What sort of curtains to buy? And where from?

Avalon I agree with you about Terry's fabrics. I am lucky in that I can sew and made my own tab top curtains for one of my bedrooms. The fabric at Terry's is excellent, delivery is good and the prices are very reasonable.

Skydancer, if you can find someone to who will make the curtains for you via something like Facebook, it might be worth having a look at Terry's website.

BTW, I'm not on commission!

AskAlice Terry’s do made to measure curtains and blinds. They also have their winter sale on.

Just Fabrics, an online warehouse, has some inexpensive fabrics (they send samples) and they will make up curtains pretty reasonably, lined, (interlined if required but that is expensive) choice of headings. Highly recommended.

Make your own. It is so easy, even I can do it.

Curtains are a big outlay especially if you have large windows like we do. I usually buy plain ones, mainly linen look and always lined. I have had patterned ones in the past but now prefer plain tab tops.

We’ve had curtains from Dunelm in the past thatchers not good, but our current ones are good quality, hang well, clean well and are much admired. I have bought curtains and blinds from curtains2go which have been very good I like the fact that you can get a free sample of the material that you are ordering for either the blinds or curtains from them

Blinds? Nicer and easier to clean.

Don't want to go to Dunelm Mill as their quality is poor

Not necessarily, they sell a range of curtains of various qualities and prices and made-to-measure too.

M0nica

Make your own. It is so easy, even I can do it.

I vowed never to make large, lined, full-length curtains again.
It is heavy, hard work.

Lining some curtains with blackout lining caused my (admittedly old) sewing machine to burn out, with acrid black smoke filling the room!

Susiewong65

How many times have you bought curtains from Dunelm?

I’ve bought ready made curtains from John Lewis, M+S and Dunelm and quite frankly I think the quality of Dunelm is very good.
They do have a range to suit all budgets so I wouldn’t dismiss them.

Yes, John Lewis quoted over £2,000 for two small windows and one patio door, good quality Dunelm curtains were just over half that price.
That was about 5 years ago.

The thing with DunElm is that you can go from cheap and cheerful through to their luxury range and then on to made to measure for bespoke curtains. I've found their luxury range ready made curtains to be of excellent quality, I have even sourced the material used online to enable me to have coordinating footstools made.

I had my 3 sets of curtains from Dunelm blackout ones. My living room window is large as it has patio doors which are never used. Also it is an odd size. They needed shortening so used Dunelm's alteration service it cost £60 but my thought was they know how to do it also if there are any faults then they are liable but they where done perfectly and just 2cms from the floor as I wanted. My bedroom curtains hang below the window ceil but 3" above the radiators. Had my voile rods and voiles from Dunelm for the bedrooms but took those up myself hand sewing. Pleased with the results.

M0nica

Make your own. It is so easy, even I can do it.

No it isn’t!

I could no more make my own curtains than fly to the moon!

🌙

I have just bought some lovely curtain from M&S sale - nice quality and very reasonable price.

I bought mine from Julian Charles, I went to the shop first to look at their curtains and bedding, they didn't have the size I wanted so I bought online. They are beautiful quality, well made and most importantly not expensive.
Far better than Dunelm.

Laura Ashley curtains are still available on certain websites. I’ve always found them to be the best. Alternatively, maybe someone locally could make them at a reasonable price?

I’ve used John Lewis and Dunhelm for curtains to be made and fitted . Dunhelm half the price and good quality.
My first JL curtains were fitted within weeks, ten years on they’re still a joy.
Last March I ordered JL curtains for a large glass doors/window area. JL eventually arrived to put the curtains up in July. They’d been mis-measured, were far too short and narrow. In September, the replacements were fitted. The floor hems were uneven and the curtains swung open after being closed.

More lengthy discussions resulted in an offer to re-make. The 3rd set arrived at the end of November. Unbelievably they’d been manufactured to the initial incorrect sizing. A new curtain rail was fitted which has stopped the curtains opening again once
I won’t bore yiu with the endless email/telephone discussions between me and JL. The current agreement is their manufacturer is due here next week to repair the uneven flooring line. If I’m prepared to accept the repair, I am refunded £1000 if the £1470 I paid. If I’m not prepared to accept the repair, they re-make again and we continue the discussion on ‘gesture of goodwill’.

I have had some really excellent 3m curtains from Voyage Maison's "outlet" shop online. Mine are both a cotton/linen mix.
They won't send fabric samples for outlet products but you can get samples of most Voyage fabrics online.

Mine were fully lined with pencil pleats and both sets have a placement print - plain colour at the top.

I just had a look and can't find quite so many to choose from as there were 2 years ago - and they seem to have redesigned the website. It's not the best website to be honest. The outlet used to have its own site... can't seem to find that.

I phoned the outlet before i bought with several questions and it was an actual person who knew their stock who helped me.

voyagemaison.com/collections/ready-made-curtains?page=1

Worth a look.

Iam64, your account of your struggle with JL reminds me of the same kind of problem my good friends had with the same company - curtains not matching in length! I believe it is all a consequence of out-sourcing. When it came to buying curtains for my new flat, I made tracks for Dunelm and inspected a vast ready-made range, choosing what I judged to be very good quality floor-length ones for a patio door/window and an attractive bumblebee pattern for my bedroom. The curtains for the big window have been much admired and I stand by my choice of Dunelm as supplier.

M0nica

Make your own. It is so easy, even I can do it.

I agree and it is a lot easier than you think. Measure the height and add turnings and allow for a considerable hem to give weight - measure the width and add extra for fullness and hey presto......you've made a pair of curtains.
There's also loads of YouTube videos on the topic so why not have a go. In the first instance I would suggest a cheaper fabric to practice with and take it from there. Good luck.

I bought 2 sets of made-to-measure curtains from here: www.curtainfactoryoutlet.co.uk/

They were brilliant - efficient, speedy, accurate size from the measurements I gave them, helpful. Can't speak too highly of them.

I found them by looking up the particular material that I wanted and they came up - the curtains were less than half of what it would have cost me for the same locally; and absolutely no compromise on quality.

My mother was a tailor and made about 8 metres of velvet curtains with bagged hems. 🥺
I wouldn't attempt anything like that.

I did discover last year though that hem weights can now be bought in a strip! What an obvious solution!

BTW there are corner weights in my Voyage ones.

I would also disagree that Dunhelm quality is 'poor'.

I had made to measure from Dunelm last year after seeing a friends .
They are super. I had their fitter come and put the poles up and hang the curtains, they have been much admired.
It would certainly be my first stop to look next time.

Take a look at Just Linen/Dawsons who do bedding and curtains. Just click on the type you want (eyelet or pencil pleat) and a large collection will come up.
www.justlinen.co.uk/justlinen/curtains.asp