A customer got in contact with us before Christmas. Three years ago they had shutters installed in the sitting room of their West London house. Now shutters are great for privacy, but they aren’t very cosy in the evenings – and this was literally the case here, because our customers sash windows aren’t double glazed. They wanted something to soften the room aesthetically whilst providing a bit of protection from the draught.

But there were a few problems:

Track space:as you can see from the picture below, a steel joist ran the length of the bay, and the shutter frames were so close to the joist that any curtain track would have to have a profile of less than 2cms if the shutters were ever to open again! The curtains could run along the front of the joist, I hear you say. But even if a decent fixing could be obtained into the joist, by cutting off the bay when closed, the curtains would have the effect of substantially reducing the size of the room.

The ultimate bay window curtain challenge!

Curtain weight: the customer had chosen a fairly heavy cotton face fabric, and to give the curtains the desired thermal properties they would need to be interlined and lined. At 3.75m wide x 2.8m drop the curtains would be over 12kg – a great deal of weight to carry around a bay window, even without the next problem:

Inadequate fixings: the shutter frames are not designed to take any loads from above, and the window architraves formed an uneven, restricted space making it tricky to get adequate purchase for track fixings. Also, the angle at which the joist hit the wall (see above) meant that no fixings could be positioned on the wall too close to the joist. To make matters worse, the sitting room walls were drylined with stud work, which would make it extremely difficult to get good fixings in the crucial areas where the track brackets would be taking the majority of the load – at the edge of each track where the curtains would be stacked back during the day.

Limited draw back space: there was no more than 30cms drawback space each side of the window (again, see above), and so, particularly given the weight and thickness of the curtains, we would have to think very carefully about curtain headings, to maximise drawback potential.

There was only one obvious solution for this situation – and it came in the form of the CKS corded klick system from Evans Textiles (www.evans-textiles.com). This particular track is only 14mm from top to bottom – which will provide sufficient clearance for the shutters to open, and, in spite of it’s tidy profile, is designed to carry up to 4kg per metre.  The Evans systems can be made to order with a range of aluminium wall brackets, from 7.5cms through to 25cms. The brackets needed to be metal to carry the weight of the curtains, and are more versatile than most on the market due to the way they can be combined with other Evans fixings to suit tricky situations (more on which below).

Step 1. Preparing the architraves for the brackets

The architrave is drilled and chiselled to provide a flat base for each of the brackets around the bay. The base of each bracket has to be cut away to allow it to fit in the restricted space above the shutter casing.

Step 2. Fixing the brackets in place

The brackets are then gradually fixed in place and will eventually give the track 15cms clearance from the wall – just enough to clear the shutter casings and allow the curtains to be drawn without having to close the shutter bars.

In the angles of the bay specially shaped timber has to be inserted to enable the brackets to keep contact with the track on the apex of each track curve.

Step 3. Tailoring the brackets

The track has been bent to return to the wall at the outside edge. This creates problems as the majority of the weight of the curtains will be concentrated in this area when the curtains are drawn back – and the brackets cannot be positioned further in because of proximity to the ceiling joist which enters the wall at an angle.

Wall brackets must be fixed to this curved area of the track, and as the brackets are not designed to attach in this way, each bracket has to be indivually cut to the angle of the track (below left) and drilled to accommodate a ceiling bracket, which is eventually attached to the wall bracket with a nut and bolt (below right). 5 inch frame fixings are inserted into the wall and strengthened with gripfill adhesive, to accommodate the load bearing (top) screws in each bracket. The final bracket (above the cord mechanism) is not attached to the track, but acts as a cantilever to add rigidity to the track where it is unsupported under the ceiling joist.

Step 4. The track is fixed in place.

Once in place, the ripplefold gliders are sprayed with silicon to ensure the curtains glide smoothly around the bay.

Step 5. The Curtains are attached to the Evaglide ripplefold system

The ripplefold system gives the curtain it’s distinctive waves – which form beautifully even with the considerable weight of the curtains, which are interlined with syntex bump interlining and lined with thermal lining fabric to maximise the curtains’ thermal properties.

The curtains are finally up. They introduce the cosiness our customer craved – by softening the sitting room and providing a comprehensive barrier against the draught on cold winter evenings.

See our 28 April blog for a few tips on how to choose the right poles or tracks for your bay window.