Fabric, lining & blind guide
The lining is invisible. It also changes everything.
Most disappointment with curtains comes from choosing the cloth in a shop and leaving every other decision to chance. In truth the lining, the heading and the fold depth do at least as much work as the fabric on the front. Here is an honest run through all of it — what each option is genuinely good at, what it asks of you, and where it will let you down. No brand names, no pressure; just the things worth knowing before you choose.
01
Fabric
Linen & Linen Union
Best for: Relaxed rooms · a soft, slightly crumpled fall · light-filled spaces
Linen is the cloth people mean when they say they want curtains that look unfussy. It has a dry handle and a loose, slightly irregular drape that never looks starched, and it takes soft colour beautifully. Pure linen does two things you should know about before choosing it: it creases, which is part of the look but not to everyone's taste, and it moves with humidity, so a drop can sit marginally differently in a damp January than it did in July. A linen union — linen woven with cotton — keeps most of the character and settles a good deal of the movement, which is why it is the more practical choice for a full-length pair. Either way, linen wants a good lining behind it; unlined, it goes translucent the moment the sun is behind it, and strong direct sunlight will fade an undyed linen over the years.
- Soft, dry drape
- Creases by nature
- Line it properly
02
Fabric
Cotton & Printed Cotton
Best for: Pattern · bedrooms and family rooms · schemes built around a print
Cotton is the workhorse of British curtain making, and it is where almost all the great printed designs live — florals, botanicals, stripes, toiles, documentary prints from mill archives. It is stable, it takes a crisp pleat, it is comparatively forgiving to make up, and it sits happily in almost any room. The thing to watch with a print is the repeat: a large-scale pattern has to be matched across every width and between the pair, and on a short drop you may never actually see a full repeat, which wastes both the fabric and the design. Ask what the repeat is before you commit. Prints also behave differently at a distance than they do on a sample the size of a postcard, which is exactly why we hand samples over to take home and pin up.
- Holds a crisp pleat
- Mind the pattern repeat
- Take a large sample home
03
Fabric
Velvet
Best for: Formal sitting rooms and dining rooms · winter warmth · deep colour
Nothing else holds colour the way velvet does, because the pile catches light on one face and absorbs it on the other — which is why a velvet curtain seems to change shade as you walk past it. It is heavy, it falls in generous columns, and it does a genuine job of insulating a draughty room. The trade-offs are weight and pile direction. Weight means the pole, track and brackets have to be specified for the job rather than assumed. Pile direction means every width in a pair has to run the same way, or one drop will read lighter than the other — a cotton or silk velvet shows this far more than a modern polyester one, which is also the more practical option where there are dogs, children or strong sunlight.
- Deep, shifting colour
- Heavy — specify the pole
- Pile must run one way
04
Fabric
Wool & Wool Blends
Best for: Cold rooms · tailored, architectural folds · quiet texture
Wool is underrated for curtains. It is warm, it is naturally flame-retardant, it resists creasing better than linen, and it falls in heavy, tailored folds that suit a plain modern room and a panelled period one equally well. Felted and boiled wools give you texture without pattern, which is a useful trick when the wallpaper or the upholstery is already doing the talking. Two cautions: a pure wool can be prone to moth if a room is shut up for long periods, and wool is less happy in a bathroom or anywhere with persistent damp. A wool blend keeps most of the handle and the warmth and takes care of both concerns.
- Genuinely warm
- Tailored, heavy folds
- Blends resist moth better
05
Fabric
Sheers, Voiles & Embroidered Nets
Best for: Privacy without darkness · overlooked windows · layering under curtains
A sheer solves the problem curtains cannot: how to keep daylight while stopping the street looking in. Plain voiles disappear almost entirely; embroidered and devoré sheers give a pattern that only reveals itself when the light is behind it, which is a lovely effect in a hallway or on a landing. Sheers are usually hung on a second track or a slim pole behind the main curtains, so you can draw them during the day and close everything at night. Because there is no lining to hide behind, the making has to be right — hems are weighted or double-turned so the fabric hangs dead straight, and headings are kept simple. Bear in mind that a sheer softens a view but does very little for heat or noise.
- Daytime privacy
- Needs a second track
- No insulation value
06
Behind the fabric
Linings & Interlining
Best for: The single biggest decision after the cloth itself
The lining is invisible and it changes everything. A standard cotton lining protects the face fabric from sunlight and gives the curtain body. A thermal lining adds a coated layer that makes a measurable difference in a cold, north-facing or single-glazed room. A blackout lining is what you actually need in a bedroom, particularly for a child or a shift worker, and it is worth knowing that it darkens a room rather than sealing it — a little light will always come round the sides unless the track is set well wide of the window. Interlining is the one worth understanding: a soft blanket layer sewn between face fabric and lining that adds weight, muffles sound, insulates properly and gives the curtain that heavy, rounded fall you see in good houses. A modest fabric interlined nearly always looks better than an expensive one left plain.
