How to choose the right Curtains
Choosing the right curtains can be challenging, with many different options on the market. How do you choose the right curtain?
At Blinds Downunder we’ve broken down the steps and questions to help you choose the right curtains for your needs.
Steps for choosing a roman blind:
- Familiarise yourself with the room
- Selecting a fabric
- Curtain configuration
- Blind hardware
- Budget
- Familiarise yourself with your room
Familiarise yourself with the room, have a look at colour scheme, room layout, location of daytime sun, size of the window(s)/doors and any potential obstructions around.
Our custom fit curtains assist with blocking out external light, reducing direct sun glare and creating privacy and can also help with managing energy efficiency.
Click image below to see energy benefits of window furnishings.
Selecting a fabric
Blinds Downunder curtain range suits a variety of applications, our fabrics offer an exciting range of colours and textures. We provide technical specifications on all the fabrics we provide. This can help you choose the best fabric for your curtains and their desired application.
When choosing your customised curtain fabric, it is important you select the right fabric and style that will best suit your curtain location, based on your room type, light requirements, privacy requirements, your internal colour schemes, design and style.
Depending on how much light you would like to enter your room and what purpose your room is used for. Different fabrics can offer different desired light settings for each room. Below we go through the two fabric types available for curtain fabrics.
Blockout fabrics are solid material and stop a majority of light entering your room.Blockout Curtains offer great light blocking qualities and provide a stylish elegant finish to your home.
Curtain Sheer Fabrics allows beautiful light control within your room, during the daylight hours, you may only be able to see shadows or silhouettes from outside or inside your room depending on the light, day or night. Lighter fabric colours will provide greater light into your space than darker sheer fabric colours.
How fabric selection can create better energy efficiency
Our blockout fabrics are considered the best way to reduce heat and heat loss through any external glass window or door. Our blockout fabrics, combined with screen fabrics can assist with your home energy efficiency throughout the year. Careful consideration needs to be made with curtains based on how much sun exposure each room may experience. A combination of blockout and sheer curtains can meet your desired needs.
Where can I choose these Fabric Ranges?
Our range can be chosen through the curtain section on our webpage. You may wish to view our Fabric options on our Blind Fabrics Australia page under the curtain filter prior to heading to our Curtain Selection page.
- Curtain mounting options
When considering how you would like your curtains to appear on your windows or doors, there is only two options, which are outlined below.
Face Fit
We provide curtains as face fit option. You can adjust face fitting curtains in most situations, provided there is room above to lift the blind up higher.
Top/Ceiling Mount
We provide curtains as Top (Recess Fit) / Ceiling Mount option. unlike some face fit selections, you cannot adjust Top/Ceiling Mount curtains.The chosen drop is set based on your provided measurements.
Important note on window obstructions
Obstruction with window or door width, could mean curtains may need to add additional to the window or door dimensions. We recommend as a guide only 1/3 of the width extra. Bracket sizing will also need to be determined based on what obstruction may catch on the curtain operation.
What should I consider if I have a Large Window or door
Curtains are perfect for larger walls window and door. We can provide curtains to a width of 12,000mm. You may want to choose multi openings on larger curtains. As the stacks can become quite large. Our tracks come in 3950mm widths and have a joiner to connect together, making one larger track.
- Curtain Hardware
We offer standard tracks and motorised tracks.Tracks can be Face Fit or Top/Ceiling Mount.Standard tracks are operated with a wand control to pull your curtains open and closed. This assists with keeping your curtain fabric clean from dirty hands.
Motorisation
Blinds Downunder also offer battery motorisation of curtain tracks. Motorisation requires a battery charger to charge individual batteries approximately every 8 months, blinds stay in their fitted position when charging. The rest of the time you can use a remote control or create automation throughout your house using a hub to open and close curtains. Battery motorisation has came a long way in the last few years and creates a great option for a clean look free of blind cords.
Alpha have an app that is extremely versatile and easy to set up. It controls all Alpha motorised products individually, by area or the whole house at once from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. All functionality can be scheduled to operate automatically. With the Alpha Neo Link Box, you can download the free app for either android or apple and control all your devices and groups directly or through automations functions available. Alpha Neo is compatible with both Google Home and Amazon Alexa and soon with Siri.
Click Alpha remote image for further details on how the motorisation system works;
- Budget
We always recommend you choose the best Fabric type for your purpose and budget. With curtains the price can vary considerably with fabrics from lowest price to highest price.
Lowest to highest
1) Depending on fabric chosen
2) Depending on hand drawn track (lower pricing) or motorised tracks (higher pricing)
