold cheap because it has been returned as faulty fabric by another customer. Just ask them before you commit to buy.
Often it can be cheap fabric because that design or color way has been discontinued. If that’s the case, then grab a bargain.
2. Another big problem that rears its ugly head when buying fabrics online is the colour. Computer screen colour settings vary enormously. So don’t rely on the exact shade of the color you see on your screen being the one you actually get.
If the colour shade is critical then contact the seller and ask them to send you a small sample. If this is an auction on eBay you may not have time to do this. However, if the fabric is cheap enough and is being sold as “perfect”. Then it can still be worth the risk bidding for it.
3. Related to the fabric colour again but in a different way is the colour match. This problem comes in to play if you are buying more than one piece of curtain fabric. You may see a seller especially on places such as ebay selling two or more pieces of the same fabric.
You need to ask if the pieces of fabric have come of the same roll of fabric. At the very least that they have come from the same dye batch at the manufacturers. The problem is that the colour shade from one dye batch to the next can differ considerably.
4. This problem should only arise if you are buying curtain fabrics from online auctions rather than online fabric retailers. That is if the fabric has been treated to make it fire retardant. Fabrics used in commercial premises have to be fire retardant by law. Surplus stocks find their way for resale over time.