- Thermal for cold rooms
- Blackout for bedrooms
- Interlining beats expensive cloth
07
Detailing
Heading Styles
Best for: Setting the rhythm of the folds and the character of the room
The heading is the top three inches of a curtain and it decides how the whole thing reads. A pinch pleat — double or triple — is the classic hand-finished heading: formal, evenly spaced, and the one most period rooms want. A pencil pleat gathers into a continuous soft ripple and is the most forgiving of the lot. A wave heading runs on a special track and falls in regular S-curves from floor to ceiling, which suits modern rooms and wide glazing, and it stacks back tidily. Eyelets thread straight onto a pole for a casual, low-maintenance look, though they want a fabric with enough body to hold the wave. A goblet pleat is the dressiest option and belongs on a long drop in a high-ceilinged room. Fabric quantity changes with the heading, so it is decided before anything is ordered, not after.
- Pinch pleat = classic
- Wave = modern, tidy stack
- Chosen before ordering
08
Blind type
Roman Blinds
Best for: Windows that deserve a proper fabric but have no room to stack a curtain
A Roman blind gives you the softness of a curtain in the footprint of a blind. It is made from the same designer fabrics, folds into deep horizontal pleats as it rises, and sits flat and tailored when it is down. It can be interlined for weight and insulation, or blackout-lined for a bedroom, exactly as a curtain can. Two things decide whether a Roman looks right: the fold depth, which has to be calculated from the drop so the stack is neither starved nor top-heavy, and where it is fitted. Inside the reveal it looks neat and keeps the architrave visible; outside the reveal it covers more glass when raised but lets less light round the edges. On a small window a Roman is very often the better answer than a short pair of curtains, which almost always look mean.
- Same fabrics as curtains
- Fold depth set by the drop
- Inside or outside the reveal
09
Blind type
Roller Blinds
Best for: Kitchens, bathrooms and utilities · layering behind full-length curtains
A roller is the plainest and quietest window treatment there is, and in the right room that is exactly the point. It takes up almost no space, it wipes clean, it handles steam and splashes better than any gathered fabric, and it is the sensible choice above a sink or in a shower room. It is also very useful layered: a plain roller behind a full-length pair gives you privacy on a dark evening without having to close the curtains and shut the room down. Fabrics range from plain dimouts to blackouts and textured weaves, and the bottom bar and pull can be specified to suit the room. What matters in the making is squareness — a roller cut even slightly out of true will track to one side over time, which is why we measure at the window rather than work from a stated size.
- Best in wet rooms
- Layer behind curtains
- Has to be cut dead square
10
Detailing
Trimmings & Tie-Backs
Best for: The last five per cent that makes a scheme look designed
Trimmings are the detail nobody notices and everybody responds to. A narrow braid down the leading edge defines the line of a curtain when it is closed. A fan edge or a moss fringe under a pelmet finishes it properly rather than letting it stop dead. A bullion fringe belongs on a heavy interlined drape in a formal room and nowhere else. Contrast piping on a cushion or a tie-back picks a colour out of a print and makes the whole scheme feel deliberate. Tie-backs and hold-backs are as much practical as decorative — they control how much glass a curtain covers when it is open, and the height they are fixed at changes the shape of the whole drop. The rule of thumb we use is to choose the trimming at the same moment as the fabric, in the same light, on the same table. Bought separately, they almost never sing together.
- Choose with the fabric
- Defines the leading edge
- Tie-back height matters
Choosing your cloth
Take the samples home. Look at them at six o'clock.
A postage-stamp swatch under shop lighting tells you the colour and almost nothing else. Fabric changes character with the light behind it, with the light in front of it, and with whatever else is already in the room. So we hand samples over and encourage you to pin them up at the actual window — in the morning, in the afternoon, and again at night under your own lamps. A cloth that reads warm at midday can turn grey by six o'clock, and it is far better to find that out on a swatch than on a finished pair.
While the samples are out, put the trimming and the wallpaper next to them. Chosen separately and ordered weeks apart, those three things almost never sing together. Chosen on the same table in the same light, they usually do. That is the whole argument for having a sample library this size in one room.
A rule worth stealing
Hang the pole high and wide.
If you remember one thing from this page, make it this. A track or pole fixed close above the window frame makes the window look squat and, once the curtains are open, they cover a third of the glass. Set the same pole higher — closer to the cornice — and wider, so the curtains stack back onto the wall either side, and three things happen at once: the ceiling reads higher, the window reads larger, and the room gets noticeably more daylight. It costs nothing but a little extra drop and width, and it is the single cheapest improvement available to almost any room.
The same logic applies to blinds. Mounted outside the reveal, a Roman blind stacks above the glass rather than across it. Mounted inside, it keeps the architrave visible and looks neater — but it will take a little more of the window when it is up. Which is right depends on the room, and it is one of the first things we look at when we come to measure.
The last five per cent
Nobody notices a trimming. Everybody responds to one.
A braid down the leading edge gives a closed curtain a line. A fan edge or a moss fringe finishes a pelmet properly instead of letting it stop dead. Contrast piping on a tie-back picks a single colour out of a print and makes the whole scheme look deliberate rather than assembled. None of it is expensive relative to the fabric, and all of it is the difference between curtains that are merely correct and curtains that look designed.
The one rule: choose the trimming at the same moment as the fabric, in the same light, on the same table. Ordered separately three weeks apart, a braid and a cloth almost never sing together.
✦
Still torn? Put them side by side.
A fabric that looks perfect on a screen can feel completely different in the hand. The studio on Brockenhurst Road has the books out, the light coming in, and nobody who will push you to decide on the spot.