Buying Ready Made Curtains

Curtains and cushions complete a room providing softness and colour. Curtains come with several different types of headings, styles and sizes and can cause confusion when trying to buy the right type and size of curtain for you windows. Our curtain buying guide, will hopefully, help direct you to make the right curtain purchase.

Sizes

Ready made curtains come in a variety of sizes, the most common being the ones with 46, 66 or 90 inch width and 56,72 or 90 inch drops.

Most ready made curtains manufacturers will quote the size of one curtain in the pair. For instance if the packaging says the size of the curtain is 66x72 inch, it will mean that each curtain in the pair is 66 inches wide by 72inch drop. So, the total width of the pair (curtains usually come in pairs) will be 132 inches, with a drop (or length) of 72 inches. All our curtains are packed in pairs.

Measurement

It is crucial to get the right measurement of curtains, if your window is to look "full" and well dressed.

As a general rule, the total width of the curtains you need is between 2 to 2.5 times the width of the pole or track. Please note, it is the width of the pole or track you need to measure and not the width of the window.

For example, if the width of your pole/track is 50 inches, you would need curtains that have a total width between 100 and 150 inches. The greater the width the more gathers your curtains will have and create a more "fuller" look.

To measure the curtain drop you require, measure from the top of the pole/track (not the window) to the point where you would like the curtain drop to end. (Curtains should ideally end about 1cm from the sill/floor, to allow easy drawing). If you are using pencil pleat headed curtains with a pole, measure from the bottom of the curtain ring to your drop end point.

Heading types

Curtains can come with a variety of headings, the most popular being pencil pleat, eyelet (ring top) or tab top.

Pencil pleat headed curtains are where the head is gathered into little "folds". Pencil pleat curtains can be used with tracks or poles. If you are using them with poles, ensure that you take the measurement for the drop from the bottom of the curtains ring to the point where you want the drop to end.

Eyelet headed curtains have eyelets in the head where the pole goes through. The eyelets can be of various diameters so it is worth making sure you have the right width pole for your curtains. Eyelet headed curtains can only be used with poles.

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