A curtain, the fabric it is made in and the pole or track it hangs from are one decision taken three times. Let them drift apart and you end up with a fabric you like on a system that cannot carry it. This page sets out how to specify the whole window at once.
Start from wherever you are
Very few windows are planned from a blank sheet. You may have found a fabric and need to know what will hold it. You may have a pole you intend to keep and need curtains that will run on it. You may be starting with an empty room and a tape measure.
All three are workable starting points. What matters is that every decision after the first is taken in the light of it, rather than in isolation.
The curtain half
Four things specify a curtain: the fabric, the heading, the lining, and the finished width and drop.
Choose the fabric from the fabrics pages, then the heading. The heading constrains everything that follows, because it decides what the curtain is able to hang from. The curtain headings guide works through each one. Lining comes next, and the curtain linings guide explains what each option changes in the room and what it adds to the finished weight.
Sizes come last, once the heading is fixed. The curtain measurement finder covers what to measure and in what order.
The hardware half
The same window then has to be specified as a system: pole or track, diameter or profile, bracket positions, and a finish.
If that choice is still open, start with pole or track for curtains. Then browse curtain poles or curtain tracks, and take a finish from the finishes pages so the hardware sits with the metalwork and woodwork already in the room.
Heavier curtains need more support, and support means bracket spacing as much as it means pole diameter. How to hang heavy curtains explains where the load actually goes.
Where the two halves meet
Three points connect them, and they are where most windows go wrong.
The heading has to match the system. Eyelet curtains slide straight onto a pole and will not run on a standard track. Pleated headings are more adaptable but still need the right hooks with rings or gliders.
The finished weight has to be within what the hardware can carry. A dense fabric with a full lining across a wide span is a different proposition from an unlined pair at a small window, even though both are described as curtains.
The shape of the window narrows the field before anything else is chosen. Bays, wide door openings and very long spans all rule out some systems entirely.
The finishing details
Finials, rings or gliders, brackets and holdbacks are the parts that make a window look finished, and they are also the parts most often left until last and then rushed. Look at rings and gliders, brackets and connectors and the wider accessories range alongside the pole, not after it.
If you would rather talk it through
The free design consultation is there for windows where several decisions depend on each other: a bay, an unusually wide span, a heavy fabric, or a pole you are trying to design around. Send the room type, approximate measurements and what you are trying to achieve, and we will work through the options with you.
It is advice rather than a visit. We do not offer in-home measuring, fitting or installation, so you take the measurements yourself and we check them with you before anything is made. The measuring guide shows you how, and on an awkward window a photograph sent with the figures usually tells us more than the figures alone.