There is a great deal of vocabulary in curtains and almost none of it matters until you know what the window has to do. This page is a sequence of questions. Work through them in order, answer each one for yourself, and by the end you will have most of a specification.
Nothing is submitted anywhere and there is no score at the end. Each question narrows the next, and each one links to the page that goes into detail.
1. What does this window need to do?
Start with the practical brief rather than the look. Does the room need to be dark on a June morning. Is it overlooked. Is there a draught at the glass. Will the curtains be drawn every evening, or mostly dressed open at the sides.
Write down the two requirements that matter most. Everything after this is judged against them. If it helps to think room by room, curtains by room sets out what each room typically asks for.
2. Is there already a pole or track at the window?
This is the question people skip and then regret, because existing hardware rules some headings out entirely. If there is a pole you intend to keep, note its diameter and how far it stands off the wall. If there is a track, note whether it is corded.
If nothing is up yet, the field is open. Pole or track for curtains covers which suits which window, and you can work from there through curtain poles or curtain tracks.
3. How should the top of the curtain look?
The heading sets how tailored or relaxed the curtain reads, how the folds sit when it is closed and how much wall it covers when it is open. It also has to be compatible with your answer to question two.
Eyelet headings are the plainest and need a pole. Pleated headings are more formal and give a deeper, more regular fold. The curtain headings guide goes through each one and what it needs to hang from.
4. How much light do you want to keep out?
This is a lining question rather than a fabric question. The same fabric can be unlined, lined, or lined with something aimed at reducing light or at comfort near the glass.
Be honest about how dark the room genuinely needs to be, and remember that a good deal of light arrives around the edges of a curtain rather than through it. The curtain linings guide explains what each option changes, and blackout or thermal curtains separates two aims that are often confused.
5. How do you want the fabric to feel?
Now the fabric, and it is worth thinking about handle and weight before colour. A crisp flat weave, a soft natural texture, a dense pile and an open sheer all behave differently at a window, and weight decides how the curtain falls and how much support it needs.
Browse the fabrics pages to see the ranges, and read choosing curtain fabric for what each family actually does once it is hanging.
6. Plain or patterned, and in what colour?
Colour comes late for a reason. Once the weight, the heading and the lining are settled, the field is small enough to choose from without second-guessing yourself.
Plain fabric lets texture and the fold do the work. Pattern is more of a commitment, and a repeat behaves differently across a wide bay than on a single narrow window, because you see much more of it at once. Patterned fabrics is where to look if that is the direction.
Whichever way you go, see the fabric in the room before ordering. Fabric samples explains what to look for.
7. Does it hang together as a look?
By this point you have a specification. Step back and check it reads as one decision rather than three separate good ones: the fabric, the heading and the hardware finish should agree with each other. Curtains by style groups them into looks that do.
8. Ready-made or made to measure?
Ready-made curtains come in set widths and drops. If your window happens to suit one, that is the simplest route. If it does not, or if you want a particular fabric with a particular heading and lining, the curtains have to be made to your measurements. Made-to-measure curtains sets out how that works.
Turning your answers into an order
Measure last, and measure the pole or track rather than the window, because the curtain hangs from the hardware and not from the glass. The curtain measurement finder takes you through it step by step.
If two of your answers seem to contradict each other, that is a good reason to ask rather than to compromise. Bring them to the free design consultation and we will work through them with you.