4 May 2015

Curtains and Blinds

Or a long story of changing my mind.  Originally I wanted curtains. Then I changed my mind to roman blinds.  In the original design brief I had asked for recessed curtain tracks for inconspicuous design.  However by the time we had got to the plastering stage I thought we were putting Roman blinds everywhere, also things were a bit rushed on site so there was no time to discuss fitting the tracks.

As moving in became nearer decisions had to made.  Our windows are huge, both wide and tall, and it became apparent that I would need at least 3 huge blinds just for the large window.  I had wanted to sew the roman blinds myself but I quickly realised that there would be no way I was going to have enough time to do them, even for the just the bedrooms.  New EU regulations have come in regarding Roman Blinds and their cord lengths (the aim is to prevent child strangulation) which means the cords hang quite high up and so the whole thing was becoming difficult.  I also realised that more clean lines wasn't really what i wanted, I needed to soften the visual lines.

I undertook my usual programme of weeks of research looking at all the options and found the Silent Gliss 1200.  It's simple and elegant with a minimal aesthetic, and, on top of all that, excellent value for money.  The 1200 could be used in all the bedrooms (6 floor to ceiling windows and doors).  I really liked the fact that the curtains will glide silently and smoothly rather than being persuaded along the pole!  It's the little things that bother you in daily life so it was important to me that the tracks are built to work well and last - no false economies.  Silent Gliss have an reassuringly outstanding reputation. 


Silent Gliss 1200



Emma, the regional Silent Gliss rep, was brillant and offered to come to site.  We discussed the suitability of the my preferred options, looked at colour samples and discussed stacking space, we measured up and finalised the order as all the tracks would be cut to fit exactly.  Silent Gliss 1200 in the lovely warm gold colour in all the bedrooms.




Silent Gliss 1200


Upstairs I needed a solution for the HUGE window. Unfortunately nothing can be fixed within the reveals as the top part is non-structural and couldn't support the weight.  Also, as I had previously anticipated blinds, we'd designed the kitchen to extend almost to the window, leaving very little stacking space.  We decided to use a ceiling mounted Wave system, the 3840W.  It's pretty minimal and unobtrusive.  The Wave system also allows my stacking area to be reduced as the fabric stacks evenly in front and behind the track reducing bulk.


Silent Gliss 3840W -two sections as the sliding door comes through the middle.



The curtain choice turned out to be relatively straightforward. Ikea's linen ready-made curtains, AINA, are fantastic value for money.  They were in the middle of changing their range but I was able to buy up their remaining stocks of white and light grey linen curtains (this involved an unplanned dash from the Bristol to Cardiff Ikea!).







The plan is to dip dye the curtains in indigo if we start to find them too plain. Right now the simplicity of the single colour is working really well.
 

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