Conservatory curtains – the ultimate made to measure challenge

Posted by on Dec 1, 2013 in Case Studies, Curtains | No Comments

I have to say this one tested us a bit!

Our client living in the suburbs of Bath wanted to introduce curtains to her conservatory, to create a warmer, cosier environment in a room that serves as a toddler’s playroom by day and doubles up as a lovely dining area by night. The conservatory was a typical three sided structure with french doors (just in shot, below left) in one side.

made to measure conservatory curtains double pinch pleat

However the configuration of the windows left little room for fixing curtain tracks, and the all plastic construction would more than likely give us a few headaches in terms of getting decent fixings for the reasonably heavy (lined and interlined) curtains.

A visit to the local conservatory company gave us a few useful window frame cross sections, that gave us an insight into what we might find when we drilled into the frames, and enabled us to plan where to drill and what fixings to use. It also helped us to decide upon the most suitable tracking system – which was one of our most tried and trusted hand drawn systems with some key modifications to the track brackets and to allow for mitred joins at the two corner sections of the conservatory.

conservatory curtain tracks
The curtain tracks blend seemlessly into the window frames so as to be almost invisible when the curtains are open

For the heading, we suggested double pinch pleats. A slightly more contemporary version of the classic triple pleat, the double pinch pleat is more efficient in maximising stacking space – a key issue given that the two corner curtains (one of which is pictured above) would have 6 and 7 widths of fabric respectively. It also makes the curtain hang in beautiful, regimented folds – for a neat aesthetic, and a smaller stacking space.

To maximise the thermal effect of the curtains we fabricated them with a heavy weight sarille interlining and a thermal lining fabric.

made to measure conservatory curtains

The end result – the conservatory instantly feels warmer. When open, the curtains take up a surprisingly small amount of space but when closed, they help to create the perfect, cosy environment for those evening dinner parties.