The same fabric behaves very differently in a north-facing bedroom, a bright sitting room and across a set of garden doors. Starting with the room rather than with the fabric makes the practical requirements obvious, and cuts the choice down quickly.
Each section below sets out what that room usually asks for. Take what applies and ignore what does not, because no two windows are quite the same.
Living rooms
Living rooms tend to have the most architecture to work with and the most daylight to manage. They are also where curtains spend most of their life open, so how the fabric stacks at the sides matters as much as how it looks drawn.
This is usually the room where a stronger texture, a pattern or a more decorative pole earns its place. Browse the fabrics pages and curtain poles together rather than one after the other, since the weight of the fabric decides what the pole has to be.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms are a light and privacy problem before they are a decorating one. Decide how dark you need the room in midsummer, and how much you mind light around the edges of the curtain, because that is where most of it gets in.
That answer points at the lining rather than the fabric, so read the curtain linings guide before you settle on a colour. Blackout or thermal curtains explains the difference between keeping light out and keeping warmth in, which are not the same job and do not always need the same lining.
Dining rooms
Dining rooms are often the hardest-surfaced rooms in a house: a table, chairs, a floor and very little soft furnishing. Curtains are the simplest way to take the edge off that, and generous fabric does more for the room than a clever pattern.
Setting the pole higher and wider than the window makes the room feel taller and lets more of the glass show when the curtains are open. Textured and heavier fabrics suit the room, and are worth looking at first.
Kitchens, studies and smaller rooms
Smaller and working rooms usually want less fabric, not more. A lighter curtain, a simpler heading and a slimmer pole stop the window dominating the space. Where a room is overlooked but not slept in, a sheer on its own can handle the privacy and keep the daylight.
Check what is around the window before choosing the drop. A radiator, a worktop or a window seat all argue for a sill-length or below-sill curtain rather than a full-length one.
Bay windows
Bays are a hardware problem first and a fabric problem second. The angles, the number of corners and how the curtain passes them decide what is possible, so settle the pole or track before you fall for a fabric.
Start with dressing a bay window, then look at bay window poles and bay window tracks. Where a curtain has to pass a corner smoothly, a track will often do it more easily than a pole.
French and bi-fold doors
Doors are about access and stack-back. The curtain has to clear the opening completely when it is drawn back, which usually means running the pole or track well past the frame on both sides and allowing more width than the doors themselves suggest.
How often the door is used matters too. A door opened every day wants a system that draws easily and a heading that does not catch on the frame. Curtains for bi-fold and French doors covers it, and extra long curtain poles is the place to start for the widest spans.
Once you know what the room needs
With the practical requirements settled, what is left is the look and the specification. Curtains by style helps with the first, and find your perfect curtains works through the second question by question. If the room is awkward, bring it to the free design consultation.