This is the starting point for curtains at Poles & Curtains. Every pair comes down to four decisions: the fabric, the heading, the lining and the hardware it hangs from. This page explains each one and points you to the detail.
Take them in that order. Each decision narrows the next, and a window is far easier to specify once the first two are settled.
Start with what the room needs
Before you look at a single fabric, decide what the curtains have to do. A bedroom that needs to stay dark on a June morning is a different brief from a sitting room where the priority is how the fabric falls when the curtains are open.
Write the practical requirements down first. Light, privacy, draught, and whether the curtains will be drawn every evening or mostly dressed open at the sides. Then choose the look. Doing it the other way round is how people end up with a fabric they like in a room it does not suit.
If it helps to think room by room, start with curtains by room and come back here once you know what you are asking the window to do.
Choose the fabric
Fabric sets the colour, the texture and, just as importantly, the weight. Weight is what decides how a curtain moves. A dense velvet hangs in deep, slow folds and needs a pole or track that can carry it. A looser weave falls softer and gathers more readily.
Pattern needs the same thought. A large repeat can look very different across a wide bay to how it looks on a single narrow window, because you see far more of the design at once.
Colour on a screen is not colour in your room. Daylight, wall colour and the lamps you use in the evening all change how a fabric reads, so it is worth seeing a piece at the actual window before you order. Browse the fabrics pages to see what is available, then order fabric samples and compare them at home. Samples are free, you can have up to eight at a time, and we pay the postage within the UK.
Choose the heading
The heading is the top of the curtain: the way the fabric is gathered and fixed to whatever it hangs from. It sets how tailored or relaxed the curtain looks, how the folds sit when the curtains are closed, and how much space they take up when open.
It also decides your hardware. 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, rings or gliders. The curtain headings guide goes through each style and what it needs.
Choose the lining
Lining sits out of sight, so it is easy to treat as an afterthought. It is not. Lining changes how much light comes through, how private the room feels with the lamps on, how the curtain hangs and how heavy the finished pair will be.
The choice is usually between a standard lining, something aimed at reducing light, something aimed at comfort at the window, and an additional interlining where a fuller handle is wanted. The curtain linings guide explains what each one changes in the room, and what it does to the weight your hardware has to carry.
Complete the window with the right pole or track
A well made curtain still hangs badly on the wrong support. The hardware has to suit the heading, the weight of the finished curtain, the shape of the window and the wall or ceiling you are fixing into.
Poles are seen and are part of the scheme, so finish and diameter matter. Tracks are meant to disappear, which makes them the usual answer for ceiling fixing, wide spans and awkward shapes. Look through curtain poles and curtain tracks, or read about our complete window approach, which is simply the habit of choosing the curtain and the hardware together rather than one after the other.
Ways we can help you decide
If you would rather be asked questions than read pages, find your perfect curtains works through the same decisions one at a time.
If you are ready to think about sizes, the curtain measurement finder walks through every measurement you need to take and explains why each one matters.
And if the window is unusual, or you simply want a second opinion before spending money, book a free design consultation. Tell us the room, the window and what you want the curtains to do, and we will help you narrow it down.
Where to go next
When your fabric, heading and lining are settled, made-to-measure curtains is where those choices come together for your window.
Everything here is British made. Your curtains are made to measure in our Cambridge workroom, and the poles and tracks we sell are made in Britain by UK manufacturers. British craft and specialist supply sets out what we make ourselves and what we buy in.