Curtains

How to choose curtains

Curtains have to do four jobs at once: filter light, soften the temperature, dampen sound, and finish the room. Most people buy on colour and fabric and forget the other three, then wonder why the room still feels cold or the morning light still wakes them up. The order to think about it is the other way around.

Lining is the spec that does the actual work.

• Blackout: a tightly woven backing layer that blocks daylight. Worth the extra few pounds for any south or east-facing bedroom.
• Thermal: a fleece or foam-backed layer that cuts heat loss through single-glazed and older double-glazed windows. Counts more than people expect on November bills.
• Unlined: lighter, cheaper, hangs more loosely. Fine for a north-facing living room or a kitchen where you want diffused daylight.

Header type decides what pole or track will work. Eyelet curtains thread directly onto a pole and need a clear run-off at each end. Pencil pleat works on either a pole or a track, with a gathered top that suits traditional rooms. Tab-top is the most casual and the easiest to hang, but it sits closer to the pole and lets a thin rim of light through above the curtain. Wave curtains need a specific wave track, sold separately.

Drop and width are the two measurements people get wrong. Drop runs from the top of the pole or track down to where you want the curtain to finish: sill, just below the sill, or floor-length. Floor-length looks more grown-up and a fingertip's worth of break on the floor (around 1cm) is the safe stop. For width, you want the total curtain width to be 1.5 to 2 times the pole width so the gather looks generous rather than stretched. The bigger multiple suits heavier fabrics like velvet.

Fabric weight matches the room. Velvet and chenille feel substantial, hold a fold, and add real thermal mass. Cotton and linen hang lighter, wash more easily, and read summery. Polyester blends sit in the middle and dominate the £20 to £40 ready-made bracket because they crease less in transit and resist fading.

The brands and retailers we list

We pull thousands of curtains from across the UK retailer network. The grid above is dominated by two names.

The Range stocks the broadest curtain range we list, with around 4,500 styles spanning eyelet, pencil pleat and tab-top in every common drop. Strong on blackout and thermal lined options under £40. Worth filtering by colour or material first, then by price.

Robert Dyas covers around 3,000 curtains, pole sets and accessories, often with seasonal voucher codes. Their Enhanced Living and Make it a Home ranges are the in-house lines that show up most often.

Bedeck Home sits at the upper end. Smaller catalogue, properly designed prints, woven jacquards, and made-to-measure on the higher tiers. Worth a look if the budget runs past £100 a pair.

Very rounds out the high-street tier with around 150 styles, including the Furn and Paoletti supplier brands and a steady supply of the £30 to £80 patterned ready-mades that bridge bedroom and living room.

Filter the grid above by colour, material or price to narrow things down, or browse the full curtains range without filters to see everything in stock. Prices update daily as the retailers change them.