Curtains Poles or Tracks

About using curtains poles or tracks

Are curtains a good alternative to blinds?

Welcome to 90 Seconds with the Boss. I'm Ellen and I'm here to help you live wiser. Today's question is.

Where would you put curtains rather than blinds?

There are more curtains than blinds in this country in houses across the land. But curtains really are only useful for vertical, rectangular shapes. So you can't put them in roofs and you can't put them in skylights.

However, they are very versatile and they really do dress a window nicely. So if you want that luxurious feel or a warmer comfortable feel, they are ideal. What they're not great for is that minimalistic look. All clean lines, everything hidden away. Very basic. Maybe a bit utilitarian.

What choices do I have with curtains?

So when you're looking at your curtain, you've obviously got your face fabric. That can be plain, it can be patterned, it can be embroidered, it could be sheer, it can be fire retardant, it can be a linen, it can be a digital print. The choice is endless. We alone have probably got a couple of thousand in our books that we use. It's not like blinds. They're very much more choice.

Then you've got the lining. You don't have to have them lined so if you've got a voile you definitely wouldn't line it because you want to see through it. But the next thing that you would look for is a standard lining. So that would be in a living room or a kitchen or a study maybe. If you them into bedrooms, always go blackout lining even if it's quite a thick fabric because that's what you want to get that darkness whilst you sleep.

Then you've got to choose your heading. There are, again, quite a few choices. And you're going to have the traditional pinch pleat. This can be a double or a triple pinch and it makes the curtain a set size. It's quite a formal look. Are you going to have pencil pleat? That's the one that you can gather. Typically you find them in cheap curtains, but there are a deal under [inaudible 00:01:59]. And if you want to reduce the fullness and when it stacks back, go for pencil pleat. If you're having a pole, you can have an eyelet. If you are having a motorized track, you can get that same lovely wave continuous with a wave or a ripple heading. You need to be able to specify that before you get the track made though because they are slightly different of setting the track up.

That's all we've got time for today. If you've learnt anything from this, please like below. Otherwise, I'll see you next time.

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What's the right length for a curtain track?

What heading can I have on motorized curtain tracks?

You can have the standard, more formal pinch pleat. This comes in a double or a triple pleat, and it gives you a really smart look.

You can also have a pencil pleat heading. With this, you can reduce the fullness, but you would really need to hide it behind a pelmet because it doesn't look so neat right at the top.

You can also have a wave or a ripple heading. This is a really contemporary look. The track does need to come a little bit further away from the window so that the curtain can go backwards and forwards from the track in a continuous, smooth wave.

All of these headings on a motorized curtain track need to be hanging underneath the track. You can't have the track and then the curtain standing up above it.

What length and weight can motorized curtain tracks handle?

Motorized curtain tracks are quite heavy duty. We can do them up to 10 meters long, and we can do straight, and we can do curved. In fact, we did a 14 meter curved bay in a penthouse up in Battersea. Now, what we do is we split those tracks into two 7 meters, and then obviously they meet in the middle, and it looked gorgeous.

Oh, and I forgot about weight. Because they're heavy duty, they can take full embroidered, interlined, blackout lining curtains, whatever the length.

Where does a motor go on a curtain track?

On a curtain track, the motor hands below the track, behind the curtain. The curtain wraps around it, totally hiding it. This is ideal if you need to get power because usually there's a power socket down below, and you can just run the power cable up behind the curtain.

We could also do batteries. This locks on to the bottom of the motor and then is taken away to recharge.

If you have a suspended ceiling, we can also flip the track so that the motor goes up, but that is quite rare.

Finally, it doesn't matter which side you need to put the motor on. We will get that specified, so it can go left or right.

Our time is up. If you've learned something from this episode, please like or share below. If not, I'll see you next time.

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